Crap!

[Ral-Clan]

I'm setting up an Amiga 500.  It's an NTSC version.  It works with a Supra 500 512K RAM expansion in the trapdoor.

I have in my parts box a KCS PowerPC IBM Clone card, which goes into the trapdoor expansion:

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/powerpc

This was given to me about five years ago by a friend who was getting rid of all his Amiga stuff.  Since I didn't have my A500 set up at the time, I never tested this card until today.

I tried to be very careful inserting the card (I usually check everything twice and am very gentle), but APPARENTLY I misaligned the pins on the board socket and the pins in the trapdoor slot. Only one row of the pins on the KCS board engaged with one row of pins on the trapdoor slot (the wrong female row with the wrong male row).  Essentially the upper row of holes on the card's connector engaged with the lower row of pins on the A500's trapdoor connector.

It was quite cramped and hard to see in there so I did not catch this.

I powered on the A500, got a green screen and shut it off within seconds.  Then I discovered the misalignment.

You can bet I swore a blue streak after discovering my stupid error.

I re-aligned the KCS board properly and the Amiga boots but does not recognise the RAM on the KCS board as expansion RAM in Workbench (it's as if the card is not connected at all).

I put the SupraRAM 512K board back into the A500 and it boots fine and recognizes ALL RAM. So, there appears to be no damage to the Amiga.

BUT - I am trying to discern whether there is any damage to the KCS board.

Problem is I know next to nothing about how this board SHOULD operate other than what's on the link above.

- is the RAM on the KCS board even autoconfig, or does it need a software patch to be recognized as Amiga RAM, or a jumper setting?
- could the misalignment have caused damage to the KCS board?  I cannot find a pinout diagram that shows if any voltages were present on the pins that did engage.
- The link above says the KCS board does not work on NTSC Amigas (which I have) ---- BUT my friend purchased this board on clearance form a dealer in Toronto, CANADA (NTSC) and used I believe he used it on his A500 (I am not sure about this part - we are not in touch anymore to ask).
- I can't find a manual anywhere online to check.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding - I was under the impression that when you were NOT using this board as a PC emulator, the RAM on it would be available to the Amiga - maybe I'm wrong, in which case the lack of extra RAM on the workbench would be normal.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[Rob]

I think it needs to be added with software.

http://amiga.resource.cx/install/PowerPC-45.dms

[Ral-Clan]

I just noticed something weird.

My Amiga500 has a MegaCHIP (2MB Chip RAM capable) installed.

So when the SUPRARAM 512K trapdoor expansion was installed, I had a full 2MB Chip RAM present and no Fast RAM.

With the KCS installed, i get around 217,000K free upon boot (1/4 MB).  I should at least be seeing 1.5MB Chip RAM even if memory in the trapdoor doesn't work (the 1MB on the MegaChip and the 512K on the motherboard).

That's weird.

I will have to try the install disk and see if I can activate the RAM.

[Ral-Clan]

Some encouraging news.

I installed the KCS PowerPC board into another Amiga500.

It reported 1mb CHIP ram.

This A500 doesn't have a MegaChip installed.  But otherwise it's identical to the first A500.

So maybe the KCS board doesn't like the MegaChip board?

[Rob]

Just looked at the notes for Megachip on Amiga resource

"rules out internal processor cards and internal memory expansions with more than 512 kB RAM"

[Ral-Clan]

Oh, interesting.  Thanks for spotting that.

It's also interesting (and disappointing) that it not only "rules out" internal memory expansion beyond 512K, but they also NEGATE each other.....when both are installed, neither work.

Technically, though, the KCS board is only supposed to act as a 512K memory expansion on the Amiga side (in an A500) - it CAN act as a 1MB expansion in the A2000 - it has some way of auto detecting which Amiga it is in and allocating RAM where appropriate.  I guess the MegaChip, with its 2MB chip RAM confuses it (it no longer identifies the machine as an A500 nor an A2000).