Weird whdload behaviour

[gntavelis]

Hello,

I will start giving you information about my setup:

Amiga 500+ (2.0 37175)
Individual Computers ACA500
Ram Expansion: A504 Plus - 3 State , i plugged the card under my amiga and its giving me 1MB additional chip ram.

i have this one here : http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.co...ct.aspx?id=929

the site is saying that i can configure the card to give me 2MB of chip Ram? How??? The card can hold up to 4MB of RAM?? Is something wrong with my card?

And now to my question:

I found from whdownload the willy beamish and tried to load it. After the Dynamix logo the whdload pauses a lot of times during the intro. I presume that this happens because the amiga is trying to load the next part of the intro?

Is it something wrong with my installation of Workbench (3.1)?

Please give me some light here

Thank you in advance!!

[fitzsteve]

The pauses are because you do not have enough ram available. You can try to load up a more basic workbench or disable the maprom on the aca500 to gain an extra 512k this might help.

Otherwise the best advice would be to add an aca12xx to your aca500.

Sorry I can't help with advice on your expansion maybe it is possible to upgrade the ram on that but I can't say if it will remain compatible with the aca500.

[roy bates]

hi mate.

it looks to me like the card is fully populated with memory for a total of 1mb on the card.
and doesent really look expandable.
it is probably a mistake on the big book of amiga hardware,there is alot of mistakes there.

[gntavelis]

@fitzsteve: I am totally new in this so i need a little help here...

What do you mean by "you can try to load up a more basic workbench" , i am using kickstart 3.1 (aca500 maprom) and i installed to my cf the 3.1 version of workbench. How i can install workbench 1.3? I will be able to partition my 4gb cf from 1.3 version? is there a similar tool like hdtoolbox?

Which ACA12xx do you suggest? 1220 maybe?

Could you please tell me if it is better to buy an ACA 620EC for my a600 and run whdload on this machine? I will get better results?

@ roy bates: Thanks for telling me that, i thought that the site contains no mistakes. :/

[roy bates]

no probs.

steve will probably be along to explain how to minimize your setup.
personally i would would use a real 3.1 rom and not remap it through the aca500.saves 512kb
or get a cheap low end aca1220 card.or both.

[gntavelis]

Thanks Roy

What rev. is compatible with a500+ (40.63)? I hope i will find a chip available somewhere!
I am thinking right now about that (a1220)

[alexh]

Make sure you have the 1.1 version of WHDload Willy Beamish as this reduces the memory footprint.

It was only released 22/12/2013 so you probably have the earlier version.

The Amiga A500+ comes with 1Mbyte of Chip RAM, the A504 plus adds another 1Mbyte of Chip RAM giving you the maximum 2Mbytes of Chip RAM.

2Mbytes of Chip RAM plus 2Mbytes of ACA500 Fast RAM should be enough for this game to preload (i.e. no stuttering). You could try to add the preload tooltype to the WillyBeamish Icon if it is not already there.

There is a slim chance this slave doesn't work correctly on a 68000 CPU. Turrican 3 for example never did until v1.5

[roy bates]

yes mate,just get the 3.1 rom for the 600.

i'll boot mine up a bit later and find out which one im using.

[fitzsteve]

Hi gntavelis,

That is certainly an interesting proposal, A500+ with ACA500/ACA1232 vs the A600 with ACA620, on paper performance should be similar but of course with the ACA1220 you get a whopping 128mb Ram, enough for even the biggest WHDLoad Games

The A600 of course gives you a small form factor which some would see as a big benefit.

The A500+ (with 2mb Chip ram) is very usable with just the ACA500 though, I sold my ACA1232 as I needed some cash for my Car MOT (yeah sux dosen't it) and I'm still able to run my favorite WHDLoad Games just fine. I do plan to get an ACA1230/56 when cash permits and when one comes up, just because I want the fastest 030 money can buy

Now to get the most out of your ACA500 in stock form I suggest installing Classic Workbench GAAE, this is built on Workbench 2.05 but also has AGLaunch installed which can be run via Classic Workbenches boot menu to free up maximum Ram for Games, that along with Maprom disabled will leave you about 3.7-3.8mb free for WHDLoad, should be enough for a good portion of Games.

Maprom can be disabled in the ACA500's advanced menu, you must select the 'on board' Rom, disable the AUX slot and choose 'IDE driver Update' as 2.0 (37.175) Rom has no IDE support.

The other option if you want to stick with Workbench 3.1 is to buy a 3.1 Rom and put that in the socket, using the same settings above Ram savings will be almost the same. It's a bit of waste of money though given the ACA500 comes with a licensed 3.1 Rom, better IMHO put the money towards the ACA1220

Hope that helps

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by alexh

Make sure you have the 1.1 version of WHDload Willy Beamish as this reduces the memory footprint.

This is not exactly true, the new slave only needs less chip memory but more fast memory (as otherwise music is missing).

Originally Posted by alexh

2Mbytes of Chip RAM plus 2Mbytes of ACA500 Fast RAM should be enough for this game to preload (i.e. no stuttering). You could try to add the preload tooltype to the WillyBeamish Icon if it is not already there.

The game needs a lot more than 2MB for preloading as it consists of 12 disks!

Originally Posted by alexh

There is a slim chance this slave doesn't work correctly on a 68000 CPU.

The slave works on 68000 machines.

Originally Posted by gntavelis

Is it something wrong with my installation of Workbench (3.1)?

Nothing wrong, the patch needs much more than 4MB for preloading all data.

[gntavelis]

Thank you so much guys for helping me out!

@alexh: You are 100% correct, i used the one from whdownload and yup the slave is old (v1.0 26.03.06). Amazing tip thank you

@ fitzsteve: I will follow your advice and i will try Classic Workbench right now I prefer also to put the money on a 1220 instead of buying a kickstart rom.

I ''ll be back :P

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by gntavelis

@alexh: You are 100% correct, i used the one from whdownload and yup the slave is old (v1.0 26.03.06). Amazing tip thank you

In fact alexh wasn't 100% correct regarding the Willy Beamish patch! The new version won't change much when it comes to preloading. It only requires less chip mem.

[gntavelis]

@StingRay: Thanks for clearing this I will try your slave today and let you know
Could you please explain to me the meaning of the addresses inside the parentheses?

flags NoError EmulPriv Examine
required Chip Memory 512 KiB ($80000)
required Expansion Memory 1792 KiB ($1c0000)


Thank you

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by gntavelis

@StingRay: Thanks for clearing this I will try your slave today and let you know

You're welcome.

Originally Posted by gntavelis

Could you please explain to me the meaning of the addresses inside the parentheses?

These numbers (they are actually not addresses, just hexadecimal numbers) tell you how much memory the slave needs:

$80000 = 524288 = 0.5 MB (or 512 KB) chip, and then the same for expansion memory which can be any memory, i.e. does not need to be in chip. Hope that helps.

[gntavelis]

@StingRay: Yes your explanation helped me alot Amazing stuff i am learning here! Too bad that maths was always a problem for me :/

Thank you StingRay

@StingRay: I am installing the game using your slave but i get an error :/

Sorry... an Error has occured!
You must install "xfddecrunch" first! it must be accessible via the path (??)
You can find it in the XFD package.

Where i must install this? C Maybe?

Guys i need your help! sorry

I am trying to install workbench 2.1 to my CF using winuae (run as administrator). I boot the emulated amiga (rom: 37.175 and also with 37.300) using the install disk and after i opened the hdtoolbox... Guess what... "Driver Not Loaded"

I am loosing my mind...!

i even tried SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=uaehf.device that i've read from a site

[alexh]

Originally Posted by StingRay

The game needs a lot more than 2MB for preloading as it consists of 12 disks!

Oh. Ok.

WHDload needs enough RAM to cache all disks in multi-disk games up front or it caches non?