A2000 and others, please voyage me back to home.

[Tahoe]

McFly wrote:
Wonderful to see so many people still explores nostalgia of divine Amiga.

And you too now, welcome back!

[color=ff0000]1)[/color]
Should I change this battery anyway considering this long period?
This is the present battery and I would assume the initial one, link : http://tinyurl.com/ecxmd

Ah! You have an A2000A; important to remember; you have the earliest version of the Amiga 2000. This machine is mainly based on the A1000 (instead of the A500), has no Buster, has only 512K memory onboard with an optional extra 512MB in it's CPU slot.
The one thing is these machines have batteries which fortunatly do not leak

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Is this controller any special then those regularly found in A2000?
     Link : http://tinyurl.com/fc66m
     I ask because, quote : *** Hard Disk for Amiga 2500
     Designed at Wchest USA OPC 94VO 1298M2 23-87 ***
     A2500?

About as old as the Amiga itself; and very limited in it's capabilities.... (sorry)

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What are the J1 and J2 for?
     Is there some conversion from J0 present cable to regular cable found in A1200
     for me to use regular ATA HDD in A2000 like A1200?  
Or this J0 is actually a SCSI connection?

J0 is the combined MFM cable; J1 and J2 are the individual control lines. MFM supports 2 drives on one controller.

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Card's external connector, is this also a SCSI connector?  
      Link : http://tinyurl.com/gja5b

Yes, but remember it is limited in it's use!

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Crown of all this questions leads to my main intention.
What do I need (please be concrete) to have normal CD-ROM drive installed
     in A2000?   Naturally, HDD drive included.

As mentioned by others; a real SCSI controller; like the A2091, Octagon or GVP. Or look for an Accelerator card with integrated SCSI (GVP Combo cards). However they are HIGHLY UNLIKELY to work in your A2000A!!

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Can I install CDRW by any chance instead of CD-ROM?

On an A2091; yes.

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What software would I need to install CD/CDRW and HDD?
     I have all original system FDs for A1200,4000, but for A500 and A2000,
     only thing I've got are two FDs : Amiga Workbench 1.2 and Amiga Extras 1.2

You would need Kick 2.04 at least; I suppose.

[/quote][color=ff0000][/color]  
What Amiga OS version in best suited for my present A2000? (1.2 rOm)[/quote]

Keep it at 1.2. Why? You have an exceptional beast here; charming because of it's special place in Amiga's history, but you are bound to run in to lots of trouble trying to add anything hardware-wise. Just keep her, and love her as she is. (I do too, have an A2000A, unexpanded apart from the old hardware that came with it)

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Should one today, for sake of more functionality upgrade ROMs to best available
      versions?  If so, what do you recommend as best ROM change/update for
      A500,A2000?   Ironically my A500 is (1.3 rOm)
      Is it possible to reprogram ROMs to latest version or this is SF for Amiga?
      Can you provide link or two where can I purchase them?
      Can  I for example, place 1.3 ROM from A500 to A2000 and A2000's 1.2 back to A500?

The ROMS from the A500/A600/A2000 and CDTV (apart from it's boot roms) are interchangable. The A1200, A3000 (T), A4000 (T) have machine specific ROM's.
You can still buy them at various online Amiga resources.

BTW: Here is the low-down on the A2000A by Dave Haynie; who designed the A2000B; the later revisions.
The A2000 Model A was a german design, like an A1000 in a different box. 512K CHIP and non-standard processor and video slots. Yes, The orginal A2000 was designed in Germany. It was based on an integration of the A1000 motherboard design and the example Zorro II backplane from "Schematics and Expansion Specifications", the A1000 hardware manual. It used the thin Agnus, which handled only 512K of DRAM. They added a "Genlock" slot, which was essentially just the 23-bit video signals on an internal connector, and the "MMU" slot, which was essentially just the A1000 external edge connector on an internal slot. The machine shipped with 512K of Fast RAM in this slot, though the case was slow and had some reliability problems. About 60,000 of these machines were made, so I've heard.

[Argus]

@Tahoe

hey, speaking of GVP Combos, was that you that won what looked to be a great deal on a GVP Combo 040 board disguised as an A2000 harddrive card on ebay?

[McFly]

by Tahoe wrote Ah! You have an A2000A; important to remember; you have the earliest version of the Amiga 2000. This machine is mainly based on the A1000 (instead of the A500), has no Buster, has only 512K memory onboard with an optional extra 512MB in it's CPU slot.

:-D

Funny thing, I remember that identification by composite behind, and I thought I have one, but then I grasped that is actually a screw looking down while 1084 was obstructing the clear view


I have to check, but with all expansions, I think I have 4MB or more inside.

Keep it at 1.2. Why? You have an exceptional beast here; charming because of it's special place in Amiga's history, but you are bound to run in to lots of trouble trying to add anything hardware-wise. Just keep her, and love her as she is. (I do too, have an A2000A, unexpanded apart from the old hardware that came with it)

Well, you make some good points. Its just since my A1200 and A4000 are fully equipped, I wanted the same for A2000. When I received this A2000 (I gave my first A2000 away when Mac occupied my work) it came with mentioned double-decker HDD, and with almost same sentiment then, I took it away and I thought, why would I need HDD inside anyway?

That 5.25 place should be nourished with CD-Rom and possible HDD. So I think CD-Rom is definitely something that I want to see in that space.

I know that many people here consider A2000 to be ugly , but for me A2000 is the most beautiful of all.

In fact, for sentimental reasons, I would rather give A4000 away then A2000. But you could be right, perhaps I should keep this one in original state and find myself another later A2000 shape this one to full blown A2000.

But as I said, just for sake of curiosity will try Archos with and original controller on this one.

Actually , I failed to mention and perhaps reason why I didn't mention it in my Amiga list…

Just before holidays I've purchased A3000T in great shape. Owner was very little informed what he owns. I really hoped it would be desktop A3000, sadly not. Don't know why, but Commodore flirting with PC aspiration look with these towers never appealed to my sight. When I look at this A3000T as if I don't see Amiga. I hate it, and I will change this one for desktop version. It looks too boxy and very little Amiga I recognize and like.

No offense to any Tower owners, but my ideal of Amiga is always a desktop one.

Except original 4000T, there is something monumental in that 4000T look :-)

[gdanko]

1) Best to remove any battery that old. How often do you need a real time clock on an A2000?

2) That is an A2090. Non-bootable SCSI controller. 2091 or better is suited to you.

3) Hmmm

4) Yes

5) Your 2090 should do the trick.

6) Probably but you will need software to use the RW aspect.

7) AsimCDFS is best. $5-10 USD on eBay.

Get 3.1 ROMs and install OS 3.1

9) See #8

10) Huh?

11) Can't help ya there. I wouldn't do it or encourage it.

[Tahoe]

Argus wrote:
@Tahoe

hey, speaking of GVP Combos, was that you that won what looked to be a great deal on a GVP Combo 040 board disguised as an A2000 harddrive card on ebay?

Yes It really is a 040 card, for 63 US$ Now I need to wait to find out how much RAM is on it...

[gdanko]

I think I have an 040 card called a Zeus.
But the Blizzard is the one to get

[Argus]

Tahoe wrote:

Argus wrote:
@Tahoe

hey, speaking of GVP Combos, was that you that won what looked to be a great deal on a GVP Combo 040 board disguised as an A2000 harddrive card on ebay?

Yes It really is a 040 card, for 63 US$ Now I need to wait to find out how much RAM is on it...

Man, that is a sweet deal (I don't think the seller knew what he had).  I was hoping to bid on that one (cause I think it also has two 16MB simms on it, though the picture was so fuzzy); too bad (for me) I was at work and was too busy/forgot to bid.  I had an inkling too of what your max bid was Oh well, win some/lose some; have fun with the card!