How to tell what ROM version on A3000

[irishmike]

Hello all:

I am planning to upgrade my A3000 to the hilt in the next month or so.  With that Idea I plan to buy OS 3.9 and wanted to make sure I had the 1.3 ROMs (I believe) or whatnot.  Since I can not get into the system right this moment... needs keyboard and mouse first.... I was wondering if you could tell visually?

Please note my other post on getting to the mainboard... The Roms are under that shelf too.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks, Mike

[adolescent]

Just disconnect any hard drives and take out any floppies and wait for the boot screen.  It will say the ROM version there.

BTW, you need 3.1 ROMs for OS3.9.

[irishmike]

Cool Thanks.  

[amigakit]

Go into Workbench and goto the Workbench menu and select About.  This will tell you what ROM you have installed.

A3000 Kickstart 3.1 ROMs

[Zac67]

Not entirely correct - the Kickstart in use might be loaded (Superkickstart or softkicked) - important for an eventual CPU upgrade.

Hold down both mouse button while switching on. If the boot menu gives you the choice of 1.3 and 2.0 you've got an old Superkickstart machine (actually 1.4), absolutely good for standard use, but incapable of running an 040/060 and some other hardware.
Otherwise, deactivate all bootable hard disk volumes and start the machine. The Workbench screen will show the actual ROM version (like adolescent wrote, but without disconnecting the drives). Amigakit was also right, but that way you'll see the ROM in use - everything that matters if you're not planning to upgrade the CPU.  :-)

BTW: what's the price for the ZIPs from Magnetic Systems? (NYC?)

[amigagr]

irishmike wrote:
Since I can not get into the system right this moment... needs keyboard and mouse first....

this 2 mouse buttons advice looks like useless in this case

[Zac67]

:roll: I actually overlooked that, thanks - but without mouse and keyboard pretty much everything is useless....

[irishmike]

@zack67

The price is $29.95 USD per 4 MB from Magnetic... given how hard it seems to aquire these chips, I am thinking of buying 4 MB at a time once a month until I am maxed at 16MB... that will be 3 times for those keeping score.

They seem ok on most items as if you go the ebay route, you'll end up paying that and maybe more.

[TjLaZer]

You really should not buy memory in stages like that as you may not get to buy the rest, and opening/closing the A3000 case can be a pain.  I would just buy the memory and do it one time and be done with it.  Just my take on it.  You also want to get 3.1 ROMs while you do this, while you have it open.  Check to see if you have a ROM Tower or not and get the appropriate ROMs.  Good luck!

[InTheSand]

TjLaZer wrote:
opening/closing the A3000 case can be a pain

Definitely! The amount of stuff that has to be removed to get to the right hand side of the motherboard is a complete pain!

And I can never get the case's screw holes to line up properly afterwards, so I don't bother putting the outer screws back in any more!

 - Ali

[Zac67]

$29.95 is a pretty decent price - not a bargain but fair. Forgot to ask whether they're static column, since those are slightly faster with the onboard 030 but harder to get (I've got 12 MB SCs and am still looking for the last 4 MB - mixing static column and fast page is not recommended).

Good luck with upgrading. Be careful with those ZIPs, the legs are very easily bent or misplaced.

[irishmike]

I totally agree that putting in the ram in stages may be a pain, but my wallet says that this is how it is going to have to be :-)  I may wait to have the whole thing up and running until I have all the parts, but I may decide that 4MB is enough too.  Don't think the programs I want to run require more than 1 MB Fast RAM.

But if I have to do it in stages, that is precisely how it will progress.  I have been a Technician for over 15 years and though new to Amiga as a platform, not too intimidated by taking the machine apart and putting it back together too much.  Also 97% sure no rom tower

I do appreciate all the suggestions and if the means to do all the ram at once and the ROMs (assuming they are not already 3.1) then I will make that decision then.

Again appreciate all the help :-)

[amigagr]

irishmike wrote:
I may decide that 4MB is enough too.  Don't think the programs I want to run require more than 1 MB Fast RAM.

i have 8mb on and os3.9. with some patches running at boot time i end up with 4mb just to boot the os. i don't know why but my a3k looks like more ram hungry than my a1k2  :crazy:

[irishmike]

@amije

Good Point, so I will have 8 mb if I upgrade with 4 but I should maybe do 8 then.

@everyone

I have determined that I will need the 3.1 ROMs, it is at 2.x according the bootup of workbench.

[InTheSand]

I guess it depends on what you want to do with your Amiga - if you're after more RAM to increase speed, you may find it better to get a basic accelerator (though these can be expensive) and expand that.

 - Ali