A4000T Yet more questions...

[mdivancic]

I picked up a 4000T from eBay this week and after a great struggle I have OS3.9 BB2 installed along with a IDE CD and hard drive. I've got a couple of questions about getting stuff for this thing.

Where do I get drive rails for the puppy? I need about three more. It would be nice if I could find some of the blanks for the drive bays. Any ideas?

When the unit cold boots from power off it gurus the during the first boot, but after clearing the alert it continues to boot and finishes off just fine. Any warm boots after this are just fine. I believe its a problem with SetPatch.

The unit is stock, with an IDE Hard Drive and IDE CD. 16MB memory, standard CBM floppy (No stupid hot glue cable), ect...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[billt]

I got mine from Software Hut, but that's been a number of years ago now. There's a chance they still have some around though. Also not sure about the faceplates, but doesn't hurt to ask them.

[Failure]

mdivancic wrote:
Where do I get drive rails for the puppy? I need about three more. It would be nice if I could find some of the blanks for the drive bays. Any ideas?

They are "standard" Enlight drive rails, you get a bunch when you buy those generic white steel Enlight cases.  IIRC, the A4000T case is actually an Enlight case?

[X-ray]

@ mdivancic

There is a dude selling drive rails here.

@ Failure

Ja, the A4000T is an Enlight case, but I have not been able to find a similar case from them (I wanted to get a new case because mine is in bad condition).

[mdivancic]

I just thought of something else, did the AT 4000T ever ship with an 030 processor?

Mike

[X-ray]

As far as I know it did not, it shipped with that horrible 040 card. (I don't know about the genuine Commodore unit though)
In terms of 030, I can confirm that you can use an 030 card in it (I have used 030, 040, 060 and PPC cards in my A4000T and there hasn't been a problem that wasn't a result of my own stupidity)

[billchase]

No, the Escom 4000T never ship with an 030 card, only 040 and
060.  Not sure about the genuine C= version.  Any idea which
company produced the cases for that machine?

C Snyder
   

[mdivancic]

billchase wrote:
No, the Escom 4000T never shipped with an 030 card, only 040 and
060.  Not sure about the genuine C= version.  Any idea which
company produced the cases for that machine?

That's what I thought, thank. The case is an Amiga Technologies, which I assume means Escom?  Here's another question? How do I get the lower drive cage in the unit with the 040 installed? It's hitting the processor heat sink right now. I'm guessing I'll have to replace the heat sink, right?

Hey, guys thanks for all the help!

Mike

[X-ray]

That must mean it is not the original 040 card, or it is a non-original heatsink on the 040, because the original 040 card with heatsink fits under the drive chassis.
No matter: at some stage you might get a PPC or a different CPU card and you will have problems with that drive chassis anyway. So here is a bit of good advice: cut the drive chassis. There is a cross-strut that is in the way, yes? Cut that out. It will also mean that you don't have to unscrew the drive chassis ever again just to have access to your CPU card. If you want to see how I have cut mine, PM me your email address and I'll send you some pics.

[mdivancic]

I just cringe to cut anything on the 4000T, but I thought about it myself. Yes, it is the cross brace. Right now I don't have any drives for this anyway. Maybe in the future...

Mike

[X-ray]

Ja, you can take the drive chassis out altogether. You will still be able to mount the floppy, a CD/RW, and one HD in the horizontal bays, and just cover the vertical bays with the protection plate. And you still have the option of external SCSI devices...

[x56h34]

@X-ray:

And once he gets a CSPPC card, he can then easily superglue the fan onto the heatsink. ;-)

[X-ray]

No he can't, because he doesn't have the right putty!

[Will-i-am]

Re the drive chassis and the '040, I've had a couple of cpu's in my tower and don't recall banging into any part of the chassis,they must not have had a heatsink. I do have a problem with the Atlantis '060 card I installed, insofar as it has a couple of ports, ie maybe scsi and ide if I recall, and they are right under the drive chassis so they can't be used and it would be real handy if I could. If you cut the lower part off the frame, how do you keep the it stable and not all loosey-goosey? Also, if you plug a wireless phone battery into that external pin unit near the speaker pin, does it take a charge from that circuit? otherwise how would it get charged? Seems like a dumb question to me, but I don't read anywhere that the case has a circuit suitable for charging batteries. I would dearly love not to explode my tower now that it boots all nice and all.

[X-ray]

@ Will-I-Am

PM me your email address and I'll send you pics of my cut drive chassis. It remains stable because I only cut the cross-strut. edit: I cut two, because I need access to the cpu card.
As for the battery, I have a picture in the photo album that shows what sort of battery pack to use and how to connect it and the best place to mount it.

Edit: as two people have asked about this drive chassis, I will put the picture in the photo album directly. The picture is here.