How to upgrade kickstart rom ?

[kr0nique]

Hello all,

I think I need to upgrade my kickstart rom or whatever it's called in my Amiga 500. I've got v1.2 at the moment in there, but I try plug in HDD and it doesn't work. I got told that if I install 1.3 it should work but I have no idea how to do this???

Has any one got some links or advice they could send me?

Thanks,

:Ant

[PMC]

kr0nique wrote:
Hello all,

I think I need to upgrade my kickstart rom or whatever it's called in my Amiga 500. I've got v1.2 at the moment in there, but I try plug in HDD and it doesn't work. I got told that if I install 1.3 it should work but I have no idea how to do this???

Has any one got some links or advice they could send me?

Hy Kr0nique,

Kickstart v1.2 doesn't automatically recognise hard disk without a program being booted from floppy first.  I suppose in the short term you could try and find the appropriate boot utility for your drive.

Obtaining v1.3 ROMs should be easy.  In fact you might as well go the whole hog and try to source a v1.3 (or above) A500. This way you'll be certain that you have the right ROM and won't have to worry about correct installation.

If you do decide to upgrade the ROM then I'll try and describe the procedure - although do remember I've only ever done this once with an A1200... (disclaimer mode off).

First of all make sure you're earthed and free of static, dust etc, etc and the power is off.

Anyway, if you open the case, you'll see eight chips on risers proud of the main board.  Being considerate folk, Commodore labelled all the chips for easy recognition, so if my memory is correct the ROM chip is located next to the CPU (the dirty great oblong chip cunningly labelled '68000').  It should be a simple case of swapping the chips for a new ROM, but there may be problems with certain motherboard revisions that I'm not currently aware of.

[pjhutch]

There are instructions with the Kickstart guide on Aminet:
docs/help/kickstart.lha

[kr0nique]

Thanks for all the help it is just what I needed and cool I didn't realise there was so much stuff on this thing called Aminet

[Holley]

Pulling apart an A500 is quite an easy process (undo screws from underneath, turn over, pull top off from the back first), and it's only one chip to change :-)

If in Europe keep an eye out for a cheap A500+ as they've got some nice goodies in as standard, while still keeping all the good bits of the original A500s.