Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

This is another IDE related rumor only. It works with larger drives.

37.300 doesn't work with any of my 128M and 256M test-cards, but it does with my 8MByte CF card that came with a camera. Kick 3.1 works with all those cards, so I had reason to believe that rumor ;-)

rockersuke: ACA630 is "kind of affected": The bug is not triggered on -02 Gayle, but it is triggered with -01 Gayle. Back when I designed the ACA630, I did not know about the details of that bug, and I just declared the card to only be compatible with A600 boards, not the older A300 boards with -01 Gayle. And before you ask: No, I'm not interested in porting the fix back to the ACA630 hardware.

Jens

[Toni Wilen]

My test A600 has 37.300 and 2G CF works fine.

It must have some limit but I am quite sure it is not size but some other (possibly related to size) incompatibility. I'll debug this someday.

[alenppc]

IIRC, the 37.300 will let you boot out of any partition, even the non bootable ones (select it from the Early Startup Menu), while 37.350 respects the boot flag.

[neozeed]

Ok, so I have the 37.350 ROM, I set up the ACA to maprom a 40.063 ROM, and installed Workbench 3.1 .. and everything failed in the same manner.. So for the heck of it, I turned off the CPU cache, and fished out 'nofastmem' from workbench 1.3 .. And my god is it SLOW.. but it has been running for the last 10 minutes.. I guess Frontier wants to run out of chipmem???

Oh yeah I'm trying the "shareware" version of Frontier and using FMS to simulate a floppy since mine are all on the fritz. I DMS'd it from UAE, and UnDMS'd it on the amiga ..

I also loaded up the old DICE-C compiler, and rebuilt the core components of itself, then compiled dungeon (zork) and it was a billion times faster compared to the stock 600 .. (cpu cache & all that fast mem helps a bunch!) ..

Has anyone tried AROS with the ACA's ..? I'd imagine it'd actually work or have some hope of working between the 68020 and the 1MB space to load a "rom" to kick.

I guess Im going to have to break down and give whdload a shot, and see if it can cobble together a more workable solution than mine to get frontier working at some kind of respectable speed.

Frontier may just be far more hokey than I realized, but with 'normal' stuff the ACA is kicking butt!

[amigoun]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

My test A600 has 37.300 and 2G CF works fine.

I used 37.300 with 256 cf card without any problems. Maybe it's cf card related.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

37.300 doesn't work with any of my 128M and 256M test-cards, but it does with my 8MByte CF card that came with a camera. Kick 3.1 works with all those cards, so I had reason to believe that rumor ;-)
Jens

300 and 350 will work with large drives, we use 4GB fine without issues aslong as you stick to partition limits.

[rockersuke]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

rockersuke: ACA630 is "kind of affected": The bug is not triggered on -02 Gayle, but it is triggered with -01 Gayle. Back when I designed the ACA630, I did not know about the details of that bug, and I just declared the card to only be compatible with A600 boards, not the older A300 boards with -01 Gayle. And before you ask: No, I'm not interested in porting the fix back to the ACA630 hardware.

I guess that means I'm a really lucky guy. My first Amiga 600's mobo was an 1.5 revision with a 391155-01 Gayle, as shown in the first pic. I managed to break it apart when changing something in the IDE port (don't ask... it just, eer... happened ) . When I bought the ACA630 it had been replaced with this other 1.5 motherboard wich had a 391155-02 Gayle. Does this mean I'm "kind of clean"? Just wanted to be sure. No, no intention to bother you with porting the fix.

--

[FOL]

Originally Posted by rockersuke

When I bought the ACA630 it had been replaced with this other 1.5 motherboard wich had a 391155-02 Gayle. Does this mean I'm "kind of clean"? Just wanted to be sure. No, no intention to bother you with porting the fix.

--

Correct.

[hansel75]

Hi! I have a strange issue atm with my a600 and the aca620 combined with the a604 1mb chip expansion.

I have done numerous tests with the aca620(rev2), and have found it works perfectly with my old original 1mb chip expansion card, but every time i try it with the new a604 card i have problems.
These issues include whdload games crashing on launch, or freezes ingame, also random freezes on workbench etc.

I have re-seated the a620 over 10 times now, each time it appears to detect the extra 1mb of chip memory ok. But as mentioned, i always have issues with it.
At first i thought it was my aca620 acting up, but i then decided to put my original 1mb chip expansion back into it for a test replacing the a604, and it now runs perfectly!

The known games that would crash with the a604, now work fine with the original 1mb expansion card, so i am using the original one atm for stability purposes.
I am not sure why my a604 combined with the aca620 is not working correctly, and as to why the aca620 works fine with my original 1mb card?
I have cleaned the contacts on the trapdoor expansion extensively, and as mentioned, my original card always works fine in it.

If anyone else is having similar problems with there aca620, and if they have an a604 in there a600 as well, maybe try the aca620 on it's own without the a604 card and see if the problems persist!

Also could this a604 card i have be faulty and what should i try or do?, it's only around 3-4 months old and barely used.

Thanks, Han.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by hansel75

Hi! I have a strange issue atm with my a600 and the aca620 combined with the a604 1mb chip expansion.
Also could this a604 card i have be faulty and what should i try or do?, it's only around 3-4 months old and barely used.

It sounds to me like your A604 is faulty, or somehow the connection on the edge connector isn't as good as with your other expansion.
I have the A604+ACA620 combination and have found no problems at all with it.

I suggest you try a memory test program to test your chipmem for errors.

[jimbob]

Are you using the clockport extension which is secured into the floppy screw? I found that it was forcing one side of the A604 out a little bit and causing a contact problem, I did indeed get assorted crashing at this time. Try removing this part and making sure the A604 is straight and pushed fully home, then run some memtest utility on chip ram.

I think I used this one -

http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/MemUtil

[hansel75]

Hi guys! No i don't use the clockport extension, and the a604 appears to line up ok.

I will try it again tomorrow and run the memutil test on it.

[neozeed]

So I loaded up whdload, installed frontier, and.. it runs a tad longer than when I tried to launch it, but it crashed. When I force it to run from chipmem it froze after 20 minutes, and yanking off the aca620 I ran it for over an hour .. .

It just feels like things that stay in fast ram are ok, but things that run in fastram and hit chipmem freak out.. I don't get it. If the MB was so flaked then I shouldn't be able to run more than 10-20 minute without the accel, right?

I did notice the 68020 was kind of hot, maybe the "optional" heatsink would be a good idea.. I haven't seen the sale link for it.. ?

[demolition]

If you can keep your finger on the chip for more than 5 secs, it's not too hot.

Go run that memtest util on both chipmem and fastmem to see if there's a consistent problem in either, or if it seems random. If the ACA620 runs fine with your other chipmem expansion, it doesn't seem likely that the accelerator should be the culprit.

Edit: And you're sure that it's rev. 2 that you have?

[neozeed]

Originally Posted by demolition

If you can keep your finger on the chip for more than 5 secs, it's not too hot.

Go run that memtest util on both chipmem and fastmem to see if there's a consistent problem in either, or if it seems random. If the ACA620 runs fine with your other chipmem expansion, it doesn't seem likely that the accelerator should be the culprit.

Edit: And you're sure that it's rev. 2 that you have?

I'm transferring a memtest program now...

I received the card 2 days ago, there is no rev 2 sticker, but tools say the SN is 2. ..

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by neozeed

I received the card 2 days ago, there is no rev 2 sticker, but tools say the SN is 2. ..

The sticker is on the side of the box, not on the card itself. Yes, your card is rev.2.

Again, replace the caps on your A600. They have leaked, and yes, it DOES make a difference if there's an accelerator in the system or not. The accelerator requires extra power and that will cause extra voltage drops that the leaking caps can't catch any more. Leaked caps cause all kinds of weird problems, and one reason why your computer is more stable with the old vs. the new chipmem expansion could be that the old chipmem expansion has extra electrolytic caps that the A604 does not have.

I suggest to open a support ticket with your reseller in order to find and eliminate the source of your problems. Please note that this is a news forum, not a support forum. The experience that I have listed here yesterday comes from support cases that were submitted "the official way". At this point, there is no unresolved support case with the ACA620 and/or the A604.

Jens

[neozeed]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The sticker is on the side of the box, not on the card itself. Yes, your card is rev.2.

Again, replace the caps on your A600. They have leaked, and yes, it DOES make a difference if there's an accelerator in the system or not. The accelerator requires extra power and that will cause extra voltage drops that the leaking caps can't catch any more. Leaked caps cause all kinds of weird problems, and one reason why your computer is more stable with the old vs. the new chipmem expansion could be that the old chipmem expansion has extra electrolytic caps that the A604 does not have.

I suggest to open a support ticket with your reseller in order to find and eliminate the source of your problems. Please note that this is a news forum, not a support forum. The experience that I have listed here yesterday comes from support cases that were submitted "the official way". At this point, there is no unresolved support case with the ACA620 and/or the A604.

Jens

Will do.. I just wish I knew how flakey these 600's could be.. I just wish that while ordering there was some mention about the caps, or an ability to order the heat sink.. I'll contact the reseller and see what they have as far as repairing motherboards.. I'm on vacation and really don't have the setup to do any kind of soldering on the road.

Originally Posted by neozeed

Will do.. I just wish I knew how flakey these 600's could be.. I just wish that while ordering there was some mention about the caps, or an ability to order the heat sink.. I'll contact the reseller and see what they have as far as repairing motherboards.. I'm on vacation and really don't have the setup to do any kind of soldering on the road.

Jens is right about the caps. I had an A600 that barely booted, and was flakier than a bowl of corn flakes. As soon as I fitted a Kipper2k 4MB memory expansion, all the problems disappeared. This was due to the additional reservoir caps on the aforementioned expansion board.

[neozeed]

Originally Posted by paul1981

Jens is right about the caps. I had an A600 that barely booted, and was flakier than a bowl of corn flakes. As soon as I fitted a Kipper2k 4MB memory expansion, all the problems disappeared. This was due to the additional reservoir caps on the aforementioned expansion board.

Heh if only I could just get caps and randomly place them over the old ones... I finally got a price on amigakit.com for cap replacement for £29.95 .. Ill probably get a new floppy drive too as none of mine work, and I can't help but wonder if I put in a drive killer disk or something.. this other crappy 600 & a 500 won't read anything anymore either.

For the heck of it I left my 600 running the advanced amiga analyzer memory test, 52 loops no issues.. but I know.. caps caps caps!

Sigh I just wanted to play Frontier, and now it looks like I just bought a boat... lol

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by paul1981

Jens is right about the caps. I had an A600 that barely booted, and was flakier than a bowl of corn flakes. As soon as I fitted a Kipper2k 4MB memory expansion, all the problems disappeared. This was due to the additional reservoir caps on the aforementioned expansion board.

In that case, you'd probably have the same experience when installing the ACA620. All my new accelerators (ACA1220, ACA1232, ACA620) have large ceramic capacitors added to the VCC rail in order to be compatible with "slightly weak" capacitors on the mainboard. However, you can only do so much in that spot.

If the caps on the mainboard are not 100% OK, you'll experience blinking of the caps lock LED every now and then, keyboard won't work, or the computer will only start properly after a warmup-phase of a few minutes (black screen before that).

It's almost a miracle that our computers still work today. Electrolytic caps are the main reason why electronic devices only barely make it through the warranty period these days.

Jens