A4000T (Amiga Technologies model)

[DDNI]

Wow, nice machine! Congrats. Health to enjoy.

[Weaselrama]

Very informative thread. This answered a lot of my own questions regarding this (or I should say, these, given the variety of hardward configurations) particular Amiga.

[Jope]

Nice score. Since you have DMA SCSI, I would not use the IDE bus but stick with SCSI instead. SCSI2SD v6 perhaps.

[Kin Hell]

Well fella, you got yourself an absolute Bargin there. Nice one!

& Yeah, the 1960 Monitor was the Daddy of them all.

@ DDNI

If you look at the video at the bottom of the page and compare it to the pic at the top, you could say it looks like he's had a bit of a hard life. - It still makes me cringe every time I hear his Amiga song!

Thank's for the Reminder about Doomy...... PMS & ROFL!!

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

1) The system is VERY clean, and it boots up nicely, and the C= 1960 Monitor is quite nice, its image quality is very professional looking (almost Sony's Trinitron-like matte quality).

2) Please see the pictures, and tell me what add-ons, etc. are installed, as I have *very limited* experience with A4000, and its architecture

3) Can I install an IDE adapter connected to a CompactFlash drive instead of the two hard drives already installed? (planing to install Workbench fresh on it) The 2 hard drives seem to be SCSI.

4) When I press its TURBO button, nothing happens (confirmed by Sysinfo, if it can detect the speed change, in *real-time that is), however, the funny things is, when pressed, the TURBO button *enables* the system's internal speaker! Is this normal?

5) None of my floppy diskettes (games/demos) (on real floppy diskettes) booted or played (a few select few games, like GODS, CHAOS ENGINE, etc., started, but after a loop, they Guru Meditated on me. (mostly demos though). Now these are floppies that run fine on my A500 (1.2 KS).

Do you think it is due the Escom's high-capacity floppy drives? (as I have a similar problem with my Escom A1200 as well)

6) I also tried two genuine SEGA Genesis game pads, (3 button models), but none worked (directional button, or Fire button). I have a CD32 game-pad that is currently connected to my A500, and I am going to try it tomorrow, but it seemed odd that *two different* game-pads were not detected by my A4000T.

1) That's a great monitor. Treat it well.

2) Most of the features of the A4k apply to the A4kT. The one big difference compatibility-wise will be the SCSI adapter, but that will mostly apply to if you're trying to use Zorro 3 DMA on one of the few cards that support it.

3) Yes though you'll get much better performance with the SCSI controller hooked up to some sort of solid state adapter. The onboard IDE/ATA controller is terribly slow. It only supports the slowest PIO-0 speed and it doesn't support DMA.

4) The turbo button is just a side-effect of them using a contemporary PC case. Feel free to use it for whatever you want.

5) It's quote possible that the floppy drive is the problem, although huge amounts of stuff will fail anyway if you don't first turn off caches in the early startup menu (hold both mouse buttons down on startup). Most Amiga stuff was written for no-cache 68000 systems and the largeish caches on the 040/060 cause them to break spectacularly when they try to do self-modifying code tricks. In particular it will break a lot of copy protection routines.

If you can get your hands on a "Real HD Fix" floppy drive then it will work properly with HD floppies and DD floppies since it works like the old rare A3000/A4000 half-spin HD floppy drives.

6) Genesis pads are electrically wrong for the Amiga. Sometimes they work fine as one or two button controllers, but sometimes they can actually damage your machine (genuine Sega controllers usually won't do damage). You have to rewire the controller by swapping a couple of lines to make it work properly. You can then swap out lowlevel.library with a Genesis-compatible one to make some CD32-pad-compatible software work with 6 button Genesis controllers. A smart hardware adapter that does the conversion to CD32 protocol is better in most cases though.

If you just want a 2-button controller then ones for the Master System work best.

[coldacid]

Words cannot express my jealousy right now. c0dehunter, you are one lucky SOB!

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter;

5) None of my floppy diskettes (games/demos) (on real floppy diskettes) booted or played (a few select few games, like GODS, CHAOS ENGINE, etc., started, but after a loop, they Guru Meditated on me. (mostly demos though). Now these are floppies that run fine on my A500 (1.2 KS).

Unfortunately, disabling CPU Cache & setting an earlier chipset doesn't always work 100%...

Subscribe to WHDLoad & Install your games to your hard drive. With KS Emulation embedded, your older games should be fine on A4KT

Alternatively, sell your newly acquired A4KT to me for a sensible price and carry on using your A500.

[mousehouse]

Oh wow, I really love that 1960 monitor.

What tapes did you get with the machine? Don't see a tape drive...

[c0dehunter]

UPDATE:
OK, I just plugged in my CD32 game-pad into A4000T (which works perfectly on my A500), with no luck. It simply doesn't do anything.


The owners barely used this system, let alone game on it (didn't have any joysticks), so chances of this GAME PORT going bad is slim, I think?


How hard it is to diagnose, repair/fix this issue?


Thanks!

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

UPDATE:
OK, I just plugged in my CD32 game-pad into A4000T (which works perfectly on my A500), with no luck. It simply doesn't do anything.


The owners barely used this system, let alone game on it (didn't have any joysticks), so chances of this GAME PORT going bad is slim, I think?


How hard it is to diagnose, repair/fix this issue?


Thanks!

Pin 6 is the fire button on C= CD32 Game Pad. https://www.retronicdesign.com/en/sp...-cd32-gamepad/

Looking at the Schematics for A4KT, they match, so it should work.

Maybe one of the CIA Chips is dodgey, but Capacitors can also cause issues.

Due to age of the A4KT & the lack of use it's had, this does not mean everything is 100%. Age will dry up the Capacitors so they don't function as they should.

Fully appreciate your Bargin buy, but replacing Capacitors on these old Amiga Boards is a "Must Do" thing. If you're dedicated to preserving this board & considering the price paid, I'd be investing on a Full Recap to all component boards that make up the A4KT as a whole.

[c0dehunter]

Now, after a month or so (barely used it at all), when I insert a bootable floppy in my A4000T drive, I can not boot from it. Why?

From the moment I got it, it was sporadic, meaning most of the times it would, but not always. The previous owner has installed two floppy drives in the system.

Funny thing is, in Workbench (which thankfully I can boot into, when I turn the system on) when I insert a floppy diskette, I don't even see the icon for it. (I used to be able to see the icon)

They were just working fine this morning, and all of a sudden, *poof*: they are not working. Can both gone bad at the same time?

When I press both mouse buttons upon startup, I indeed get the boot menu, and both drives are enabled. But these drives seem to be not functioning somehow.

clearly, both couldn't have gone bad at the same time, could they?

If it is the capacitor issue, how is it related to floppy drives?

Please help!

[LucasBox]

Floppies has also capacitors which can leak. I would get a gotek to check if the mainboard is fine. Did you check battery and capacitors on the mainboard? Is a leak visible?

[fitzsteve]

A4000T doesn't have the leaking batteries as far as I remember. Have you tried a cleaning disk in the floppy drives? If you've inserted a bad disk it can leave dirt on the read heads.

Regarding capacitors, in my experience a system not used for a long time then suddenly put into use is a prime candidate for leaking, best get it serviced ASAP if not done already.

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

A4000T doesn't have the leaking batteries as far as I remember. Have you tried a cleaning disk in the floppy drives? If you've inserted a bad disk it can leave dirt on the read heads.

Regarding capacitors, in my experience a system not used for a long time then suddenly put into use is a prime candidate for leaking, best get it serviced ASAP if not done already.

Amiga Technologies A4000T should have a coin battery that is a leaking risk but much less than the A4000 Varta batteries. (No idea about the few C= A4000T models)

But yeah the system definitely could use a recap. Late 90's and early 2000's systems, regardless of type or build, whether a computer or a toaster, had the worst electrolytic caps.

[c0dehunter]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

A4000T doesn't have the leaking batteries as far as I remember. Have you tried a cleaning disk in the floppy drives? If you've inserted a bad disk it can leave dirt on the read heads.

Regarding capacitors, in my experience a system not used for a long time then suddenly put into use is a prime candidate for leaking, best get it serviced ASAP if not done already.

The floppy drives (both of them) are completely dead when I boot the system. Both can not go bad at the same time, can they?

[alexh]

Originally Posted by c0dehunter

The floppy drives (both of them) are completely dead when I boot the system. Both can not go bad at the same time, can they?

Floppy drives require the CIA chips which are known not to be particularly robust to ESD. Electrostatic discharge. (FYI the number of new builds of Amiga's with all these re-created PCB's will make all Amiga custom chips, including CIA chips very rare and expensive very fast. I'd buy a couple off Amibay now, they are relatively cheap... just in case)

I'd buy a cheap Gotek drive off eBay pre-flashed, eliminate the FDD's as the issue.

If FDD still doesn't work then CIA is first thing to check.

After that check PAULA.

[Acill]

Looks like you have an RTG card, the IDE will work just fine. You can use a CF or SD adapter yes. the turbo button does nothing for speed. It will turn on and off the internal speaker is all.

Floppy games will be tough, its got an 040 and may just not like the machine. I have issues at times on mine as well with an 060 in it. Its also got a HD floppy drive in it if its original and that can cause issues.

[c0dehunter]

OK, I opened the case, checked and (re-inserted) all the cables, and voila! They both work now! I am not sure what was the issue. Also no leak or anything on the main-board.


This system came with 2X IDE Hard drives:
How can I replace them with CompactFlash cards, and install fresh copy of 3.1?
Also I need help with installing WHDLoad games on this system.




Thanks!

[digitalMedic]

Nice machine. My A4000T had a small capacitor leak on the audio board that I almost did not notice until I was taking it all apart to send off for a recap. You really should get it recapped.

[c0dehunter]

Originally Posted by digitalMedic

You really should get it recapped.

I know! One of these days!


On a second note:
How can I remove the existing IDE Hdds, replace them with a CF card, install WB 3.1 and WHDLoad?