Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[demolition]

and add '>nil:' at the end if you don't want to break your WB startup.

[hansel75]

Hi and thanks!

I am running CWB68k and i tried adding this line to the startup sequence as suggested, but it doesn't do anything, is this exactly the command i need to add?

Acatune -Maxmem >nil:

I can type that command into a shell prompt and the extra memory works ok, but i would like it in my startup. I have also mapped the rom ok and it seems to save that feature.

Where exactly in my startup sequence should i add this line(start, end, ??), a little more detail would be helpful, also of note i have the acatune file directly in my system folder!

Han.

[Retro-Nerd]

Put it at the start and mouse right click -> save. Acatune should be in your c: folder.

[hansel75]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Put it at the start and mouse right click -> save. Acatune should be in your c: folder.

I just had a look at my s-s and i'm a little hesitant in adding it in at the start in case i stuff it up and my amiga won't boot, as what do you consider to be the start of the s-s, do i add this command as the very first line above everything else?, i have attached my s-s for you to look at!

Thanks, Han.

[Retro-Nerd]

;ClassicWB Startup-Sequence
;--------------------------
;68K 3.1
Acatune -maxmem >NIL:
IF EXISTS DEVS:scsi.device
C:LoadModule DEVS:scsi.device
EndIF

C:GetMouseInput LOCAL
.
.
.

This should work.

[hansel75]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

This should work.

That did the trick, thanks mate!!!

Han.

[Lakanman]

I have kickststart 3.0 in my 1200 with ACA 1231. Can i map a kickstart 3.1 file into the ACA 1231 and boot? I have a program who need KS 3.1.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Lakanman

I have kickststart 3.0 in my 1200 with ACA 1231. Can i map a kickstart 3.1 file into the ACA 1231 and boot?

Yes, you can.

Jens

[alenppc]

Hi Jens,

I was wondering how are the ACA620 fixes coming along. I realize that you are busy and have lots to do (thanks again for everything you're doing). I sent my card 6 weeks ago, and was just wondering how is the progress coming along. Tnx.

[Schoenfeld]

I got a notification from customs just yesterday - maybe it's from Canada, maybe not. I'll let you know onve I have taken the 45-minute drive to the office.

Everyone: If you're sending things from outside Europe, please have a customs declaration on the outside of the parcel. If the value is not declared on the outside of the parcel, customs will hold the parcel until I have completed this paperwork, and I can only do that in person at the office, which means driving 45 minutes, standing in line, explaining things and signing papers, then another 45 minute-drive back. A huge waste of time.

Jens

[alenppc]

Hi Jens,

My card was in a padded envelope and probably would not have gotten held by customs, but left in your mailbox. Although to be fair, I don't know how the German post works. Usually the items I ship to Germany arrive within 7 days (sold quite a bit of my old hardware). The customs declaration was on the outside with the specification that it was for service.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by alenppc

My card was in a padded envelope and probably would not have gotten held by customs, but left in your mailbox.

You'd hope so, yes. However, German post knows that you can put a lot of value into a padded envelope, and even if there's no duties on computer goods, they still make you pay VAT (19% in Germany) if you import something.

I just picked up the padded envelope from customs. Wow - that was a long journey: Shipped on november 28th, 2012! In your case, all declarations were correct, and even the "repair/customs" field was ticked. It was just that the customs guys missed the signature on that declaration (field is empty), so the declaration is void.

Let's hope the journey back is faster.

Jens

[neozeed]

I just got an AC620 and I've been trying to run Frontier Elite without much success, it'll start then lock up anywhere from 3-30 seconds into the game.

I see that there is no way to disable fast memory via actune?
also what about -setc0mem, shouldn't that work on the ac620 ?

I've got a rev 1.5 Amiga 600, 37.350 ROM, with 2MB of chipmem, a compact flash disk (128MB with mask of 0xfffffffc / transfer 0xfe00 ) .. I had issues with the floppy drive and disconnected it (it wont read disks anymore or format for that matter, but DMS acts like everything is fine.. )..

And yes, it works fine with the stock 68000, it is just unbearably slow, which is why I bought the accelerator to begin with.....

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by neozeed

I just got an AC620 and I've been trying to run Frontier Elite without much success, it'll start then lock up anywhere from 3-30 seconds into the game.

The new/reworked cards have a yellow sticker "Rev.2" on the side and they identify with serial no. 2 in the autoconfig structure (check with Sysinfo). These new cards are rock solid. All customer support cases have revealed one of the following:

- weak power supply or power supply with high ripple on 5V rail
- bad solderjoints between 68000 and A600 board
- leaked capacitors on the A600 board
- bad "copy" command from older WB version trashing game/program data (use DirOpus to copy latest copy command to C: directory)
- wrong MaxTransfer rate set for CF card/Harddisk, causing even good copy command to trash target data without the user noticing

If you've had issues with the floppy drive, that's another hint at a power/ripple/capacitor problem.

Originally Posted by neozeed

I see that there is no way to disable fast memory via actune?

Correct.

Originally Posted by neozeed

also what about -setc0mem, shouldn't that work on the ac620 ?

As mentioned in the Readme, that option is for ACA1230 only. All other accelerators always have $c0 memory enabled. This has multiple advantages, one of them being that execbase is *always* in 32-bit fastmem, so the overall computer performance is better.

Jens

[alenppc]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

You'd hope so, yes. However, German post knows that you can put a lot of value into a padded envelope, and even if there's no duties on computer goods, they still make you pay VAT (19% in Germany) if you import something.

I just picked up the padded envelope from customs. Wow - that was a long journey: Shipped on november 28th, 2012! In your case, all declarations were correct, and even the "repair/customs" field was ticked. It was just that the customs guys missed the signature on that declaration (field is empty), so the declaration is void.

Let's hope the journey back is faster.

Jens

Oh, that's great news Jens. About the signature, that is my fault. I often forget to sign...

To be honest, most countries don't really care about the signature anyway: for example whenever I send stuff to the US it always goes through easily. But now that I know some care about it, I will have to keep it in mind, especially when I mail stuff to Europe.

Once you upgrade the rev. 1 ACA620, are there going to be any differences between rev. 1 and rev. 2 except for the hidden ram disk functionality?

[neozeed]

The sticker on the board says "Quality Control passed / Made in Germany" ..
But sysinfo lists

board address $0020000
board size 4096k
board type zoro ii
product information 70
manufacturer 4626
serial no. 2

Sooo it must be a new board...

I have an old Amiga 500 and I tried its power supply and got the same thing. I have a known 'broken' amiga 600 (the video port doesn't work) but I went ahead and put the accelerator on it, and the compact flash, and updated the ROM chip with an old 37.300 (it had a 37.299!) .. And I did get a bunch of sector not found errors trying to boot the compact flash.. Although it is of minor interest to me is that i created this compact flash while my primary 600 was running 37.300 (the same chip as a matter of fact...)...

So I'm going to assume the maxtransfer is happily screwing everything up, and maybe building an image using FS-UAE on OS X isn't a winning idea.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by neozeed

serial no. 2

Sooo it must be a new board...

correct.

Originally Posted by neozeed

updated the ROM chip with an old 37.300

That won't support anything bigger than 40MBytes. Use 37.350 or higher.

Originally Posted by neozeed

So I'm going to assume the maxtransfer is happily screwing everything up

...and since you didn't write anything about a capacitor exchange, I'm assuming that your A600 still has the 20-year old electrolytic caps that it was originally made with. Those caps have leaked a long time ago, and they must be exchanged. This is expecially bad on an A600, as that computer is built on a 2-layer board. The A1200 is a 4-layer design where defective electrolytic caps don't have such severe effects, but the A600 does funny things with ageing electrolytic caps.

Please take the time to exchange those capacitors.

Alenppc: The most obvious difference is that the ACA620 doesn't trigger the Gayle bug any more that makes the computer hang. I have re-arranged memory a little to support the reset-proof ramdisk, and I have fixed an issue with PCMCIA in that update. Oh, and the race is on: I've shipped your board back today (to that alternate address you wrote in the short note). Let us know when it gets there!

Jens

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That won't support anything bigger than 40MBytes. Use 37.350 or higher.

This is another IDE related rumor only. It works with larger drives.

[rockersuke]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The most obvious difference is that the ACA620 doesn't trigger the Gayle bug any more that makes the computer hang.

Now that you mention it, are ACA630 cards also affected by this Gayle-bug thing? (sorry if this has been cleared up before and I missed It!)

--

[alenppc]

Jens: Thanks, I will!