getting my Amiga 4000 cd drive working

[sovietconscript]

I have an Amiga 4000/40 with 2mb chip ram and 12 fast ram (sometimes 20) i'd like to get up and running in a better condition. i have 1 hard drive installed and 1 scsi cd-rom drive that i cant get to work. i'm booting up useing a kickstart 3.1 disk and it boots up fine with it showing ram and the hard drive. i'm trying to run the scsi cd-rom drive via a ram expansion/scsi controller add on card. the reason i said sometimes 20 fast ram is because it only seems to only randomly detect the extra ram i have installed via the zorro card. the hard drive is running on the built in ide controller of the A4000. I'm aware the reason this isn't working may have to do with OS 3.1 and the wierd type of IDE they used that it won't recagnize my cd-rom drive (i've also tried a ide drive with no luck.) i would like to upgrade to OS 3.5 or 3.9 but as far as I know they are only avalible to install via cd....but I cant get a cd-rom drive to work so am I in some wierd Amiga paradox?

will a standard ide hard drive work in an A4000 also? i'd like to eventually add a second hard drive as well.

i also know about the IDE fix program but
1) i downloaded it and theres a billion files so how do i install it?
2) my amiga will not read 1.44mb floppies that my PC uses

[bdb]

If you have access to a PC with a CD ROM you transfer a full registered copy of IDEfix from the Amiga Forever CD to a (720K) floppy; better yet would be a CF card that you connect to the IDE interface; I can't talk prices in posts but I consider cheap to get IDE-to-CF adapter. You can format with Amiga emulation from the Amiga Forever CD or use DOS FAT, but the latter means getting the correct L: handler and Messy dos driver on the boot disk

In fact with a 2 GB CF card you copy the whole CD install of OS 3.9 to it -- don't bother with 3.5 it is just a prettier 3.1

[sovietconscript]

so the fdd in the amiga can read 720k formatted floppies but not 1.44mb?

[bdb]

If you have a high density drive -- Chinon FB-357A -- in your Amiga it will read/write Amiga 1.76 MB, PC 1.44, and with CrossMac also MAC 1.6 MB disks; if your Amiga is intact from the factory it should have a HD floppy drive. I know some sellers pull the HD drives and put a double density so they can sell the HD drive at a premium

To be honest, except for reading & writing PC 1.44 disks, the HD drive is never used. I can't remember which version of 3.x Amiga OS includes CrossDos as part of the install. If 1) you can use ADF files (I use BlitzADF) and 2) have Internet access then go to the web site theoldcomputer.com, register, give them a ten buck PayPal "donation," and go the the Amiga section, go into the "ROM" section and finally into the "Application" directory. Be prepared to drop your jaw as you will Not Believe What They Have for Downloads (same with "Games" Section). ADF files extract to a regular DD drive by the way; I cover the HD hole with plastic/Scotch tape

[duga]

With Workbench 3.1 you should be able to use a IDE CD-ROM with your A4000 IIRC.

To install IDEFix, just use the Installer.

[bdb]

CF card size is an issue; see if you can get one less than or equal. 2GB. And transferring from a PC to the Amiga requires format readable by both. Once you get OS 3.9 installed you should be able to handle non-boot partitions up to around 128Gb; boot partition must be within the FIRST 4 GB of the drive; some folks will recommend 1GB or less

[sovietconscript]

well, I tried putting IDEfix on a formated 720k floppy. it seen there was a disk but all i got was the DF0:????? and it wouldnt let me open the disk. i checked the disk in an old tandy 1000 under dos and it read it just fine so i'm pretty sure its not the disk. someone suggested my install of OS 3.1 is incomplete and lacks crossdos. i'm going to open it up later and take a look inside.

the Zorro card i tried useing with the SCSI cd-rom drive is a GVP A4000. maybe the SCSI controller didn't work because its only supposted to be for hard drives?

[bdb]

It works the other way around, SCSI controllers are ready made for removeable devices like tape drives, zip drives and Cd/DVD drives. The IDE/ATA device is designed for just hard drives; the ATAPI standard added additional SCSI-like instructions to handle removable media: rewind a tape, eject a CD ROM, etcetera

The simple Amiga IDE controller needs to have those instructions added by either firmware or software -- as in the IDEFix program.

The link info I suggested will give you CrossDos version 7, the last version -- it ends up being a very small addition to your boot drive size-wise, but this were the CF card comes it handy via an IDE-to-CF card adapter. Of course you can use an IDE HDD, but a CF card it easier to take between a PC and an Amiga. For the PC a USB CF card reader is about 12 salad leaves US from NewEgg. Intact the BuddahIDE card ships with a full install of IDEFix and one small Buddah file; that's what it needed to work

[sovietconscript]

i have a little experence with a CF to IDE reader. I once used a 32MB cf as a hard drive in an old tandy 1000 SX. so lets say i get a IDE - CF adaptor and a smaller say 2Gig cf card to use as the hard drive. do i need to format it or anything like that of just install it to the amiga and install OS 3.1 then after just connect it to the pc and insert whatever i need that way.

also anouther side question, how many disks are with OS 3.1? I have 5 here labeled "install,fonts,extras,locale, storage" am i missing the workbench floppy?

and lastly, so my SCSI drive with the scsi controller card theoreticly should be working? someone suggested to me my OS is missing a CD file system.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

well, I tried putting IDEfix on a formated 720k floppy. it seen there was a disk but all i got was the DF0:????? and it wouldnt let me open the disk. i checked the disk in an old tandy 1000 under dos and it read it just fine so i'm pretty sure its not the disk. someone suggested my install of OS 3.1 is incomplete and lacks crossdos. i'm going to open it up later and take a look inside.

If you've correctly installed Workbench 3.1, then CrossDOS will also be present. All you have to do is activate it.

To temporarily activate CrossDOS, open a Workbench window by double-clicking on your hard drive icon, then open Storage/DosDrivers and double-click the PC0 icon.

Now you will be able to read DOS-formatted 720K disks in your Amiga's internal floppy drive.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

how many disks are with OS 3.1? I have 5 here labeled "install,fonts,extras,locale, storage" am i missing the workbench floppy?

Yes, you are missing the Workbench floppy.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by prowler

If you've correctly installed Workbench 3.1, then CrossDOS will also be present. All you have to do is activate it.

To temporarily activate CrossDOS, open a Workbench window by double-clicking on your hard drive icon, then open Storage/DosDrivers and double-click the PC0 icon.

Now you will be able to read DOS-formatted 720K disks in your Amiga's internal floppy drive.



Yes, you are missing the Workbench floppy.

yes! that worked and it did indeed detect the 720k floppy. my issue is that with the unregistered IDEfix file i dl onto the disk there a ton of files, there are over 4 or 5 files i fould labeled as "installer" some seem to do nothing or give an error where clicked. i poked around and one file, i beleive IDEfix.dat did...something. is there a meathod to this?

i'm taking the thing apart to pop in a ide drive and see if that works, i'm also going to clean the contacts on the scsi card to see if that was the cards issue. so 2 more questions now.

1) say the IDEfix works, will a DVD drive work as a cd-rom drive or do they use a diffrent kind of protocal?
2) i currently have 3 4mb sims making 12mb fast ram onboard. i have a box full of 16mb 72 pin sims. will installing 1 of these give me 16mb fast ram (the limit) or am i restricted to useing 4mb sims?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

yes! that worked and it did indeed detect the 720k floppy. my issue is that with the unregistered IDEfix file i dl onto the disk there a ton of files, there are over 4 or 5 files i fould labeled as "installer" some seem to do nothing or give an error where clicked. i poked around and one file, i beleive IDEfix.dat did...something. is there a meathod to this?

The InstallSoftware icon is the one you need to double-click. If you cannot see it I can upload a suitable archive for you.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

...so 2 more questions now.
1) say the IDEfix works, will a DVD drive work as a cd-rom drive or do they use a diffrent kind of protocal?

It may do, Some DVD drives are problematic, you'll just have to try it. And yes, it should work as a CD-ROM drive.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

2) i currently have 3 4mb sims making 12mb fast ram onboard. i have a box full of 16mb 72 pin sims. will installing 1 of these give me 16mb fast ram (the limit) or am i restricted to useing 4mb sims?

I don't think the 16MB SIMMs will be of any use here. IIRC you are stuck with using 4MB SIMMs for a maximum of 16MB.

[sovietconscript]

i get "unable to open your tool "installer" when i try to install.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

2) i currently have 3 4mb sims making 12mb fast ram onboard. i have a box full of 16mb 72 pin sims. will installing 1 of these give me 16mb fast ram (the limit) or am i restricted to useing 4mb sims?

you can use 16mb simms with a very simple mod, put only 4mb of every simm will be used, so you still need to populate all 4 sockets for 16mb..

the mod is to ground pin 19 (dram address 10) of all simm sockets as shown in the attached photo - it may seem to work without doing this, but your system will most likely become unstable; you won't damage it, though.
Another option is to just put a ground wire on pin 19 of each of the 4 modules - that way you can do it without taking the mobo out and also don't need to mod it

I did this to mine because I had 4 60ns 16MB simms lying around and I need them to be fast for overclocking purposes :-)

[prowler]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

i get "unable to open your tool "installer" when i try to install.

Just try this:
http://eab.abime.net/attachment.php?...7&d=1234134690

[duga]

2 x 8 MB should work. I think they should be placed in the first and in the third slot.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by duga

2 x 8 MB should work. I think they should be placed in the first and in the third slot.

that works.. they must be placed in the sockets marked "bank 1" and "bank 3".

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by prowler

Just try this:
http://eab.abime.net/attachment.php?...7&d=1234134690

thanks, i'll try this tonight when i have some more time and hopefully it will work. once i get a cd-rom drive going i'll be in good shape. one the plus side cleaning the gvp a4000 card it now consistantly recagnizes the added ram, unfortunitly i cant get the scsi cd drive running so hopefully i can at least get an ide cd drive going

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

you can use 16mb simms with a very simple mod, put only 4mb of every simm will be used, so you still need to populate all 4 sockets for 16mb..

the mod is to ground pin 19 (dram address 10) of all simm sockets as shown in the attached photo - it may seem to work without doing this, but your system will most likely become unstable; you won't damage it, though.
Another option is to just put a ground wire on pin 19 of each of the 4 modules - that way you can do it without taking the mobo out and also don't need to mod it

I did this to mine because I had 4 60ns 16MB simms lying around and I need them to be fast for overclocking purposes :-)

neat mod i'll keep in mind but it will probibly just be easier to find a 4mb stick and max my ram to 16 normally.

[bdb]

You wil need a CdFileSystem in the L: directory and a mount in the DevsosDrivers directory. 3.1 will take a Devs:mountlist as well, all of which are found in the Applications directory on theoldcomputer.com, but I guess you have limited Internet access. Can you access Aminet? Do you have the ability to buy Amiga Forever CD? If you have access to a PC with a CD R/W drive can you burn an Iso image file to a CD?

[sovietconscript]

i have all the internet access in the world i just have no money. i recently moved and paypal doesnt beleive i am who i am so untill thats straightened out its money orders only. i do indeed have a dvd/cd writer.