Amiga 3000 new owner

[MrChocky]

First of all, I know this is going to be FAQ questions etc, but I'm not even sure what questions I ought to be asking right now. In my defence, I have read this:

https://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/amiga/a3000guide.txt

Please send me to any other material I ought to read up front, before even posting here, etc, etc.

I am extremely familiar with Acorn machines and PCs of the era, but my practical Commodore knowledge is very limited.

Anyway, I have just received a Amiga 3000. It boots to kickstart 3.1. What I *don't* have is a workbench floppy. It is trying to boot from the internal drive (the LED is on anyway), but the machine came with a SCSI scanner, CD drive and switch box, so perhaps the termination was changed - I don't know.

One thing I did check was the CMOS battery situation - looks like someone replaced it with some Radio Shack version with some velcro and clips which, and one lead was not particularly attached to the motherboard, so I have removed it for now. I understand some of the SCSI setup is tied up in that. I'm well aware that the SCSI drive might already be dead, or if not, is not likely to last.

The machine was not well packed, and one corner of the chassis was beat up on the corner with the audio out (was able to bend back) - I think it's going to be OK, but it's not impossible there is other damage.

The one single floppy I do have is for the "Advanced Amiga Analyzer". This shows me that the tank mouse I got is not behaving well vertically, although I did take it apart and clean it up a bunch. The memory test crashes. It will also boot to this from an external floppy drive that came with it.

There was a Great Valley IO expander and Video card fitted - I have taken those out for now just in case they are causing problems.

So what ought to be my first port of call here? Should I chase down a Work Bench disk so I can actually try things out?

Thanks in advance.

[Tumbleweed]

Welcome to the world of Amiga 

If the machine is booting to the kickstart screen thats a positive. Get a copy of Workbench on floppy WB3.1 is easily available. Also get a copy of Amiga Test Kit (on git hub here https://github.com/keirf/Amiga-Stuff/releases); VAT (Versatile Amiga Test Progam) is also worth getting hold of (Aminet) https://www.aminet.net/package/util/misc/VATestprogram. You can use both to test the machine for hardware faults.

If the 3000 is your only amiga writing to floppy is going to be a challenge.

One option would be to use a Gotek drive either internal or external. I had this challenge with an A2000. My solution was to get a gotek and install it replacing DF0: (main floppy drive). https://www.amigakit.com/amiga-gotek-floppy-drive-emulator-grey-p-1284.html?aksid=aemcuud9uoelsli3islsvsj474&currency=GBP&aksid=aemcuud9uoelsli3islsvsj474 I could then download the .adf's and write them to a USB stick and used that to boot into WB3.1.

Good luck.

Weed

[MrChocky]

First, thank for your reply. Overall, my experience with the 3000 has not been great, kind of a poor introduction to the Amiga world. Some of this is a matter of circumstance rather than any technical problems. In particular, AmigaKit have yet to ship my October 19th order of a Gotek and battery holder, so that's helped little. The A3000 is complicated, which is not unjustified, but it's not quite the tone I'm after in retro hardware.

On a more practical note, I've since obtained an excellent condition A1000 with apparently all its original material (and a boat load of floppies). After some frustration with floppy swapping, and a talk with Mr Dunklee last week and various promises on YouTube and elsewhere of being "transformative", my Parceiro II is already in the mail, and this is much more likely the machine I will keep long term.

Anyway, for the 3000, I ended up getting a null modem cable, and after quite a bit of pain, able to boot strap the 3000 from 1.3 workbench into 3.2 and get some other tools onto floppies.

I have not exhaustively been through the test tools, but to date, I have spotted anything at all of note - everything seems to be working fine, apart from the SCSI (possibly the floppy could use some maintenance).

In fact, the instability in the system appears to be 100% attributed to when the SCSI drive is connected. I see this is a fair bit of grief for 3000 owners, but I have not been able to find my exact problems:

Workbench 1.3.2 boots fine. I can run HDToolbox (I tried a few versions, including the one from the Workbench 3.2 install disk. It will find the drive, and validate blocks OK, but there do not seem to be any partitions. Attempts to partition result in a crash.

Workbench 3.2 will not boot with the drive connected (sorry, not sure about images and attachments here), result in the red crash screen - "Software failure".

If I try to run from Workbench 1.3.2 the 3.2 install program, then it'll crash as well - "Program Failed (error #80000004)".

So, is this a termination problem? As I think I mentioned, the drive was loose when I got it, so perhaps there was some previous attempt to replace it.  I know that messing with old SCSI drives might in the end be futile, but I'd still like to see if I can get it working.  Are there any other tools worth trying here, or diagnostics I can provide?

Thanks again.

[zipper]

Workbench 1.3.2 and  3.2 aren't compatible. And which kickstart do you have - it defines the Workbench version to be used.

[MrChocky]

Workbench 1.3.2 and  3.2 aren't compatible. And which kickstart do you have - it defines the Workbench version to be used.

Well, yes. But 3.2 crashes with the SCSI drive attached. I have kickstart 3.1.

[PlatformerZ]

Hello. I am a replete A3000D owner that has had limited experience with the machine. My particular example originated from our local University and a Professor of Astrophysics. It was quite well set up until I mistakenly erased the startup sequence script on the HDD and had to reformat it.

My A3000D also has Kickstart 3.1 roms. This is fundamental as the 3.1 version had many fixes for HDD functions. The early A3000's were capable of dual softkick booting 1.3 and 2.04 roms from disk. Having a writable rom tower on the motherboard. Later releases had v 2.04 roms.

The SCSI chip was released in a couple of versions IIRC and there are two key setups for the SCSI chain of devices. A "strata" setup,  "/" originating solely from the SCSI header on the motherboard and a Y setup with the SCSI header on the motherboard in the second position in the chain. Again IIRC.

The "strata" setup requires termination resistors installed on the motherboard and no need for external termination while the "Y" setup has no termination resistors on the motherboard, has the HDD on one end of the cable, the motherboard header next and then further units up to the external SCSI port. The External SCSI port or, if external devices are connected, the farthest device; needs to be terminated for the HDD to function.

This is all off the top of my head so don't quote me. There were online topics which I have no hope of finding again.

Re the CMOS battery. As well as the RTC it holds the NVRAM memory. This stores HDD bootstrapping delays set up optionally by a tool available on Aminet. It's not normally necessary and the A3000 is reportedly fine without it.

On the rear of the machine is the VGA output 31khz from the scandoubler. If being used, you may need to adjust the trimmer pot with a non conductive tool for a stable picture. I have heard of re-capping issues affecting the doubler but haven't encountered that myself.

 As for the OS, it needs the same Workbench etc version as the Kickstart or you'll get errors. Libraries were apportioned varyingly between versions.