general a1200 info needed

Belgarath · 15 April 2002, 20:35

maybe i should have posted this is the newbie section..
i've forgotten so much i feel like a newb

wanderin about my local flea market today i came across an a1200 which i promptly bought for £10

no disks were supplied with it, it came with a philips cm8533 monitor, an internal (although rather badly secured) 300mb hd and something in the exansion bay underneath..

the hd keeps coming up with errors upon booting, and there is so many things loading up at startup that i'm left with VERY little free memory. the board in the expansion slot im not sure what it is, written on it is Elbox 1200/4 thats all i know.

so any advice on what things are and getting everythin nice and happy would be great, and i'll accept any curses and abuse thrown my way if you think i got a very good deal

and please treat me as total newb cos im actually quite scared at how much i've forgotten

Drake1009 · 15 April 2002, 20:43

Well only advice I can give is to clean up your startup-sequence and user-startup. And I think there was a dir or two which was automatically loaded.

blackcornflake · 15 April 2002, 22:32

£10! Barrrgain! Lucky person!

Follow Drake1009's wise advice. (The startup-sequence and user-startup files live in the S: directory). They are ASCII text; you can look at them with Multiview, or load them into any text editor and edit them. Perhaps wise to make a copy of both startup files first.

I suggest 'commenting out' lines you don't want (put semicolon at start of line). They are deactivated, pending experimentation. Definitely don't need them? Delete!

Also try looking in the WBStartup drawer. Anything not look too vital? Bung it in WBStartup_Storage. (Or anywhere you like, actually. Doing so will stop WB loading it upon startup). Sounds like the previous owner left bits and pieces of stuff around on the HD. Messy Amiga systems are quickly cleaned up, unlike Windoze. Just take it nice and steady - don't delete things in a frenzy.

Mystery card? I had one just like yours once. Cost me £40 on its own! It is 4MB on a card, not really upgradable.

Ready for more blackcornflake advice? Get hold of a 68K accelerator. Cheap as hell now. Capacity for loadsa SIMM memory!

Belgarath · 15 April 2002, 22:43

cheers for the advice/info

yeh i couldn't believe my luck when i saw it for a tenner, all i knew was it was an a1200 with a monitor, had no idea about the extras!

ill try and edit the startup files, im not really sure wot im looking for but hopefully things will start coming back to me as i look at them. but the setup is so bad i have to keep on closing windows because otherwise im out of memory in no time at all!

im glad to know what that card is, i take it we are talkin 4mb as in like an extra hardisk and not 4mb memory seeing as ive got so little free memory, what good is a 4mb card anyway?

extra hardware will come in time, im on a rather low budget but i will def upgrade the baby, first it needs a dammned good clean and rather a lot of screws put in it as its held together by 2 at the moment

definitly a lucky day for me as i got hold of 3 amiga games for a tenner as well including elite complete with novel!

blackcornflake · 15 April 2002, 23:01

Not a hard drive. 4MB of Fast Memory. Just RAM. The A1200 has 2MB 'Chip' memory onboard. Any additional memory plugged in is listed as 'Fast'.

Additional suggestion: Check how many colours your WB is rendered in. (Prefs/Screenmode). [AGA=256 max]. 256 would be too many at the moment for your system. Cut that down if necessary. Also maybe zap any pretty background picture (Prefs/WBPattern) and replace it with a tasteful pattern.

Watch that memory free up!

Very hard to believe I know, but 6MB was plenty once upon a time...

Belgarath · 15 April 2002, 23:09

hmmm i think that card aint workin then as ive got 0 fastmem, and that explains why the setup is so memory hungry as there shud be another 4 megs to play with!

ill take a look at the connections on the card, if i cant get it workin ill do all the suggestions to free up some mem!

how about the hd though, it appears to have bad sectors on it, once ive freed up the mem wot do i do about findin out what condition the hd is in?

ta for the continued good advice!

blackcornflake · 16 April 2002, 00:17

I use Quarterback Tools, by Central Coast Software. It is commercial AFAIK, but I did get it many moons ago, so its status may have changed by now. Perhaps somebody on EAB knows?

This is a suite of analysis/repair/backup software that always seems to do the trick for me.

15 April 2002, 20:35	#1
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	general a1200 info needed maybe i should have posted this is the newbie section.. i've forgotten so much i feel like a newb wanderin about my local flea market today i came across an a1200 which i promptly bought for £10 no disks were supplied with it, it came with a philips cm8533 monitor, an internal (although rather badly secured) 300mb hd and something in the exansion bay underneath.. the hd keeps coming up with errors upon booting, and there is so many things loading up at startup that i'm left with VERY little free memory. the board in the expansion slot im not sure what it is, written on it is Elbox 1200/4 thats all i know. so any advice on what things are and getting everythin nice and happy would be great, and i'll accept any curses and abuse thrown my way if you think i got a very good deal and please treat me as total newb cos im actually quite scared at how much i've forgotten

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15 April 2002, 20:43	#2
Drake1009 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Denmark Posts: 2,284	Well only advice I can give is to clean up your startup-sequence and user-startup. And I think there was a dir or two which was automatically loaded.

15 April 2002, 22:32	#3
blackcornflake Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cereal box Posts: 802	£10! Barrrgain! Lucky person! Follow Drake1009's wise advice. (The startup-sequence and user-startup files live in the S: directory). They are ASCII text; you can look at them with Multiview, or load them into any text editor and edit them. Perhaps wise to make a copy of both startup files first. I suggest 'commenting out' lines you don't want (put semicolon at start of line). They are deactivated, pending experimentation. Definitely don't need them? Delete! Also try looking in the WBStartup drawer. Anything not look too vital? Bung it in WBStartup_Storage. (Or anywhere you like, actually. Doing so will stop WB loading it upon startup). Sounds like the previous owner left bits and pieces of stuff around on the HD. Messy Amiga systems are quickly cleaned up, unlike Windoze. Just take it nice and steady - don't delete things in a frenzy. Mystery card? I had one just like yours once. Cost me £40 on its own! It is 4MB on a card, not really upgradable. Ready for more blackcornflake advice? Get hold of a 68K accelerator. Cheap as hell now. Capacity for loadsa SIMM memory!

15 April 2002, 22:43	#4
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	cheers for the advice/info yeh i couldn't believe my luck when i saw it for a tenner, all i knew was it was an a1200 with a monitor, had no idea about the extras! ill try and edit the startup files, im not really sure wot im looking for but hopefully things will start coming back to me as i look at them. but the setup is so bad i have to keep on closing windows because otherwise im out of memory in no time at all! im glad to know what that card is, i take it we are talkin 4mb as in like an extra hardisk and not 4mb memory seeing as ive got so little free memory, what good is a 4mb card anyway? extra hardware will come in time, im on a rather low budget but i will def upgrade the baby, first it needs a dammned good clean and rather a lot of screws put in it as its held together by 2 at the moment definitly a lucky day for me as i got hold of 3 amiga games for a tenner as well including elite complete with novel!

15 April 2002, 23:01	#5
blackcornflake Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cereal box Posts: 802	Not a hard drive. 4MB of Fast Memory. Just RAM. The A1200 has 2MB 'Chip' memory onboard. Any additional memory plugged in is listed as 'Fast'. Additional suggestion: Check how many colours your WB is rendered in. (Prefs/Screenmode). [AGA=256 max]. 256 would be too many at the moment for your system. Cut that down if necessary. Also maybe zap any pretty background picture (Prefs/WBPattern) and replace it with a tasteful pattern. Watch that memory free up! Very hard to believe I know, but 6MB was plenty once upon a time...

15 April 2002, 23:09	#6
Belgarath HOL Team Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Manchester Posts: 2,529	hmmm i think that card aint workin then as ive got 0 fastmem, and that explains why the setup is so memory hungry as there shud be another 4 megs to play with! ill take a look at the connections on the card, if i cant get it workin ill do all the suggestions to free up some mem! how about the hd though, it appears to have bad sectors on it, once ive freed up the mem wot do i do about findin out what condition the hd is in? ta for the continued good advice!

16 April 2002, 00:17	#7
blackcornflake Moderator Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cereal box Posts: 802	I use Quarterback Tools, by Central Coast Software. It is commercial AFAIK, but I did get it many moons ago, so its status may have changed by now. Perhaps somebody on EAB knows? This is a suite of analysis/repair/backup software that always seems to do the trick for me.

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