A600 - CF HDD / ACA620EC & A604n compatibility

Hi guys,

I'm new but couldn't find anything specific to this issue.

I recently pulled down my old A600 from the loft and decided to get going. Unfortunately, all my old disks have gone missing so I thought the quickest and easiest way to get up to speed would be to just get a hard drive - back in the day it was just a dream to have one!

Anyway, I picked up a CF IDE drive from ebay, with some games and demos already installed, as well as whdload and Workbench. However, my lack of foresight meant I couldn't run most whdload stuff with my basic A600, so I thought I'd invest in a ACA620EC & A604n to maximum my memory potential and allow whdload to function, no problem.

I had all 3 of these new additions working great, and I enjoyed the extra memory, improving my experience.

Today I decided to try out ACATune to get more out of my ACA620EC. I added the line to my startup-sequence, rebooted and sat back in awe at the amount of 'other memory' now visible in workbench. I ran a couple of games and was impressed, then I ran Kick Off 2 which went straight to a black screen. Fair enough, I thought, probably a compatibility issue so I rebooted.

Now I'm stuck on a white screen during load, even if I put a floppy disk in, it doesn't get past this screen.

I've tried removing both the ACA620EC and A604n, and it works fine. I've also tried removing the CF HDD and putting the ACA620EC and A604n back in, and it works fine, boots from floppy, and can see my memory in workbench / card is recognised in ACAtune.

I've tried editing the startup-sequence file and removing the acatune line and it still doesn't work. Occasionally if I reboot from the white screen, I then get the 'Software failure' screen, with "error: 8000 0004 task: 00208430" which implies a ram issue, but if I remove the CF HDD this goes away...

So I'm wondering what my options are to get them working in tandem again as it all feels a bit like my investments have gone to waste. My best guess would be PSU related, but I don't really know.

[lukassid]

Just reseat aca600 and 604 first. There is no compatibility issues between those 2.

[fitzsteve]

You might need to clean around the legs on the CPU to get a decent contact with the ACA620, you should use IPA (Isoproyl Alcohol) and a very soft tooth brush or cotton swab.

My gut feeling here though is that either you PSU isn't up to the job or your capacitors are starting to leak and causing the stability issues.

What PSU are you using? If it's the original light brick definitely consider upgrading to a converted ATX PSU or if you have an A500 PSU kicking around try that.

All the best,

Steve.

[demolition]

Agree, your problems are probably caused by corroded CPU pins. Get them cleaned off properly and try reseating the ACA620. I have been running my A600 with ACA620 and Indivision ECS off one of the heavy 2.5A PSUs, and it was running just fine, so it should run fine even on a weak PSU (your might be bad though, and excess ripple could cause the Amiga to become unstable).

Forgot to say thanks. I gave the pins a clean and reseated the ACA620. Not had any trouble since, enjoying my improved Amiga greatly.