Escom A1200 long boot up time!
 

I've just rceived my NOS A1200 from Amigakit and at first i thought something was wrong when i plugged it in because the screen stayed blank :(... But after waiting a while the Kickstart boot screen finally appeared. It took a full 30 seconds to reach the boot screen after switching on the power :shocked This seems incredibly slow!

My Amiga 1200 uses KS 3.1 roms and has also got a 40mhz E-matrix 1230 accelerator installed. Is it normal for the Escom/AT A1200's to take 30 secondsto reach the boot screen?

Cheers :great

Let me guess: The A1200 didn't come with a hard disk? If so, 30 seconds to reach the bootscreen is perfectly normal.

Yes it should take 39 seconds - it is nothing to do with it being an ESCOM model. It is the extended boot delay with the Kickstart 3.1 for slow booting hard disks.

Has nothing to do with Kick 3.1 as it happens on standard 3.0 A1200's too.

The boot delay is much less on a 3.0 ROM system - it was extended to 39 seconds on Kickstart 3.1

Ermmmm, your wrong there. Its like 10 to 13 secs on 3.0.

I was referring to "delay when no hd connected", I didn't measure how long it actually takes to boot. Fact is that there is a delay when there's no hd connected and that doesn't have to do with 3.0 or 3.1.

@PowerPie5000

The long boot delay is explained in the Getting Started with your new A1200 guide we supplied with the A1200.

Aye, see your point, :).

To make it nice and clear.

The delay is present in both 3.0 and 3.1. The reason for the delay is due to some HDD's (back in the day) not spinning up fast enough and would therefore miss the boot process.

Now if there is no HDD, then the A1200 will sit there for the period of the delay (around 10 secs on 3.0 and 40 secs on 3.1) searching for a HDD.
After the set delay period, it will display the kickstart screen (or boot from floppy if a disk is inserted).

My A1200 booting from: power ON button to Desktop for 14~15 sec.
3.1 kicks,CF 4GB, Bllizard 1230 VI 64mb, ClassicWB.

Ahhhh, anemos please dont confuse things, your blizzard is making yours boot faster, that and the fact you have a 4GB-CF.

We are talking about an A1200 with no HDD.

Ok thats a relief :) I've never used 3.1 roms before. My other A1200 with KS 3.0 roms only takes around 5 seconds with or without A HDD installed... I thought maybe the long boot time also had something to do with the accelerator? Anyway thanks for clearing that up and i will check the A1200 guide too :D

oh sorry.. :D
FOL

Sorry for the kind of off-topic, but I have a question to Amigakit about the NOS Escom Amigas...
When you do the soak test, what do you actually do..?

Not to be offensive, but I hope you don't wear out the screws, break the metal shield pins, solder on it and so on? When I buy a never-used A1200, I suppose it's shiny inside with no flux all over and such.. :) I'm getting mine later today, can't wait!

For a "new old stock" A1200 you would expect it to be 100% perfect but mine has slight yellowing to the rear port cover, trapdoor cover and disk eject button. Also the bottom half of the case seems slightly "whiter" than the top half :confused The trapdoor cover bulges out a bit but this is most likely due to having an accelerator card installed :)

Anyway i'm sure this is all normal due to it's age and i'm sure everything is immaculate and shiney new on the inside :great

Do amigakit escom a1200's still have the amigakit hd splashscreen on boot also is it possible to not have this?

Mine has the normal looking A1200 KS boot screen (the animated floppy disk being inserted into a disk drive).

One question PowerPie5000, did yours come with the HDD metal cradle..?
And if it did, was it rusty?

I mean before it gets to the kickstart screen

I've not actually opened it up yet... But i will need to as i've got a HDD to install (there goes the warranty :D). Anyway there should be absolutely no reason why a nos A1200 would have any rust inside!

EDIT: Just noticed mine is actually a French model with a UK keyboard installed. (says A1200 FR instead of A1200 UK on the barcode label and is made in France).