Help needed from A3000 users !

[arkpandora]

Well, I won't do what dealers were told to do with the A500 unless my own life is at stake...

No, the computer works with a hard drive too, but only if you don't use the hard drive.  If you try to access the hard drive, the latter works a few seconds or minutes, then crashes the computer, which then becomes unusable even if you boot from a floppy.  Before the first crash, at best you can partition and low-level format the hard drive, verify the drive (detect the presence of bad blocks), format it and install the Workbench or another software ; then it gets stuck when you open a drawer or try to read what you have copied.  Most of the time you can't even format it or write anything.

I have just plugged in the hard drive without the SCSI cable attached : the computer works OK, as it does without a hard drive.  I don't even get the hesitant powering up : the hard drive powers up at first try.  This might indicate there's a SCSI problem, but I have to abandon my tests at the moment.  I will resume them later.

Thank you again for your help.

[Amiga4k]

About the battery:
(1) This is not a problem with a formatted drive that has AmigaDOS already setup. But without a battery, the date of newly installed files can confuse the system clock.
(2) Suggest you read the "readme file" on setbatt.lha as it explains that program. Quote: "The controller's configuration is stored in a NVRAM powered by the same battery which the clock is."

Suggest you try powering the hard drive (test only) from any other external power supply. Maybe an extension from the PC you mentioned?

It it were not so expensive shipping to Belgium, I'd send you a small hard drive already prepped with AmigaDOS 2.1 for you.

PS: appreciate your location being "public". Maybe a more local A2000 or A3000 user could prep your drive? Come on guys and gals, be a little more generous! This is an Amigan!

[arkpandora]

Hi,

Thanks for your warm support.

The first hard drive I tested was already formatted and WB-installed, as it was in the state the former owner used it, and I had successfully tested this drive at his house.  The first time I used the computer after the buying, it didn't crash either : I could read and write a few files, even LHA some of them, without a problem, except that I noticed the floppy drive was broken (I now test the computer with and without a spare non-A3000 internal drive).  But at the second test the hard drive jammed the computer (in the same way as the other drives I tested afterwards), although I didn't change anything to that drive except trying to read and write files as I did during the first test.

"The controller's configuration is stored in a NVRAM powered by the same battery which the clock is."

That's the quote I started my thread with, although it didn't came from the same source.  Which "setbatt.lha" are you referring to ?  The docs of the two SetBatt I find on Aminet don't contain this phrase.

Powering the hard drive with a PC is what I intented to do today, but as I'm lacking space at the moment, I will test that later.

I may be able to prepare another drive if necessary, as I have an SCSI A4000 that should work - you may meet this Amiga in another of my "Needing help" threads...

And I haven't performed all the tests that were suggested in this thread, so except technical and tinkering skills (I am just a passionate Amiga user hating electronics !) I am not running out of ressources yet.

[Amiga4k]

If you go into prefs, and set the time, it will "keep time" until you turn-off the A3000. The battery supplies power to the clock circuit when the computer is turned-off. Without a charged battery, the clock (DATE AND TIME) will become randomized. It is this fault that will cause problems.