Individual Computers - New accelerator cards for A600 & A1200

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by qrulf

Hi, I've been using a Sandisk Extreme III (x133) 2GB flashcard, that has worked in my A500 with an Alfa Power controller for some time. I've also been trying out a Kingston Elite Pro 4GB (also x133) card in the A1200, but apparently it has a bad reputation with accelerators I can see. The reason for those cards is that they've been lying around from an old linux box.

As my local dealer stocks them, I might consider getting another Sandisk card (Sandisk Ultra 30mb), I can see there are no reports of any of the Sandisk cards not working. Or maybe or a Verbatim card, but there are no reports on them. Hmm.

Until then it might be safest just to use an old (real) IDE harddrive for testing purposes?! ;-)

I've used two Sandisk Ultra Cf, 30 Mb/s. Both with the same installation in DH0. In one everytime I used the Fast Ata lines in s-s (after Acatune) it wasn't booting. In the other it does, but after a time it can fail, so I have to disable it's lines in the s-s and then it boots. After a time I can use that lines again. Right now it's working in Pio4, but not sure if it will last. In the past I've tried with Kingston 133x too with the same results.

The one I would like to try is this:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/Tarjeta-Memor...item337390a045

8Gb is perfect, and it's the slowest Cf I've found with that. I just want to try with it, don't know if it will be better or not.

[qrulf]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

The one I would like to try is this:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/Tarjeta-Memor...item337390a045

8Gb is perfect, and it's the slowest Cf I've found with that. I just want to try with it, don't know if it will be better or not.

Ok, I'm going to steal your idea - just ordered one for pickup at the local shop :-)

[Edit: above mentioned card tested and working fine: posted to EAB CF card compatibility list]

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by qrulf

Ok, I'm going to steal your idea - just ordered one for pickup at the local shop :-)

That's ok to try. The thing is that I don't know it's speed and I coudn't find it anywhere. The perfect one (maximum speed with Fast Ata) I think would be 50x, so 10Mb/s, but I coudn't find any Cf with 8Mb and 50x.

Edit: I forgot, but the card I got working wasn't exactly the same than the other. Finally I changed PFS3 in the first partition for SFS. I think it's slower, so better.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by qrulf

Ok, I'm going to steal your idea - just ordered one for pickup at the local shop :-)

[Edit: above mentioned card tested and working fine: posted to EAB CF card compatibility list]

Sorry, I am missing something. Do you mean than changing your Cf Hd and using the one I told now you don't have the problems you had? ("My A1200 gets unstable and freezes/ reboots from time to time...
...It can boot into workbench but sometimes it just freezes...")

[qrulf]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

It turned out that even with the increased immunity of the ACA1231 against false assembly of the A1200, we still need board modifications if the timing fixes haven't been applied yet. The info is hidden in this thread:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=726765#post726765
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=726776#post726776

...and a more complicated one:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=753433#post753433

Should you continue to have trouble with the card, please contact Vesalia.

Jens

Thanks for your summary and links. I did the first timing fix and everything seems quite stable! :-)

@Retrofan: sorry for not stating it clearly - not because of the CF-card, but the CF-card works nicely in the newly stable configuration :-)

I am still hesitating with the second because I'm not entirely sure whether it applies only to certain revisions of the motherboard (1D.4 is mentioned) or if ones experiences graphics-corruption/ noise?

Wisdom is of course not trying to fix something that is not broken (possibly inviting problems), but if it only can help and when soldering is a joy why not?

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

("My A1200 gets unstable and freezes/ reboots from time to time...
...It can boot into workbench but sometimes it just freezes...")

Freezes with expansions (and gurus during bootup) are most commonly due to bus signal loss between CPU and motherboard, either due to bad contact or mis-timing. (Sometimes these become apparent at transfer from ROM bootstrap code to IDE initiation when fastmem is being used at its higher speed, but what IDE unit is at the end matters not.) On rare occasions freezes are caused by the CPU shutting down or failing because of high temperatures, but such temperatures are of course easily detected.

I trust Kingston, Lexar and Sandisk to be reliable - Sandisk up to but not including the Extreme IV series.

[Mequa]

Shame there are no affordable 68060 accelerators available for the A1200. It's break the bank, put up with a slower CPU, or use (Win)UAE...

[phl22]

hello I have
rev.1b and 1200, cf, aca1231/42, rom 3.1
amiga at different time intervals are frozen; (
and typographical errors are (garbage)
rev.b1 requires timefix?
I checked on a clean OS 3.1 and 3.9
aca-cooled
what could we do?
Regards Adam

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by phl22

hello I have
rev.1b and 1200, cf, aca1231/42, rom 3.1
amiga at different time intervals are frozen; (
and typographical errors are (garbage)
rev.b1 requires timefix?
I checked on a clean OS 3.1 and 3.9
aca-cooled
what could we do?
Regards Adam

untill someone comes along and says different,a revision 1.b doesent need timing fixes.


maybe you have bad capacitors on your board? these are very old now.

edit:if your motherboard has never had a card in there before try cleaning the contacts and re-insert the card.

[phl22]

I cleaned the card input

[Bamiga2002]

Today the ACA 1230/56 was put to test. First tried without ACATune: had installed ClassicWB 3.9 and it booted fast from a CF card with 3.1 ROMs - no probs . Then put Parasol Stars demorolling itself for 2 hours - all OK.

Then the scary part: copied latest ACATune 1.5e to C:, added commandline
"ACATune -maprom ** p -cache on -burst on" to S-S and reset...(fingers crossed!)....
Booted OK & fast! Played around in WB and then tried various WHDLoad-games for about 2 hours - ALL WORKING!

If I left one '*' from the maprom option then the A1200 wouldn't boot but show strange chaotic display with black/white stripes. So had to add the second '*'.

No graphics trash at all, no strange probs yet, and I hope it stays that way!

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by roy bates

untill someone comes along and says different,a revision 1.b doesent need timing fixes.

I don't know how many times I've said it, but I'm willing to say it again: You can't tell from the board revision if a timing fix is required or not. Commodore (and later on Escom) have made all kinds of assembly errors on all kinds of motherboard revisions, because they just happened to have empty boards left.

Each board needs individual checking. Take photos of the relevant areas (top side: around xtal, bottom side: under Alice) and send them to the technician you trust. At this point, ACA1231 requires the same board fixes that the ACA1230 also required, so AmigaKit will surely be able to help you if you can't do the fix on your own.

Jens

[roy bates]

hi jens,ive never seen a revision 1.a and 1.b need timing fixes.

but i have seen 1.d.4 and 2.b need them.

which ones do you use?

but.....yes i have seen assembly errors on early revisions on 1.a's and 1.b's but they dident have anything to do with timing errors.

which timing fixes did the aca1230 need,if you dont mind me asking.

roy.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by roy bates

hi jens,ive never seen a revision 1.a and 1.b need timing fixes.

but i have seen 1.d.4 and 2.b need them.

which ones do you use?

All of them.

Originally Posted by roy bates

which timing fixes did the aca1230 need,if you dont mind me asking.

I don't mind, but others may if you don't even read what's visible on this page:

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...postcount=2453

Jens

[roy bates]

i think this may be a bit of a missunderstanding,as it wasent me who asked weither or not a 1.b needed timing fixes

roy.

[magnetic]

Jens

Do you plan to do a different A600 cpu project in the near future?

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by magnetic

Jens

Do you plan to do a different A600 cpu project in the near future?

Yes, I have a low-cost accel for the A600 in the works. No details yet, as the prototype doesn't even run yet.

Jens

[Etze]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Yes, I have a low-cost accel for the A600 in the works. No details yet, as the prototype doesn't even run yet.

Jens

Yippieh!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist... (I was just very pi**ed, that I was too late to get an ACA630...)

[phl22]

I'll have to send my A1200 to amikit may be help

[Omolungo]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Yes, I have a low-cost accel for the A600 in the works. No details yet, as the prototype doesn't even run yet.

Jens

What can you say us about the ACA520?