Totally new to Amigas. Picked up a A1200HD/40 with a CSA twelve guage accelerator

I like #3 , yeah I'll try those things. But I guess in probability the capacitor could be the problem. I don't think there is any way to fix it tho. The board is like double layerd or somthing and one of the pads are totally desinigrated. It would probably require some kind of schemetics to do the job.
I lot of the .dms files on the CD are over 720 K, (being the limit of the PC0/1 disks), so that's annoying. I guess I could look around for a pcmcia type NIC or something; although I don't really like my chances of installing it properly . What about a 'null' modem cable thingy?  that sounds alot easier?

Anyway  I might leave all this for a couple of days as it's just to frustrating. Damn computers: My lite-on burner died today and I've lot the receipt. And the Australian distributer doesn't want to deal with me either : (they only deal with retailers), so G RRR.

Any way I'll try that ID thing for now.

Thanks for the help
 

[xeron]

A null modem cable will also do the trick. Download NComm from aminet, and set it up to use serial.device, unit 0, 38400 baud (thats probably the best speed to use on the Amigas internal port).

Then use HyperTerminal (or something better to send files with ZModem.

Yeah , that might be the way to go. I've tried changing the IDs etc. What I keep on getting is some 'scsi handler error' at startup.  
 I  might be getting a couple dozen assorted amiga cds in the next few days. Disks such as aga demos, amiga format coverdisks, cd32 disks etc. What are the chances of the PC being able to read them?, and with the nullmodem , would that be only usefull for file transfers or could the amiga possible use the PC's CDROM to boot the coverdisks etc
Umh also my CPU on the amiga gets so hot, that I'm getting worried that it'll melt a hole in the carpet etc(I'm missing the expansion cover), is this normal?



Pete

[xeron]

pete_pumpkin wrote:
Yeah , that might be the way to go. I've tried changing the IDs etc. What I keep on getting is some 'scsi handler error' at startup.  

I think it basically means the csascsi.device is being opened OK, but it is failing to get any response back from the CD drive.

with the nullmodem , would that be only usefull for file transfers

Just for filetransfers. Autobooting from CDs on an A1200 takes quite some doing, to be honest. There is a CD32 emulator on Aminet which attempts to boot CD32 games, but the CD drive has to be connected locally (IE on the IDE or SCSI bus).

Umh also my CPU on the amiga gets so hot, that I'm getting worried that it'll melt a hole in the carpet etc(I'm missing the expansion cover), is this normal?

Hmmm... 68030 based cards usually get hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch, but usually run OK without any heat sink or fan. It might be an idea to put the A1200 on a couple of blocks or something to get some airflow under the case.

[vortexau]

Its common for external SCSI Ports, on an A1200, to be a D25 fitted to a knock-out plastic port just behind the Floppy Drive.

The BASIC Driver and File System go in DEVS/DOSDrivers (often CD0) and L/ (AmiCDFS, CacheCDFS, or other).

The Driver is actually a TEXT File similar to this:

/* $VER: CD0 2.36 (22.08.96)
 *
 * CD-ROM filesystem mount entry
 *
 * Created by CU Amiga CD AmiCDFS installer
 */

         Device = 2060scsi.device
     FileSystem = L:AmiCDFS
          Flags = 0
 BlocksPerTrack = 32
      BlockSize = 2048
       Reserved = 0
         LowCyl = 0
        HighCyl = 11000
       Surfaces = 1
        Buffers = 64
     BufMemType = 1
           Mask = 0x7fffffff
        GlobVec = -1
       Priority = 10
        DosType = 0x43444653
      StackSize = 600
          Mount = 1
      FORCELOAD = 1

        Control = "LC BL=8 FB=32"

/* Unit number is given in icon tooltype
 *
 * Control field template:
 *
 * LC=LOWERCASE/S,CS=CASESENSE/S,
 * HF=HFSFIRST/S,TD=TRACKDISK/S,
 * BL=BUFFERLINES/K/N,FB=FILEBUFFERS/K/N,
 * DC=DISKCHANGE/K/N,MT=MOTORTIME/K/N,
 * SD=STARTDELAY/K/N,TDC=TDCHANGE/S,
 * TOSHIBA/S,OLDMODE/S
 */

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Device = MUST match your own {NAME}scsi.device
The FileSystem = MUST point to your own CD Filing System.
The Unit number is the ACTUAL SCSI Unit No switched on the CD Drive itself. This can be a VALUE after a = or, as in my own case, indicated in Icon Tooltype. A Single LMB click on the CD0 Icon will activate a data-field when the RMB Opens Icons/Information with the THIRD Workbench Menu item. My own shows UNIT=0 in the Tooltypes field.

A Default Tool- C:Mount can be shown here too. This makes the Driver visible to the system.

[edderkop]

this migth be a stuped question but is the read wire on the ribbon cable on pin 1. ?? :-?

@Tickly

Well, all the Blizzard cards required an extra module to be plugged in for SCSI to work. It wouldn't be at all surprising if the CSA card did too.

not all, on my  Blizzard 603+ it's one the card. :-P  

[Quixote]

edderkop edged in::

this migth be a stuped question but is the read wire on the ribbon cable on pin 1. ?? :-?

;-) Not a stupid question at all, sir.  Always check the simple things first.

@ Pete_Pumpkin:

;-) You may wish to check Aminet for a program called "SCSI inquire."  This tool will probe your SCSI bus and report what it finds at each address.  If it fails to report your CD-ROM drive, then something may be amiss with your hardware.  Check that the CD-ROM has power, that the SCSI cable is connected securely to the CD-ROM and the Amiga's SCSI port, etcetera.  Also, always check over old hardware that you buy.  The SCSI ID gadget on the back of your CD-ROM may not be connected to the CD-ROM itself, on the inside, etcetera.  Little things like that can trip you up.

:-) To answer an earlier question, yes, you can use old Mac SCSI stuff, so a trip through your local charity thrift shop may prove fruitful.  

 :-P  :-P  :-P  :-P  :-P
I can hardly beieve it, after almost giving up, I've finally got it to work  :-D

Today I bought a SCSI cdrom of a bloke. After chating with him for a bit, he started going into the topic of SCSI terminators. Anyhow I sort of understood him. I figured that maybe there is a pin terminator selector inside my external apple cdrom and it needed to be enabled etc. So I got home and unscrewed the case. Looking around, I couldn't see anything of that nature. The only thing I saw was the usual power cable ,scsi cable and a connector which had a cable going to the little 'click click' SCSI ID selector at the back of the case. The little connector also had a little bit of wire linking two pins which I think said 'parity'. So anyway I thought I'll just unplug the whole lot and give it a go. AND to my absolute suprise, WB presented me with the 'CD0' icon   :-P  :-P  :-)  Just before that I also changed the ID value in the CD0 file from 1 to 0, so really I wasn't sure wether it was this or that which fixed it. I plugged the connector back in to see what was the deal. It turned out to be the connector which went to the ID selector that was the thing causing the problem.

Anyway I'm excited    :-D  I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD; when using DOpus, I'm prompted to insert a floppy into DF0:, for starters, my DF0: is totally buggered, and secondly I don't want them on floppy, I want them on the HD. Anyway I think a solution to this was posted a little earlier, just need to have a good read.

Well thanks everybody (inparticular Tickly) for helping me out with getting this machine up and running the way it should  :-)

Thanks,
Pete

[Quixote]

pete_pumpkin protested:

...I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD; when using DOpus, I'm prompted to insert a floppy into DF0:, for starters, my DF0: is totally buggered, and secondly I don't want them on floppy, I want them on the HD.

;-) If the drive were working, it'd be easy: just unpack the file to floppy, then copy the floppy to the hard drive.

:-( However, I suspect that .dms files need to use DF0:.  On the other hand, I do wonder whether it would be possible to redirect its output to another device if run from the Shell.  Something like:

[Filename].dms >DF1:

:-? -Though I suspect I'd just get an error.  I'll have to try it to be sure.  Redirecting it to hard drive or Ram: probably wouldn't work, though, since IIRC the .dms archive includes formatting data for the compressed floppy image, as well.
:idea: Now, a dedicated HD partition of 880k, on the other hand...

[xeron]

pete_pumpkin wrote:
I can hardly beieve it, after almost giving up, I've finally got it to work  :-D

HOORAY! :-D

Anyway I'm excited    :-D  I just need to read back in the previous posts and work out how to unpack the .dms files onto my HD;

You can't directly unpack a .dms file to your hard disk. DMS files are compressed track-by-track floppy disk images, and can only be unpacked to real disks (or virtual disks).

In fact; if you don't want to have to use a real disk, we could use RAD. RAD is the Amiga's "Recoverable Ram Disk" (dunno why it isn't RRD, but hey...).

If your workbench install is fairly standard, you should be able to type this into a shell:

1. Work> Mount RAD:

If no error appears, you have created a virtual floppy disk! If an error appears, come back and we'll try and fix it :-D Next:

1. Work> dms write CD0:whatever.dms to RAD:

If the disk is a valid AmigaDOS disk, you can now copy files from RAD: to your hard disk.

!IMPORTANT! Before rebooting your amiga, type "RemRAD" into the shell, otherwise the Amiga will try and boot from the RAD disk instead of your hard disk. (or shut the power off, that'll kill it, too

Well thanks everybody (inparticular Tickly) for helping me out with getting this machine up and running the way it should  :-)

No problem! I'm always happy to help people keen to learn about my favourite computer platform!

[vortexau]

A Recoverable RAM disk is a bit more than THAT;

It will require an ENTRY in Devs/DOSDrivers like THIS-

/* $VER: SD0 37.2 (29.1.94)
 *
 * Recoverable RAM disk mount entry
 *
 * The maximum size of the disk is controlled by the value of the HighCyl
 * line. Increasing this value by 1 consumes an additional 11K of RAM.
 * So the default value of 79 consumes, when the disk full, around 880K of
 * memory.
 */

Device        = statram.device
Flags        = 0
Surfaces    = 2
Reserved    = 2
Interleave    = 0
LowCyl        = 0
Buffers        = 5
StackSize    = 600
Priority    = 5
Mount        = 1

/* The Unit, BlocksPerTrack, HighCyl, BufMemType and DosType fields are
 * controlled by tooltypes in the icon.
 *
 * Unit            = 0
 * BlocksPerTrack    = 11
 * HighCyl        = 79
 * BufMemType        = 1
 * DosType        = 0x444F5303
 */

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

and an associated {NAME}.device in Devs/, as in my case;
statram.device.

So, as can be seen, in THIS case the RAD's Icon is named: SD0

How this Icon appears under OS3.5 can be seen in the TOP Left corner of
this image

Grrr sounds really complicted. Is there a tool which will deal with these .dms files and make life easier ?
BTW )S3.5 looks really good compared to mine Is that only available with AMIGAS running 3.1 ROMs?

I think I'll leave it for a day, let my brain recover.

[vortexau]

OS 3.1, 3.5 & 3.9 require 3.1 ROMS.

OS 3.5 & 3.9 additionally require:
 ° A CD-ROM (ie. Installed from CD-ROM)
 ° At least 4Mb of FAST Ram
 ° At least a 68020 CPU
 ° At least 1Mb of CHIP Ram
 ° A Hard Drive

OS 3.5 CDs include OS 3.1 for 3.5 installs as an update to 3.1

Not sure about 3.9's position, here.

3.9 is as much of a leap over 3.5 as 3.5 is over 3.1

[xeron]

IIRC, a standard WB3.0 or 3.1 install has everything installed and ready to use RAD, you just have to mount it. I could be wrong. Your "SD0" appears to be some strange 3rd party RAD, which Pete probably won't need.

Just the standard, included with WB3.x RAD should do the trick.

Another amazing occurence :-o  
I've sorted the .dms problem. I had a play around with the .dms program in the cli 'shell' and read the help (dms ?) on it. There i discovered that I can specify the out put location etc. I then used this new found knowledge to edit the DMS's 'button' in DOpus.

(((These are the drives that I have mounted (as far as I know): HD0: CD0: PC1: DF2:
DF2: is an external drive and it comes of of the other external PC1: drive (which is attached to the A1k2)))

Ok so I found a couple of DD disks which didn't have bad sectors and Formated them in my DF2:

I used the  DMS program  to extract two .dms files (game) onto the floppys. So far so good

But you guessed it  :-o  More problems (oh not more problems)

Yeah I think this might have been answered in another thread/post, It comes up with a damn message 'NOT A DOS DISK" (or something like that)

So as you can see it's one problem after another (silly me) :-P

Any ideas people?

Thanks,
Pete

hehe, better sell it to me.....