A3000D revision 8.9. buggy??? Fixes??

[redrumloa]

Hey Folks, I have an Amiga 3000D mb revision 8.9 with a problem. Everything works 100% so it seems, including many various Zorro II cards that have been tested in it. I think something has screwed up it's Zorro III support, as when trying to install a Prometheus problems occur. The card is recognised in early boot menu, PRMSCAN works and see the cards, but when trying to test a screenmode in Piccasso96Mode the system nukes and freezes up. I don't have any other Zorro III cards on hand to test.

The problem isn't the Prometheus. I've tested a few different ones to make sure. I've installed many Prometheus cards in A3000s over the years, I know the compatability. The Prometheus works with Buster-9, but this does happen to have a Buster-11. I suspect the Buster-11 is bad, failing that is rev8.9 known for any Zorro problems?

Ideas?

[redrumloa]

Ok I tried swapping Busters, no good as suspected. I hooked up a multimeter to watch voltages off the power supply and they stay stable @ 12.15V & 5.01V. I'm at a loss because everything else works rock solid.

No ideas?

[Crisisdog]

This may (or may not) help:

I have an A3640 in my A3000 and was never able to get my GVP Spectrum card working until I updated all three chips: Buster, DMAC, and Ramsey.  If you have an accelerator card, try removing it.  My Specturm would work without the A3640.  And I'd suggest the DMAC and Ramsey updates if are able to get them.


 :-D

[redrumloa]

I'd suggest the DMAC and Ramsey updates if are able to get them.

I was thinking about that. The Prometheus *should* work with the older DMAC and Ramsey, but maybe the tolerances in some manufacturing runs were poor? Oh well, i was just going to install a Prometheus for sale of it, i guess I'll just sell without.

[Argus]

This is just a thought but have you done the INT line fix?  I seem to remember doing this in my 3000 a while back when I installed an A3640 card.  I installed a Rev.11 Superbuster but left the original Dmac 2 and Ramsey 4 revisions.  I had no problem using a GVP Spectrum card until I eventually upgraded with a Cyberstorm/Cybervision combo.  I don't know what A3000 m/b revision I have though (too much of a pain to rip it all apart to check ..sorry)

One last question: How much system memory and are you using an accelerator at all?

[x56h34]

This may sound silly, but do you have 3.1 roms installed?
Try removing all the ZIP memory from the motherboard and only use 2MB chip ram + accelerator + accelerator's on-board simm memory.

Newstyle expansions for A3000 such as Prometheus, Cyberstorms, Mediator, etc. should all work fine with Dmac 2 and Ramsey 4. AFAIK, Dmac and Ramsey need upgrade only for a bit more stable usage of A3640 card due to some conflicts with ZIP memory and the on-board SCSI controller.

I've heard stories that Phase 5 never tested their A3000 compatible accelerators with newest Dmac and Ramsey chips, but only old ones, thus causing incompatibilities in some cases when the users have upgraded chips in their systems. Even in manuals they specifically stated that with A3000 usage, Dmac 2 and Ramsey 4 are recommended...this could be due to the rarity of Dmac 4 chip (Ramsey 7 is not so rare, as it was produced in larger quantities due to its necessity in A4000T).