A3000 Discussion

[nicholas]

Dan,

I feel your pain on the zips,but i do so many i can almost do them blindfolded now.

The fastlane works just fine in the A3000( i have the 8.5 rom upgrade for them if you need it-needed for 060 use), i use several. You must have buster 9 or 11 thought. buster 7 only does zorro2.

I find it odd you say the 3000scsi device isn't the best. I find it rock stable and have proven it to people who claim this many years. Its almost always a termination issue or term power issue that causes flakiness,BUT alot of older scsi cdroms had bad firmwares-also some bad drives load the bus badly when they start to fail.
the 3000 rarely if ever requires active termination. Passive is fine but active is best.
keep in mind when using internal and external devices the ends of the bus become the drives and only those should be terminated.  no A3000 motherboard term resistors should be installed in this case.
Other problems with scsi bus is often caused by bad or backwards term power diodes and without term power, terminators dont work.

the burning smell may be the PALS in the 3k,they run hot, OR the pull up resistors on the slot board,they run hot also. any dust on them makes a smell sometimes.

Like many,i think the 3k case looks good but is a horrible internal design. i dont find them particularly sharp  but it doesn't take much to cut yourself on metal cases.

If you are ever fighting it and need help don't hesitate to ask,i think i have seen about every 3000 trouble there is.. lol

mech

I'm itching to put my A3000 back together after two house moves and two years in storage (in pieces too).

I may have many questions too if you don't mind?

[nicholas]

Sure Nicolas happy to help,

I just got working working perfectly, after many (much to many) hours.  So everything is still fresh in my mind!

Matt

Muchas gracias Matt!

First thing I need to do is download the latest 68060.library for my CSMK2. Would Phase 5's be best or Thor's?

[nicholas]

I had a CSMKII many years ago.  Great card, congrats.  

I used the Phase 5 ones and they worked perfectly.  Never tried the Thor.

From my experience go with the P5, they are proven and work...

Thor FTW!

Well the P5 ones always were stable on my mk2 and also worked a treat on my old Blizzard too, but I'm tempted to try out Thor's as I've heard great things about them and he is a great 68k coder.

I guess I'll try them out and see how I get on.

Just found out that my kids have a week off school so that will set back my A3000 restoration plans a tad.