Disable A1200 expansion card via software to allow PCMCIA usgae

[gurthuk]

My A1200 has an Hawk FPU + memory card in it's belly, I've added 8Mb to this card and everything is working as expected. I understand that by having 8Mb on the card the PCMCIA slot is knocked out of use.

I've ordered a CF card reader from Amigakit and would like to know if there is anyway I can disable the Hawk card allowing me to use the CF reader without turning the Amiga over and removing the card? Is a software patch / disable option available?

 I thought for a second I could disable the card by holding both mouse buttons at boot-up but this only displays a summary of the devices - no option to disable.

[meega]

Put a 4MB simm in instead, no conflict.

[gurthuk]

I'd sooner have 8Mb and a software option to disable as-and-when I like.

[meega]

You might be able to stop AutoConfig somehow... (but I doubt it).

[countzero]

your board has jumpers for memory size. connect some wires to these jumpers and extend them out of the case and connect them to a switch.

http://amiga-hardware.com/download_photos/hawk_4_big.jpg

[gurthuk]

That though had crossed my mind too...

Would something like NoFastMem work and survive a soft-reset?

[darksun9210]

hmmm, nope, not really... the basic issue is that the amiga has auto config'd everything before you've even got to the early startup screen... your best option is to manually set the hawk to tell the amiga it is a 4Mb board. with the following jumper configs (stolen from Zetro's post on a similar subject on EAB)

to configure the board for 8MB

LK1 = open, close, close
LK2 = close, close, open
LK3 = open, close, close

to configure the board for 4MB

LK1 = close, close, open
LK2 = close, close, open
LK3 = open, close, close

to configure the board for 2MB

LK1 = open, close, close
LK2 = open, close, close
LK3 = close, close, open

to configure the board for 1MB

LK1 = close, close, open
LK2 = open, close, close
LK3 = close, close, open


i guess where it says "open" is where you want to put a jumper. and hopefully, it'll ignore the upper 4Mb where the pcmcia lives.

hope this helps :-)

[Fingers]

i guess where it says "open" is where you want to put a jumper.

Other way around, a pair of pins with jumper fitted are "closed" by the jumper.

Some people get messed up with "open circuit" having something to do with jumpers being "open", but this is not the case.  

Also I agree, set it to 4MB with jumpers & the PCMCIA will most certainly work...I've tried it myself :-)

PZ.

[gurthuk]

Thanks gents, I do have the original manual for the Hawk expansion card so I can double check with that if needs be. I just spent the costly sum of £3 on the 8Mb EDO stick so I'm loathed to take it out and put the 4Mb back.

A jumper and switch it may have to be but a more elegant solution would be a software patch follwed by a soft-reboot but hey you can't have it all... If only there was a way to skip the autoconfig or at least pick which bits I want.

[darksun9210]

heh, that would be cool. a "super early startup" screen, where the amiga goes "here is a list of what i found, please tick what you don't want me to use"

[jj]

Im guessing that the eraly boot up menu resides in the kickstart roms.

So would it be possible somone with the knowledge ccould write new roms to implement thiss feature.

Just thinking aloud really

[gurthuk]

Does the 8Mb knock out the PCMCIA completely or could I still use a network card for example?

[NovaCoder]

gurthuk wrote:
Does the 8Mb knock out the PCMCIA completely or could I still use a network card for example?

The full 8mb kills it as dead as a Dodo....

I think you can get away with 6mb but for some reason these kind of cards only allow 2,4 or 8.

[stefcep2]

With the ram expansion board you still only have an 68020 cpu running the show.  The 8mb and the PCMCIA slot are mapped into the same memory space accessed by the 68020 cpu.  I'd be amazed if you could get a switch to jumper only the 4 meg configuration without rebooting, nor that you can do this in software with the A1200 still booted up.  I am 99% certain you will need to reboot whenever you alter the ram config from 8 to 4 meg either by hard switch or software, if such software existed.  these problems don't happen with 68030 accelerator cards.

[Fingers]

I always shut the machine down before hitting the switch...wouldn't dare try with it still turned on!

PZ.