Adram 540 problem

[David Wright]

So I pull out an old rev 5 Amiga 500 to test.
Everything seems to work good, shows only 512k chipram and no other.

I forgot there is the Adram 540 installed but doesn't show the ram. I take it all apart and it has a cable running from the adram to the Gary socket. I checked all the connections, tried to reseat chips but still no ram showing.

Is there any way to tell if the board is any good other than obviously trying to use it in trap door?

[Motormouth]

So I pull out an old rev 5 Amiga 500 to test.
Everything seems to work good, shows only 512k chipram and no other.

I forgot there is the Adram 540 installed but doesn't show the ram. I take it all apart and it has a cable running from the adram to the Gary socket. I checked all the connections, tried to reseat chips but still no ram showing.

Is there any way to tell if the board is any good other than obviously trying to use it in trap door?

What version of Agnus do you have, how much memory do you have on the Adram?  These will greatly effect the Adram's configuration.

I suggest you check out the manual which can be found on The Big Book of Amiga Hardware
http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=1015

In addition to the board that goes on the Gary and the cable between the Gary board and the Adram 540; there was also a jumper that needs to be soldered to the motherboard if you are using a one meg Agnus, (this is in the manual)

Also the jumpers on the gary board need to be properly configured, and the memory itself needs to be in the correct banks (the order which is not necessarily intuitive).

All of these are in the manual.
Oh, one last thing, not all the ram is autoconfigure, as program is needed to be run at the beginning of the startup-sequence to access all of the ram (depending on the amount of ram on the board).

This install disk can be found at amiga hardware database:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/adram540


Oh, one more one last thing.  There is a little memory checking program that comes along with install disk that allow you to check the memory and examine its configuration.
The memory address space for this thing can be in upto three locations (depending on your configuration) chip ram, slow ram, and fast ram locations.
note:  Eventhough some of the ram is configured as fast ram this ram is still the speed of slow ram.

[David Wright]

I am just assuming this was configured correctly from the original owner. I did run the disk memory checking routine, it saw nothing but the original onboard ram.

I do know about the auto config but some ram would still show.

I will take apart again and look further.

Thinking the connector in the trap door may be an issue.

[Motormouth]

Two more things to perhaps try.

Do you have a A501 or clone floating around?  You could try this and see if it works in the A500 to test your theory.

Also a disable switch can be added to the A540, I think it is JP1 on the main A540 board (I forget which of the pins), but someone may have added a disable switch to the A540 for compatibility with old games.
I do have a disable switch installed on my A540.

If the A540 is maxed out with ram, that is 4 megs of ram, (with out having the extra 560D) the memory should configured be as follows:
with 8370/1 Agnus 0.5 meg Chip (from amiga motherboard), 1.8 megs slow memory (which will be autoconfigured), and two megs of Fast ram (which needs the program on the install disk to configure)
With the 8372a (or similar) 1 meg Chip (0.5 motherboard, 0.5 from A540), 1.5 megs slow memory (which will be autoconfigured), and two meg of Fast ram (which needs the program on the install disk to configure)

Either way you should have ~2.3-2.5 meg of ram autoconfigured without the extra ram configure program (again assuming enough memory is on the board).