A590 & Kickstart 1.2

[TheDarkCoder]

Hi,

I have an A590 (with 2M ram fitted) that I use on a A500 with 1.3. The disk is formatted in FFS.

I tried to use it in another A500 that has 1.2, for the sole purpose of testing whether the A500's side expansion port works. I followed the instruction on the manual:
1) I disabled the A590 autoboot
2) Turned on the A500 with the A590 connected: the A590 turns on, but it's not seen by the A500 (neither the HDD nor the RAM)
3) I created a boot disk using the utility on the A590 setup disk and the original Workbench 1.2 disk:
- on the first try, the boot disk creation procedure hang the Amiga
- second try the procedure succeeded
4) Booted the A500 with the boot disk, but nothing, the A590 is not detected, not even the Fast ram

Where's the problem?
Possible explanations:
1) I did some mistake in the procedure
2) To make the HDD visible I should re-format it using the OFS (but I don't want to do this)
3) I have to use Workbench 1.3, even if kickstrt is 1.2
4) The expansion port of the A500 is broken ( :-( I really hope not )

What do you think? Please help me understand what's going on

[Toni Wilen]

100% guaranteed hardware problem if Fast RAM is not detected. Use Sysinfo or similar tool to check if A590 Fast RAM autoconfig board is detected. A590 autoboot disable removes HD controller autoconfig board.

[TheDarkCoder]

Solved, it was a lousy connection, probably due to the "ground clip".
Now the RAM works, and BOTH the ram board and the SCSI controller are detected by sysinfo.
Didn't make more inspections to see if HDToolbox sees the HDD, but the purpose was to test the expansion port, so for now I am satisfied!

Thanks Toni, your suggestion was precious because I was concentrating on the FFS on 1.2 issue, while I need to better think to the basis :-)

[E-Penguin]

Mine doesn't have the ground clip. Do I need it? It seems to work alright...

[Jope]

It is only needed to satisfy some FCC requirement. I've only ever had one ground clip included with all the A590s that went through my hands, and I actually didn't bother fitting the clip even when I finally got one.

[TjLaZer]

where is this ground clip?

[Jope]

It's a U shaped clip with some insulating plastic on one side. It is attached to the lower edge of the AmigaBUS slot on the left side of the A500, clips around the A500's plastic case, touching the underside of the metal shield that surrounds the motherboard.

Seems it exists to provide for a continuous shield ground between the A500 case and the A590.

After a bit of GIS I found a picture:

[TjLaZer]

oh ok, yeah I had seen that before and wondered what it was. I have two A590's and don't have it.

[TheDarkCoder]

By the way, I tried again and it was easy to connect properly the A590 *with* the ground clip, too. So, the first time I tried I was really dumb (to my defence I have to say I was a bit in a hurry and the room was dark.), it was not ground clip fault.