Amiga 3000 problems

[sovietconscript]

finally got my hands on an Amiga 3000 and i'm haveing nothing but trouble.

when i first bought it all i had on hand was black crypt (copy). i put it in the disk drive and it booted up flawlessly. next day when i tried again all i got was DF0: ???? or DF0:NODOS. assumeing the disk went bad i tried many other disks i pulled out of storage both copys and retails all getting the same result. so i assumed the drive had gone bad and went about finding a new floppy drive which i aquired from the forums here. the drive was for a 500 but there was no reason it shouldn't run fine on my 3000. i recived said drive today and installed it and, voila, it seemed to work like a charm...sorta

first game i booted up was marble madness which the drive acually recagnized. though on attempting to play it all froze. i assumed this was just a fluke so next i tried an old favorite Firepower. the amiga recagnized the disk and promptly asked me to reboot to play the game. i did, game loaded up and got all the way to the tank select screen and which point...nothing. its been over a decade since i played this game so i was thinking maybe i was missing something. maybe the mouse was loose...i dunno. anyways i figured i would try anouther game.

now i'm back where i started, all i get is DF0: ???? or DF0:NODOS. I did open the amiga and noticed that an extra board (looks like an extra parallel port board) looked kinda loose so i pulled it out of the zorro slot and reinsrted it securely and oddly enough that appears to mostly fix the problem. firepower still froze up and half the games don't work but at least the amiga recagnized them now. the only 2 games i did get working fine was black crypt and the lurking horror.

thinking now maybe the problem is mostly solved and i just own alot of dead disks i booted up the amiga today and i get

AMIGADOS
C: Setpatch:unknown command
C: Setpatch failed return code 10

ok...now i was doing some deleteing of some files that the previouse owner and now it appears i deleted some stuff i shouldn't have? if the WB is on ROM why doesn't it just load to that anyways?

sorry for the long post but any help would be appriciated

[smoorke]

only a select number of files are in the rom.

If all you deleted was the setpatch command you could circumvent that error.
However if you deleted the whole C directory you would need to re-install workbench.

What happens if you type
Ed s:startup-sequence
at the dos prompt?
If it opens a limited text editor you can comment out the setpatch line by putting a semicolon infront of it.

[sovietconscript]

well, i havn't used an Amiga since i was a kid so i don't remember anything about it.

how do i attempt to work around it?
i bought the system used with no disks, where do i get a new copy of workbench?

[r.cade]

Note that a lot of games will not work with the Amiga 3000. Most were written for the Amiga 500 platform and don't like the 68030 and it's caches as well as the extra RAM in the 3000.

The best way is to get WHDLoad running and play games that way. The stock A3000 runs pretty much all OCS/ECS games flawlessly with WHDLoad.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by r.cade

Note that a lot of games will not work with the Amiga 3000. Most were written for the Amiga 500 platform and don't like the 68030 and it's caches as well as the extra RAM in the 3000.

The best way is to get WHDLoad running and play games that way. The stock A3000 runs pretty much all OCS/ECS games flawlessly with WHDLoad.

i've been told this by a few people but now that brings up this question.

how do i get WHDload on my amiga (assumeing i can unbrick it)

can i just put whdload on a floppy on my pc and will the amiga read it? i never had any luck getting amiga explorer to run.

[musojon74]

Hey there welcome to EAB. Do you have a compact flash card slot in your pc / mac / laptop? If so I would consider getting a CF adapter for your Amiga at this point http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=440 since it will allow you to very easily move stuff to the Amiga from the PC. This will allow you to easily move the WHDload files. If you can't do this you need to use CrossDOS. Others on this forum will have to help you in regards to whether crossdos is available on your amiga, plus you would have to use a low density floppy disk for the transfer (or sellotape over the hd select hole on a floppy to make pc / amiga think it's low density and use that, the hd select hole is the one which isn't write protect tab) Hope this is of some help.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by musojon74

Hey there welcome to EAB. Do you have a compact flash card slot in your pc / mac / laptop? If so I would consider getting a CF adapter for your Amiga at this point http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=440 since it will allow you to very easily move stuff to the Amiga from the PC. This will allow you to easily move the WHDload files. If you can't do this you need to use CrossDOS. Others on this forum will have to help you in regards to whether crossdos is available on your amiga, plus you would have to use a low density floppy disk for the transfer (or sellotape over the hd select hole on a floppy to make pc / amiga think it's low density and use that, the hd select hole is the one which isn't write protect tab) Hope this is of some help.

thought that was only compatable with the Amiga 1200/A600

first things first though. anyone know how to fix my startup problem? if i need a new workbench whats the highest version i can use on a 3000? will i need drivers or anything for the harddrives? i got this thing used so i don't have any backups or anything like that

[alexh]

Using just floppy disks with an A3000 is heresy! The A3000 has a built in SCSI hard drive controller. The easiest solution for A3000 which will facilitate fast transfer of information from the PC is :

Acard AEC-7720U SCSI->IDE adapter

IDE->CF back panel adapter

CF card

USB Card reader(Assuming you've not got one)

You do not need drivers for the hard disk, they are stored in ROM.

As for which workbench you can use, depends on which version of kickstart is fitted. Can you tell from the boot screen?

If you get the equipment above you will be able to prep your CF card (install Workbench etc.) on your PC using WinUAE.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

Using just floppy disks with an A3000 is heresy! The A3000 has a built in SCSI hard drive controller. The easiest solution for A3000 which will facilitate fast transfer of information from the PC is :

Acard AEC-7720U SCSI->IDE adapter

IDE->CF back panel adapter

CF card

USB Card reader(Assuming you've not got one)

You do not need drivers for the hard disk, they are stored in ROM.

As for which workbench you can use, depends on which version of kickstart is fitted. Can you tell from the boot screen?

If you get the equipment above you will be able to prep your CF card (install Workbench etc.) on your PC using WinUAE.

......thats a great idea. the cf card thing

i can't tell from the boot screen but i had written it down earlier its
Kick start 40.68. and it had WB 40.42 installed which i think is 3.1?

[alexh]

The A3000 already has a hard drive with workbench on??

[cosmicfrog]

hey alehx are you haveing a senor/blond moment ? hehehe(only kidding)

DF0: ???? or DF0:NODOS would have thought they be from workbench
though sovietconscript has failed the first rule of if you don`t know what it is don`t delete it

how old where you floppy disks ?(stupid question) how where the stored ? sounds like they are killing your floppy disk drive.
we use crossdos to copy small files from pc to amiga though 720kDD

nice you got ks3.1 so you can install wb 3.0,3.1,3.5 or 3.9

[alexh]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

hey alehx are you haveing a senor/blond moment ? hehehe(only kidding)

Yeah, I didn't read the first post thoroughly.

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

sounds like they are killing your floppy disk drive.

Or vice versa. The disks and/or the disk drive are probably dodgy.

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

we use crossdos to copy small files from pc to amiga though 720kDD

Fine for copying over a few small files... such as the WHDload application. Pretty useless for copying over games which are usually bigger than 720KB even compressed. And Crossdos is probably now broken following the deletion of parts of WorkBench?

I still advocate a SCSI->IDE->CF system. You'll be able to prep the CF card on the PC using WinUAE to install Workbench from ADF/ISO images.

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

nice you got ks3.1 so you can install wb 3.0,3.1,3.5 or 3.9

Assuming he really has KS3.1 and not KS1.4 with a 3.1 superkickstart ROM on the hard drive.

Very important to identify this so as to prep the CF card appropriately.

Does it ask you to choose 1.3 or 2.x ever? Perhaps with the hard drive removed?

[ Show youtube player ]

[cosmicfrog]

just to say thanks for the link alexh, now thats the first time I`ve ever seen a 3000 boot up

and as usual more info is required

[alexh]

That is an A3000 with a KS1.4 ROM

Normal ROM's (KS2.04 or KS3.1) boot like any other Amiga.

[cosmicfrog]

I`m sure they do boot like any other amiga
so is that the developer rom on disk(ks1.4) remember havein this on disk back in the day but only haveing an a500, but it did give us a good idea what ks2 was going to belike with new workbench as well

anyhow was ks1.4 ever commited to rom by commodore ? no forget that
can you plz give an explination of how the A3000 was able to use diffrent Kickstarts plz
plz plz plz alexh

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

The A3000 already has a hard drive with workbench on??

2 hard drives

Originally Posted by alexh

Assuming he really has KS3.1 and not KS1.4 with a 3.1 superkickstart ROM on the hard drive.

Very important to identify this so as to prep the CF card appropriately.

Does it ask you to choose 1.3 or 2.x ever? Perhaps with the hard drive removed?

[ Show youtube player ]

no, it does not ask. it simply showed a brif screen with some info and then went stright to WB. but see how after he picked it went to amigados, thats what mine does now + the error message

i assumed the file i deleted was just a personal file from the previouse owner. guess i was wrong.

keep in mind the only amiga i ever used was a 500 10+ years ago so just assume i know nothing amiga

i do appriciate all the help. just hope i can get her running ok again

the disks are all old, both retail and copies.

[Chain]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

AMIGADOS
C: Setpatch:unknown command
C: Setpatch failed return code 10

if its EXACTLY like that, then there is a space between colon and command, which probably causes that error

it should be C:Setpatch, or C:Setpatch QUIET

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by Chain

if its EXACTLY like that, then there is a space between colon and command, which probably causes that error

it should be C:Setpatch, or C:Setpatch QUIET

checked it. there is no space.

i'm off work tommarow so tonight i'll try a few things like disconnecting the hard drives and seeing what happens. i'm not really concerned with the floppy drive problems anymore since i'm starting to think its problem was a mix between old disks and incompatable games. i just want to have this thing running and useable again

i did try some commands someone suggested to see if amigados is running.
after those errors i have a
1>

if i try the LIST command i get "unknown command" and when i try CD i get "1>WB3.1:C

don't know if any of that is relevent

UPDATE: tried disconnecting the hard drives. when i do that it powers on but i just get a blank black screen

[Shadowfire]

Cosmic:

The A3000 in question has the Beta, 1.4 ROM (a.k.a. the Softkicking ROM). These early A3000's were shipped before 2.0 was finalized, the ROM has the equivalent of Relokick in it.

The softkicking A3000's shipped with a disk called "Superkickstart", which included 1.3, and 2.0 versions of the ROM. The disk also had a little extra code on it for the A3000's SCSI controller.

The machine would, by default, boot up 2.0. If you hold down both mouse buttons during powerup, you get the menu seen on that video. If you choose "floppy disk", it requests the superkickstart disk and reads the ROM in from floppy (however, if I recall, that doesn't mount the hard disk partitions). If you choose "hard disk", it looks in the partition/directory called "wb_1.3:devs" or "wb_2.x:devs", for a file named kickstart. If present, it loads the kickstart file into memory and forces a reboot. (This is how you would boot 1.3 from the hard disk.)

When booting into 1.3, the OS would automatically hide the "wb_2.x" partition. When booting 2.0, it would automatically hide the "wb_1.3" partition.

The OP has accidentally deleted some of the files on his hard disk, and probably needs to reinstall off the system floppies.

[alexh]

@Shadowfire
You forgot to mention that KS1.4 uses an additional 512Kbytes of RAM to load KS2.x+ and also it uses code specifically written for the onboard 030 MMU and so you cannot use a KS1.4 ROM with an accelerator.

@ sovietconscript
Getting a blank black screen with no hard drive connected is worrying. If you had a REAL KS3.1 you should get the classic Purple Amiga screen with the animated disk going in.

Hold down both mouse buttons as Shadowfire mentions to confirm you really have KS1.4.

If you do, then you will have to take special care when preparing your hard drive, now and in the future. PLUS you need to backup the file DEVS:/kickstart as soon as you can and transfer it to a floppy disk or even better the PC for safety.

I dont suppose you have a SCSI card for your PC? You could easily fix your hard drive with one of those and WinUAE.