**Need Setup HELP** with Classic Amiga 2000 HARD DISK (Bridgeboard)

[wbrejnia]

I booted WB 3.1, and put in BB install disk.
A simply drag and Drop of JANUS.library wasn't possible since no space on WB3.1 disk.
Too complicated and I'm asking for Trouble.
Getting WB 3.1 working with Bridgeboard will be later.

Best just to take apart A2000 and put in Kickstart 1.2 ROM (Much safer from a OS perspective, [compatibility]).

[wbrejnia]

[ KICKSTART 1.2 ROM Installed ] [ Coin Battery Next ]

The original Kickstart ROM has been put back.

Now I'm working on Battery Replacement.

I want it to look tidy, and I have a few Color Choices for mini Breadboard.
I got a bunch of multi-colored mini breadboard from Aliexpress a while ago for 50 cents each.
I knew they would come in handy.


I did a too good job removing that Battery Cleanly.
Wish I left some metal exposed.  Hoping I can Solder/Push the solid wires thru.

I don't want to remove the whole Circuit board to get underneath.

[leofoe]

I booted WB 3.1, and put in BB install disk.
A simply drag and Drop of JANUS.library wasn't possible since no space on WB3.1 disk.

There are special Bridgeboard install disks with everything needed on them.

[leofoe]

And does you setup work with access to HD on ISA slot side.
Does Aread and Awrite work from one side to other?

I use a hard file on the A2000.
On the Sidecar the harddisk is split in an Amiga and DOS partition.
I have never used Aread and Awrite, so not sure if that works.

[wbrejnia]

I use a hard file on the A2000.
On the Sidecar the harddisk is split in an Amiga and DOS partition.
I have never used Aread and Awrite, so not sure if that works.

So you have a Hard Drive on the A2000 Side?  What Kind?  How?

[wbrejnia]

Amiga 2000 Replacement Battery Holder installed.

That Minus Side I cut too clean when removing battery.  Solder didn't grip.
Lucky it was Ground, so  I just tapped into another GND spot on MB.

Picked the Green Breadboard.  Little bit of Hot Glue and it's done.



Next is:

- Put A2000 back together
- Test the Battery Holder Connections (Voltage Check)
- Cross my fingers/toes and boot up BB Workbench and hope for some Good Luck (with original Kickstart ROM)

[darkage]

FYI - You can get ready made coin battery replacements with ready pcb.  Using a tiny breadboard I would consider a temporarily install.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1093

[wbrejnia]

I saw that Battery unit on AmigaKit.   Almost ordered it before finding coin holder at surplus store.

Nice, but goes on Motherboard and hard to get to battery (after Drive Cage goes back).
My coin battery holder would also fit perfectly on the motherboard. All I would have to do is solder in the tiny diode on the backside. (Diode is only thing on PCB)
But to solder either I would have to take out the motherboard to solder from the backside (didn't want to risk doing the MB takeout)

The breadboard is solidly in place (easy access for replacing battery 11 years from now ).  Plus can take out battery if I want to.
(Coin batteries can also leak, damaging the mother board.  This is safer)

 I glue gunned all the components, wires on the Breadboard. (after taking that picture).  Nothing is going to move.  Can peel off soft glue if I want to.

This is just power, not high speed data connection. (Actually there isn't any high speed data in this A2000 much anywhere! )
So will be quite fine for permanent setup. (Total cost $5 with battery)

I'm actually thinking of doing something similar for the Kickstart ROM Chip, which also hard to get to.
I know AmigaKit sells a nice switcher that will flip Chips using [CTRL]-[AMIGA]-[AMIGA] keys.


But a simple dummy chip (found it in my parts box)-> wired to ribbon cable extender to a 2nd easy access socket/breadboard will keep me happy.


But that's a possible, later project, if I really need/want dual kickstart ROMs.

[darkage]

[ KICKSTART 1.2 ROM Installed ]

One neat hack, is that you can use a 1MB Eprom and burn 3 Kick start images to a single chip,  and install a 3 way switch or jumper to select between the starting addresses for each kickstart.  

http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/en/hardware/amiga500/kickstart-eprom/

Ive tried it with my programmer and it works fine.  (:

[wbrejnia]

One neat hack, is that you can use a 1MB Eprom and burn 3 Kick start images to a single chip,  and install a 3 way switch or jumper to select between the starting addresses for each kickstart.  

http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/en/hardware/amiga500/kickstart-eprom/

Ive tried it with my programmer and it works fine.  (:

Now that is COOL!!!

[wbrejnia]

Booted with KICKSTART 1.2 (Original ROM) (** A ton of clues **)

So with the KICKSTART 1.2 ROM in place things are certainly different.

- FIRST, those Workbench disk that I thought were Totally corrupt and were crashing (ARE NOT CRASHING!!!) they Load!!

- I have to rebuild some new Workbench 1.2 Disks and Load up Bridgeboard Software.

BUT THIS what I get when I try to start with that original Working DISK Labelled  "AMIGA/PC"



** JANUS Handler Not Loaded !! Interesting **


- So looks like the true error message I was missing on the other Kickstart ROM.

Does this mean the Bridgeboard is BAD?  Probably not.  It's SW or something else.

- And what's interesting if I click on the PC WINDOW (8088 PC boots DOS6.2 up from the 5.25" Floppy)
** BUT the BRIDGEBOARD PC, is still having that C: Drive MBR pick up problem **

Does this mean I just need some disk fix up (who know what I did to it 2 years ago)
What I mean disk fix up.  It start Workbench built from Scratch Clean.

*** AT WHAT's really interesting, is the Bridgeboard install Manual SPECIFICALLY SAID I need to set 8088 PC memory to E000 for my 8088 bridgeboard (( A MUST, highlighted in the manual ))**  
*** When I had other Kickstart ROM, It kept defaulting to D000, and I couldn't change it VIA PC-Preferences, because PC-Preferences would CRASH attempt change to E000
**** I just tried the change NOW, and it worked Perfectly, It's set to E000 as it should be.  Maybe next boot might be good.

Lot's of work ahead of me.
At least I have the original Setup that used to work.

[wbrejnia]

** WOW !!! ***  Many of my 3.5" Floppy GAMES I thought the were AGE-CORRUMPTED are now working

When I was going thru my box of Original GAME disks, many of them were not working (INSTANTLY CRASHED the Amiga)

I was considering Formatting them to use as empty disks!! (since I thought they were bad)
Glad I left them alone.  They are working with the KICKSTART 1.2 (I recently read that some games won't work on higher kickstart ROM).  I have a bunch.

Super Cool, my Game Collection has just doubled.

Will be able to load up that GOTEK with some (Rare Games) if some of they are not available for Download.

[wbrejnia]

ANOTHER MYSTERY SOLVED (RLL Drive) Losing MBR (proven)

I put the AMIGA Workbench RESTORE aside. To much to do.

But since I noticed the same LONG  PULSING LED behavior on the RLL drive (using Kickstart 1.2), it got me thinking to test that drive more.

So I got the RLL drive recognized in the 486 using the 8 Bit Western Digital RLL Controller (and I still have a Floppy off the 16 Bit Hard drive Controller)

(The trick was exactly the same as the ISA-IDE Adapter)
----> DISABLE in BIOS all the Hard drive, Leave Floppy Drive active.

And to my surprise the drive acts just as weird as in the 8088 PC.

-> Same LONG  PULSING LED behavior at boot trying to pick up MBR.
-> I format it using DEBUG (Using LL BIOS Format on WD Controller)
-> After LL-Format.(Partition, Format)..Looks perfect.  Ran Ranish Partition Manager, DOS SCAN DISK. PERFECT 100%
-> Reboot computer a few times and MBR disappears.  C: drive gone.
-> ALSO after a good format (The Drive won't boot as a C: Drive, even if visible), exactly the same as on the Amiga 8088 Bridgeboard PC.
 
I have no idea why this is happening.
If the drive was defective, Low Level Format would pick it up.
If the drive was defective, all those INTENSE SCANS using multiple tools would have picked up something.

It's purely the MASTER BOOT RECORD, and BootSector of drive (which is on Sector 0)

SO BASICALLY the Summary is:

Bridge board is Fine, or at least the part about not booting from the RLL drive.  It tries just like the 486 but can't for a good reason.

The RLL drive is acting weird!! (on both computers).  It works perfect when MBR is Picked up.  Or when MBR is in DOS memory.

[Raffaele]

"Pure bit not set" errors are due to the fact many DOS commands were made reentrant in 2.04 and sequent versions of AmigaOS and can be made resident in memory.
As long as 1.2 does not support attributing "p"ure bit flag to the commands, thus it feels a bit astray, but nothing that could harm your system or Bridgeboard.

JanusHandler not running error IMHO is simply due to the fact system must load other libraries first, and initialize JanusHandler only in the end. PCDisk should be as one of the last commands to be run by the system.

Try put it in the end of Startup or put some delays as void cycles in the Startup in order to give your system  enough time to let all libraries and Handlers being loaded.

It could be also possible that some resident commands performed operations that are needed by Bridgeboard.
Make explicit calls to these commands before PCDisk is executed by Startup (you must be sure for example all Assigns were performed by real command existing phisically in "C" directory and not by "resident" command ones).

[Raffaele]

I am starting wondering if your 8088 BIOS that it is so antiquated is afflicted by Year2000 bug so it sometimes causes conflicts when loading filesystem, or MBR.

I still own a 486DX2 clocked at 66MHZ and I never experienced problems of BIOS as it is enough modern it stores infos with correct MMDDYYYY format system, but I encountered problems with ancient computers storing date in MMDDYY format.

[Raffaele]

** WOW !!! ***  Many of my 3.5" Floppy GAMES I thought the were AGE-CORRUMPTED are now working

When I was going thru my box of Original GAME disks, many of them were not working (INSTANTLY CRASHED the Amiga)

I was considering Formatting them to use as empty disks!! (since I thought they were bad)
Glad I left them alone.  They are working with the KICKSTART 1.2 (I recently read that some games won't work on higher kickstart ROM).  I have a bunch.

Super Cool, my Game Collection has just doubled.

Will be able to load up that GOTEK with some (Rare Games) if some of they are not available for Download.

I suppose that trackdisk.device (and DiskHandler resource?) has (have?) been changed and heavy patched during AmigaOS evolution.