ACA1221lc accellerator problem! Help.

[Adrian Browne]

Hi, I got the accellerator and tried it today- I have a cf card/hard drive installed with 3.1 wb, and i use a pcmcia slot with a cf card for file transfer.

So, the aca tune software was a .lha file and so I unpacked it and disk manager 2 on my pc using winzip and an lha file thingy. It seemed to work- work bench says the aca tune file is an executable. I have clicked on the acatune icon but it does not load the program. My accellerator is not recognized and i only have the standard 2 megs still on my commodore a1200-

The computer info says nothing of the aca card.

Should I try unplugging the internal cf hard drive? But my wb is on there... I have a floppydisk too of wb if it works... its old...

Could it be a problem with the start-up sequence and load priority or what? I need the accelerator working to run red pill game software and upgrade the wb gui etc.

Should my a1200 recognize the card without the aca tool software installed or must it be installed to recognize the card?

Also if i use lha.run what is the proper shell command?

[Adrian Browne]

So, i just cleaned the acellerator card connector inside the a1200 with isopropyl alcohol. I then disconnected the internal cf hard drive and booted with the aca card in place- same result- system does not recognize the aca card? Guess the hard drive is not the culprit. Yes, i loosened the aca card a millimetre.

I can only think i need to unpack the aca tool software in order to get the aca card to run?
Either that or its an issue with the start up sequence load priority; as in the card is not booted at startup?

[wiz12]

Did you try use the card without installing the ACAtools software? I think the software is only for added functionality.

[demolition]

CPU and memory should work with KS3.1 without needing to install anything. You just need ACAtune for features like maprom, overclocking and IDE speed adjustments. Try pulling the card out by 0.5~1mm. I have had a couple of issues with my ACA1232 where installing the card fully inserted resulted in either a non-booting machine or, like you, a plain A1200.

And I would try with a plain WB 3.1 boot disk to avoid any interference with custom SW. You should be able to see some fast mem here.

[lilwshu]

My A1200 wouldn't see anything in the trapdoor until I used a pencil eraser on the contacts - alcohol didn't help me.

[Adrian Browne]

Yup, no fast mem, nothing. Moving the card about on the connector does not help- if i push it fully in the computer does not boot at all so i nudged it out a bit- it boots but no fast mem, zilch. Can i use a pencil eraser without opening the whole computer up? So the eraser must clean the gold contacts? Losing my patience with this, dammit.

Also seems my wb 3.1 cf card now has an empty system window- no cli, shell, nothing. No tools either- i could have sworn they were there... crikey... bad luck

[rjd324]

Can you try removing everything, inserting the ACA and holding down RMB and LMB before powering on. You should be able to see something in the "Expansion Boards" menu, right?

[Nightshft]

It's been a while and my Amiga is stored away at the moment, so from the top of my head:

acaTune is a Cli Program.
Typically you would call it as the first program in the startup-sequence with your choice of config parameters.
Here are some Tipps about that:
https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=66630.0

However acaTune is deprecated and acaTool is the new config program.
It is a combined cli and Workbench window tool.
You can call it with parameters in cli to config the card.
And you can call it from Workbench and adjust parameters graphically in the Gui.

Here is information about it:
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACAtool

But like demolition said, IIRC you shouldn't need to call it for the card to work.
Other ideas:
- inspect the card and also it's connector (and all of its pins) closely
- best thing to try would be check if this card works in another Miggy or if another card works in this Amiga, but of course that's not possible in most of the cases.
Good luck!

[Adrian Browne]

Originally Posted by rjd324

Can you try removing everything, inserting the ACA and holding down RMB and LMB before powering on. You should be able to see something in the "Expansion Boards" menu, right?

I did that actually- no luck.

[Adrian Browne]

Originally Posted by Nightshft

It's been a while and my Amiga is stored away at the moment, so from the top of my head:

acaTune is a Cli Program.
Typically you would call it as the first program in the startup-sequence with your choice of config parameters.
Here are some Tipps about that:
https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=66630.0

However acaTune is deprecated and acaTool is the new config program.
It is a combined cli and Workbench window tool.
You can call it with parameters in cli to config the card.
And you can call it from Workbench and adjust parameters graphically in the Gui.

Here is information about it:
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACAtool

But like demolition said, IIRC you shouldn't need to call it for the card to work.
Other ideas:
- inspect the card and also it's connector (and all of its pins) closely
- best thing to try would be check if this card works in another Miggy or if another card works in this Amiga, but of course that's not possible in most of the cases.
Good luck!

I see. This amiga was dirty inside- i cleaned it as best as possible- improperly stored i think but it was a bargain price so...

Yeah, unfortunately i dont have another accelerator to try and my other amiga, which is an 500 needs fixing. I am kind of stumped now. Not sure about using an eraser on the contacts- i can check the accaelerator pins yeah.

[rjd324]

Maybe you can send in a picture of the expansion slot top and bottom. If you really don't want to open the machine up then sending in a picture of just the expansion slot as you see it when you open the trapdoor would give an idea of the state of the machine. I think you will have to open the 1200. If you have a multimeter it might be worth checking the continuity and use "pcbexplorer" which shows you where the expansion pins should trace to. I doubt it would be a faulty card.

[Adrian Browne]

Originally Posted by rjd324

Maybe you can send in a picture of the expansion slot top and bottom. If you really don't want to open the machine up then sending in a picture of just the expansion slot as you see it when you open the trapdoor would give an idea of the state of the machine. I think you will have to open the 1200. If you have a multimeter it might be worth checking the continuity and use "pcbexplorer" which shows you where the expansion pins should trace to. I doubt it would be a faulty card.

I can open the amiga yes but i didnt want to do further disasembly as i dont know about that stuff. I will get photos later this evening.

[DerSheriff]

At least the RAM amount should be autoconfigured without drivers/utilities. At least, my ACA1233n is like that. First time I didn't push it all the way on the socket, and didn't work. Double check it, give it a nice push

[Adrian Browne]

Bizarre- I used a rubber eraser on both sides of the contacts inside the computer- I pushed and the card went in further this time- trust me i applied plenty of force other times but no luck. so I pulled it back out about 2 millimetres and now it works!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/io1q17uqzs...20832.jpg?dl=0

I guess now the next chicken and egg is the software and the evil .lha files... hah

[Jope]

Evil lha? :-) The LHA archiver is really one of the first things you need to install on your Amiga in any case.

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/lha