A3000 questions

[6]

I recently acquired an A3000.  It appears to have either WB3.0 or 3.1.  I would like to install WB3.5 or 3.9, but my 3.9 disk is for A1200s.  Could I install either 3.5 or 3.9?

I'm not sure what roms it uses and don't know how to find out without disassembling it and that might not help anyway - there doesn't appear to be any id on them.  The roms are covered up by other boards.  Any help here?

It also has shadowed pc and mac hd partitions and floppie drives like PC0: which go uninitiated when booting.  How does one get rid of them?  I don't have the pc and mac equipment for them.  Will they just require deleting with hdtoolbox by repartitioning?

I don't have the manuals or I'd check them first.

From Big Book of Amiga Hardware I read that it takes one of two types of fast ram - zip or dip but not both.  And yet, according to sysinfo, this has both 7.5 megs zip and 4 megs dip.  They are both apparently working since I get a WB reading of 9+ megs fast ram.  Can anyone explain this to me?

It also won't run many of the games I try to play, Crystal Hammer, Tetris and others just won't load.  None are AGA games.  Some do load, like Loom.  But they all say PC0: won't recognize them.

Thanks and be seeing you
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[Matt_H]

Of course PC0: won't recognize them if they're Amiga disks. DF0: might not recognize them either if they're copy protected. You probably need to boot from them.

Post your ShowConfig output. That'll tell you the Kickstart version (probably 3.1), RAM chunks, etc.

[6]

Actually, Matt, I tried them as boot disks also.  No luck.  Thank you for the suggestion.

How do I get rid of all the pc and mac drives?  I've tried taking them out of WBStartup without luck.  Having no experience with the nonAmiga aspects of this A3000, I don't know where to start.  I've looked in user-startup and startup-sequence but don't want to screw them up unnecessarily.

I'll have to seek out ShowConfig.  I'm sure I can find it somewhere.  I've disconnected the 3000 in favor of an A1200 for a while.

Thanks
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[TjLaZer]

To remove the PC and Mac drivers, goto Devs:DOSDrivers and remove them from there and reboot.

[rdolores]

Try this. Go to your Sys:Devs/DOSDrivers drawer and move the PC0: icon into the Sys:Storage/DOSDrivers drawer.

[Darrin]

Just a couple of quick answers as I have my A3000 running:

When you boot into Workbench, hold your right mouse button down and then under the "Workbench" tab select "About".  A small window will open and it should state your Kickstart version.  I have Kickstart 3.1 ROMS so it reports Kickstart version 40.68.

To get rid of the PC0: floppy simply go into your "SYS:Devs/DOSdrivers" draw and drag the "PC0" driver back into the "Storage" draw (I wouldn't delete it as you might want it later).

Personally, I'd leave it in there as you might find it useful for transferring files from your PC to the Amiga.  You can download a file on the PC, copy it to a 720KB formatted PC disk (not a 1.44MB!), but it in the Amiga and it will appear under PC0:.  So, if you have an Amiga DOS formatted disk it will appear under DF0: and will look like junk under PC0:, if it is a 720KB MS DOS formatted disk then it will appear under PC0: and look like junk under DF0: and if you have a custom bootblock Amiga game disk that has to be booted at startup then it will probably look like junk under DF0: and PC0:.

HDToolbox will take care of those MAC and PC partitions on your hard drive (Remember that PC0: is not on your hard drive - it's your floppy drive), but make sure that you have your Workbench disks to reinstall your OS later.  Surely you can just click on the MAC partition, select format and then format it as an Amiga FFS drive without repartitioning?

Some old floppy games don't like Amigas with newer Kickstarts and neet a program to load an older Kickstart into RAM for them to work (Relokick1.3, etc).  However, I get most games to run to the A3000 by doing the following:

Reset Amiga
Hold down both mouse buttons as it tries to boot
On the Early Startup Control, go to Boot Options and disable the Hard Drive and CPU Caches.  Click "USE".
Under Display Options change it to "PAL" and "Original".  Click "USE".
Insert the floppy disk into DF0:
Click "Boot".
Keep your fingers crossed.

[6]

rdolores - thanks, but I did that first thing.  It is getting perplexing.

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[TjLaZer]

OK if you have Hard Drive partitions that are shadowed use HDToolBox to delete and repartition them to Amiga volumes.

As for PC0: and others, if you want leave them or move them to Storage.

On the Amiga you load the vast majority of games by rebooting with the game disk in the drive, that is why you don't see anything in WB. Some are NonDOS voumes so you cannot even do a directly on the disk, some will show files but will not run unless you boot them.  Remember the Amiga is not a Mac.

Hope this helps.

[Zac67]

The "7.5 Megs ZIPs" (probably fast RAM) indicates that the machine in question is a SuperKickstart machine which actually boots the required Kickstart from harddisk prior to loading Workbench.

- Do not delete/format the system partition unless you have a SuperKickstart disk! You won't be able to boot from a Workbench disk before Kickstart is booted.

- You can select Kickstart 1.3 on cold boot (hold down both mouse buttons), no need to soft kick it.

- AmigaOS 3.5 or 3.9 require 3.1 Kickstart ROMs (it's possible to superkickstart 3.1, but you'd have to buy ROMs anyway in order to make legal use of it).

[6]

Tj, rd, Darrin and Zac:

Thanks to you all.  One of the first things I did was move pc0: out of devs.  It is still there!  

I thought but was not sure that reformatting the nonAmiga drives would fix things but didn't want to mess them up.  Thanks for confirming.  

Good idea on the boot-up screen, Darrin.  I had actually used it but not with all your instructions.

Zac, I didn't know there was another 1.3 rom in it.  I appreciate your knowledge, everyone.

I think I need to find an A3000 manual.

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[Darrin]

Zac makes a good point about the Kickstart being loaded off the hard drive.  When I bought my A3000 it had the soft kick ROMS on floppy and would load them off the hard drive too.  I ended up buying a set of Kickstart 3.1 ROMS from Software Hut and put them on the motherboard.

If you do have this sort of setup then whatever you do, don't format that hard drive unless you have the floppy disk with the ROM image on.  Considering how unreliable old floppy disks can be, I highly recommend buying a set of 3.1 ROMs.  They're only $42.95.

[6]

I saw something about KS being loaded to hd as I rummaged thru its various startups. There are no floppies with it.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

That may have saved me from a lot of problems as I fool around.

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