3.9 on A3000

[Tension]

I`m trying to install 3.9 on my A3000.

When i make the emergency disk, it wont boot.

Seems to guru when Setpatch loads.

Replaced the setpatch with the one off WB3.1 disks. This seems to have cured the Setpatch problem.

When i try to install 3.9, it seems to only copy some of the files.  Plus i'm getting checksum errors all over the place.  Reformatting helps for a while, but they come back.

This all happens pretty randomly...  Sometimes i get a requester saying that "df0" has crashed!?!?

Please help this randomness is driving me mad!!

[tone007]

I'd check the RAM.

[Tension]

Reseated the chips & ZIPs the other day but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Will the 3000 still work if I just take them all out??

[Matt_H]

Reseated the chips & ZIPs the other day but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Will the 3000 still work if I just take them all out??

No RAM? Definitely won't work.

[tone007]

Running a ramtest might be a good idea.  Also, you could try just installing one fastram bank at a time (and if it screws up on the first bank, swap those chips for another 8.)

The issue I had was mixed static column and fast page chips.  My solution was making sure the first chip in the first bank was FPM, so the 3000 treated them all as FPM and not SC.  SC can pretend to be FPM, but FPM can't act like SC.

edit: checking the first ZIP chip in the first bank shouldn't be too tough, my FPMs had 400 in the number while the SCs were 402's (lucky me, there are weirder part numbers around.)

[Azryl]

also check maxtransfer value... if you used the new partitioning software with OS 3.9 it might have changed the value to something your scsi hard drive is not happy with.

Az

[Tension]

No RAM? Definitely won't work.

What I meant was, can I remove all FAST memory, leaving just CHIP ZIPs and then just buy a Zorro RAM card instead.


Would the Zorro card pereform better than the ZIPs??

[Tension]

also check maxtransfer value... if you used the new partitioning software with OS 3.9 it might have changed the value to something your scsi hard drive is not happy with.

Az

Yea thats a black art.

Everyone has a different figure  

[Matt_H]

What I meant was, can I remove all FAST memory, leaving just CHIP ZIPs and then just buy a Zorro RAM card instead.

Would the Zorro card pereform better than the ZIPs??

Ah, okay. A Zorro II RAM card will be significantly slower and limited to 8MB (and less with other cards installed). A super-rare Zorro III RAM card should perform nicely, but your best bet if you're removing motherboard RAM is to get an accelerator with RAM slots.

[Tension]

Ah, okay. A Zorro II RAM card will be significantly slower and limited to 8MB (and less with other cards installed). A super-rare Zorro III RAM card should perform nicely, but your best bet if you're removing motherboard RAM is to get an accelerator with RAM slots.

Bugger, can't afford to go splashing out on kit anyway.  Better just make do I suppose!!

[Gulliver]

Do as suggested already, check your memory first with memtest. Avoid taking the zip chips, this should be your last resort if everything else fails to detect the problem.
Anyway, it seems as fastmem is failing.

[Jope]

No RAM? Definitely won't work.

Chip RAM will be there, it is on a separate part of the board in DIP casing. Unless the machine is an A3000T.

Yea thats a black art.

Everyone has a different figure  

Not so black. Leave it as it is for SCSI, 0x1fe00 for IDE/CF.

[Tension]

Haven't touched the MaxTransfer values.  Tried installing/partitioning with different versions of HDToolBox but they still keep messing up after a few reboots.

[mousehouse]

There is a Fastlane available on Amibay with 64MB...

http://amibay.com/showthread.php?t=3874

I've seen quite a few of them go by the last months...

[Zac67]

The ZIP chips are delicate - better just pull one of the ZIPs per bank, that should take care of deactivating that bank as well.