Aca1221 HELP

[Tuckernem]

Bought an aca 1221 when i connect it, it comes up with the floppy drive purple screen with the floppy drive going in, when I disconnect it my 8gb cf card with Whd load comes on fine with work bench? Anyone got any idea why it won't work with the aca card, on the boot up screen I've selected the expansion board and it says the card is 4626.. 22.. And working

[Daedalus]

Are the hard drive partitions showing up in the boot menu? If you do a warm reboot (Ctrl-A-A), does it show up? Have you tried it with the MapROM jumper in the other position?

[indigolemon]

Where have you connected the 8gb cf card? Just wondering if the ACA1221 is PCMCIA friendly?

[edit] The ACA1221EC lists as being PCMCIA friendly - so bang goes that idea

[Tuckernem]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Are the hard drive partitions showing up in the boot menu? If you do a warm reboot (Ctrl-A-A), does it show up? Have you tried it with the MapROM jumper in the other position?

I have tried to map rom in the unprotect position and its booted up but only has 1mb of other memory

[Anakirob]

Just wondering what version of Kickstart you have installed? This card is really made for use with KS 3.1, It will work with 3.0 but you may have issues.

[Tuckernem]

I have ks3.1 roms that I installed today and they work fine, I wonder if it needs configuring

[Zetr0]

@Tuckerman

Hello there, seems like a pickle, lets see if we can help =)

Originally Posted by Tuckernem

Bought an aca 1221 when i connect it, it comes up with the floppy drive purple screen with the floppy drive going in, when I disconnect it my 8gb cf card with Whd load comes on fine with work bench? Anyone got any idea why it won't work with the aca card, on the boot up screen I've selected the expansion board and it says the card is 4626.. 22.. And working

Originally Posted by Tuckernem

I have tried to map rom in the unprotect position and its booted up but only has 1mb of other memory

from the ACA1221 manual from Indivision Computers

Memory
The fast memory of the ACA1221 is automatically seen by the Kickstart. If your Amiga 1200 has Kickstart version 3.0, only one MByte of memory is added Automatically. In this case, please use the latest version of the ACAtune tool which is available for free download from our Wiki http://wiki.icomp.de. With Kickstart 3.1, all memory is added automatically.

ACATune Tool V191.lhz

Since yours is only showing 1MB on boot - I suspect that you are in fact running Kickstart 3.0 -

By default running under Kickstart 3.1 you should see all the memory, atleast 9MB of it should that you need to license unlock the rest of the RAM.


To access the memory when running under Kickstart 3.0 (please note kickstart and not workbench) you will need to add a program to the compact flash ("ACATune") - there is a link in the quote above - copy this to "C:".

Now you will need to add a line to the "startup sequence" file that resides in "S:"

Once booted execute a command from the drop down menu and type

newcli

Then in the CLI window type

ed s:startup-sequence

Now once that file is loaded into ED at the top type

ACATune -fastmem on >: NILL

Then save and exit.

There are a lot of features that your card can do - so have a read here

Good luck with your new card =)

[bubbob42]

You should also read this: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/ACA1221

And install the mentioned tools.

[Tuckernem]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Tuckerman

Hello there, seems like a pickle, lets see if we can help =)





from the ACA1221 manual from Indivision Computers


ACATune Tool V191.lhz

Since yours is only showing 1MB on boot - I suspect that you are in fact running Kickstart 3.0 -

By default running under Kickstart 3.1 you should see all the memory, atleast 9MB of it should that you need to license unlock the rest of the RAM.


To access the memory when running under Kickstart 3.0 (please note kickstart and not workbench) you will need to add a program to the compact flash ("ACATune") - there is a link in the quote above - copy this to "C:".

Now you will need to add a line to the "startup sequence" file that resides in "S:"

Once booted execute a command from the drop down menu and type

newcli

Then in the CLI window type

ed s:startup-sequence

Now once that file is loaded into ED at the top type

ACATune -fastmem on >: NILL

Then save and exit.

There are a lot of features that your card can do - so have a read here

Good luck with your new card =)

Thabk you everyone for your support, I am going to have to take time to read up as simple things like copying stuff from pc to the cf card is still alien to me, Ideally I'm going to try find some videos on YouTube, or in fact is there anyone that can make a video for me and I'll do the same and post what's going on.

I have the kickstart 3.1 roms I bought them with the aca card and installed then straight away, if I have the aca card jumper set to maprom then it won't boot the cf card and it just goes to the default floppy drive screen where the screen is purple and the floppy disk repeatly inserts into the floppy drive, it also says kickstart rom 3.1 on this screen.

HOWEVER if I set the jumper to unprotect on the aca cars then the cf card boots up to work bench but the "other memory" shows 804kb if I open up the WHDload folder, however if I leave the amiga idle on the start up work bench screen then the other memory keeps climbing it was even going above 24mb on its own and this is in UNPROTECT mode, anyone have any idea why I can't have it set on the map rom jumper

[demolition]

Perhaps the connection between the Amiga and the accelerator is bad. Remove the accelerator and use a cotton bud with some isopropyl alcohol to wipe off both sides of the expansion connector inside the Amiga to make sure it is clean. After 25 years, you cannot expect it to be perfectly clean. Also, after installation of the ACA, you may need to pull the ACA1221 out by ~1mm to make sure it makes a proper connection with the Amiga. My A1200 will not even boot with my ACA1232 if the ACA is fully inserted, but runs perfectly if I pull it out just slightly. I have seen the same issue on other 1200s.

If you use the pre-boot environment (hold both mouse buttons on power on), you should be able to see your HDD partitions in there. If the HDD is present (usually DH0), you can select to boot without SS which will get you straight to a CLI. If you have some WB installed on it (sounds like you do), you can then type 'avail' to see the amount of memory that you have and rule out any weird software that may be installed on your CF card which could be interfering.

Since you have KS3.1, 'avail' should show about 9MB of total fast mem and about the same amount as free space.

[sean_sk]

In addition to what demolition has said, double check your cards connector socket for bent pins.

I had an A1200 revision 1A motherboard and it's expansion connector didn't have a chamfer on it's top or bottom edge so, when I inserted my ACA 1221, the sharp corners caught one of the pins and absolutely decimated it. Fortunately it was a pin unused by the card itself but, nevertheless, very annoying.

Since that time I got rid of the A1200 that had that rev. 1A motherboard and bought one with a rev. 2B motherboard which has a nice smooth chamfer on the edge connector. It's much easier now to insert and remove expansion cards.

[Tuckernem]

Originally Posted by demolition

Perhaps the connection between the Amiga and the accelerator is bad. Remove the accelerator and use a cotton bud with some isopropyl alcohol to wipe off both sides of the expansion connector inside the Amiga to make sure it is clean. After 25 years, you cannot expect it to be perfectly clean. Also, after installation of the ACA, you may need to pull the ACA1221 out by ~1mm to make sure it makes a proper connection with the Amiga. My A1200 will not even boot with my ACA1232 if the ACA is fully inserted, but runs perfectly if I pull it out just slightly. I have seen the same issue on other 1200s.

If you use the pre-boot environment (hold both mouse buttons on power on), you should be able to see your HDD partitions in there. If the HDD is present (usually DH0), you can select to boot without SS which will get you straight to a CLI. If you have some WB installed on it (sounds like you do), you can then type 'avail' to see the amount of memory that you have and rule out any weird software that may be installed on your CF card which could be interfering.

Since you have KS3.1, 'avail' should show about 9MB of total fast mem and about the same amount as free space.

I have a second a1200 I tried and it seems to be working, if I briefly hold in both mouse buttons it boots, however when I go on the ag launcher and select a game it won't load it, does anyone know what this screen is

[Zetr0]

@Tuckerman

Its great to see you using AGLaunch

You will need to assign AGL: to where the directory is - in a normal install its on the system - such that in the "s:user-startup" you can add "assign AGL: System:agl/" and this should solve that problem.

Its concerning that your card is not functioning as it should - would you be able to take a video of it booting up in various ways?

[Tuckernem]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Tuckerman

Its great to see you using AGLaunch

You will need to assign AGL: to where the directory is - in a normal install its on the system - such that in the "s:user-startup" you can add "assign AGL: System:agl/" and this should solve that problem.

Its concerning that your card is not functioning as it should - would you be able to take a video of it booting up in various ways?

Regarding the adding of the line, can you give me a step by step instruction on how to do that please

I can add the video yes, it will have to be the weekend as my girlfriend is going crazy with amiga parts being all over the living room ha ha
So I'll do an explanation in the mean time.

WITH THE ACA INSERTED, using a cf card with the adaptor cable, NOT the card slot at the side,
Basically when I turn on the amiga if I don't press any thing then it goes to the floppy drive boot screen,

however if I boot holding down the 2 mouse buttons continuesly it brings me to the boot screen and if I click expansion slot it shows as working

However IF I boot and briefly press down the 2 mouse buttons for about a second, it boots up normally.

WITHOUT the aca card
Boot up without pressing the mouse buttons loads up the cd card fine