A690 CD-ROM for the A500 - ROM?

frantic · 30 May 2007, 17:56

Hello!

I have one of those here at my place (A690, that is). However, it doesn't work now. Last time I tried it out (in 1999 or so) it worked perfectly though and since then I haven't really touched it, so I doubt it is broken. I read on the following page that there is a battery in it, and that it might be the case that when the battery is dead the contents of the ROM dies:

http://www.cdtv.org.uk/1255.html

(See the bottom of that page about A690.)

There is also a picture of the motherboard:

http://www.cdtv.org.uk/a690l.jpg

There you can see a wire going from the battery to the ROM chip. It looks exactly like mine. Same revision and so on.

...and since it is 2007 now I guess this may very well be the reason for the "death" of my A690. Power lamps and such things seem to work fine though.

Does anyone know if the ROM of the A690 is available somewhere? Either as a ROM file or as a chip. Perhaps ROM chips from A570 works on this one too? Any suggestions?

A sticker on the ROM chip says:

COPYRIGHT @1991 CBM
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
391298-01 V1.0 C48D

...and the chip itself says:

D27C400-150V10

I'd really like this drive to work now since I got a supradrive with passtrough port...

By the way. If someone got a working A570 and wants to trade this for the A690, I might be interested. (Keep in mind that it would require fixing of the ROM, at least, to make it work in that case. View it as a collectors item. Personally I care more for a working unit to be used with my A500 than collecting value.)

Have a nice day!

//FTC

Jope · 31 May 2007, 07:25

If you have a Supra, just get an external SCSI enclosure with a CD-ROM drive inside. The 25pin port in the back is the same as in a Macintosh.

I don't mean to dishearten, but the A570/690 is not worth the trouble, better keep them as collectors items. :-)

frantic · 31 May 2007, 09:44

@Jope: Thanks for replying again. I guess you're right. Just felt a little frustrating to know that the hardware itself isn't really defect, but still doesn't work due to some lame battery.

Anyway.. I guess I'll let it remain that way.

Anybody knows how much these A690 drives has been sold for on ebay and so on?

jimbo100 · 31 May 2007, 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by frantic

@Jope: Thanks for replying again. I guess you're right. Just felt a little frustrating to know that the hardware itself isn't really defect, but still doesn't work due to some lame battery.

Anyway.. I guess I'll let it remain that way.

Anybody knows how much these A690 drives has been sold for on ebay and so on?

What happens when this is plugged into your A500. Do you still get the CDTV screen?

frantic · 31 May 2007, 15:24

@jimbo: Nope. Just the ordinary Kickstart 1.3 hand (if no harddrive connected). The leds on the drive shine as brightly as ever though.

I remember getting the CDTV screen when turning it on last time a bunch of years ago, so I know it worked by then at least.

jimbo100 · 02 June 2007, 02:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by frantic

@jimbo: Nope. Just the ordinary Kickstart 1.3 hand (if no harddrive connected). The leds on the drive shine as brightly as ever though.

I remember getting the CDTV screen when turning it on last time a bunch of years ago, so I know it worked by then at least.

Well I got an A570 which gets the CDTV screen when you turn it on but wont spin a disc when you put it in!

Between the two of us we could get a working A570

frantic · 04 June 2007, 06:01

Any chance the contents this A570 ROM could be read somehow? I might be able to get hold of a ROM burner.

Zetr0 · 04 June 2007, 08:29

it could be worth a try frantic, I supose at this point in your venture there is very little to lose...

A question though, can an A570 rom be used in an A690 ?

Could you not just change the CD drive mechanism for a working one in the A570 ?

zipper · 04 June 2007, 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

A question though, can an A570 rom be used in an A690 ?

Principally A690 was just the name used when the A570 prototype was made so they should be the same machine but don't know if different revisions were produced.

frantic · 04 June 2007, 09:35

I have not been able to find any information whether the A570 ROM will work or not in a A690, but I guess it's pretty much the only thing I can do as I doubt there are any A690-drives left with intact batteries. And as zipper said here, they are very similar so in principle nothing prevents it from being worth a try as far as I know. The A690 drives released were done in 1991 so I doubt any batteries survived until this day, which would mean there is no A690 ROM chips/files available unless someone managed to read the contents of those ROM chips in the 90s or so.

If anyone got an idea how to read the contents of a A570 ROM chip, let me know.

Laters!

//FTC

Zetr0 · 04 June 2007, 09:41

@Frantic

What series and factor is the A570 ROM chip? does it have a designation, Alexh / Jope are pretty hot a spotting a chip type or two. once you know what it is, then maybe (if read enable lines are intact) you might be able to use a simple serial reader.

Take a picture and I am sure some one here would have a crack at it.

alexh · 04 June 2007, 10:02

I am 100% sure they use a 27C400 EPROM just like the Amiga kickstart chips.

Zetr0 · 04 June 2007, 10:59

@frantic

"points to alexh"

see .... told you....

frantic · 11 June 2007, 15:05

As stated in my first post in this thread, the chip says:

D27C400-150V10

(just like alexh says)

The main problem is getting the ROM (contents), I guess. Anybody got a clue?

alexh · 11 June 2007, 15:11

Remove chip, stick in (compatible) EPROM programmer, hit read.

You could try hot-swapping with the kickstart ROM in an 16-bit Amiga (500/600/2000/CDTV) and using the transrom application, but I wouldnt!

Jope · 11 June 2007, 16:20

You also need to use a fastrom or relocing softkicking tool before hotswapping the kickstart.

alexh · 11 June 2007, 16:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jope

You also need to use a fastrom or relocing softkicking tool before hotswapping the kickstart.

If you did that... then transrom wouldnt work, it would dump "fastrom" or whatever.. maybe it is not feasible.

Jope · 11 June 2007, 17:30

If it's a relocing kickstart mapper like skick, it would work ok. The kickstart rippers always look in $f80000, but skick usually kicks it at $200000 (depending of course on where you actually have some free RAM)

frantic · 14 June 2007, 20:11

Alexh: Sorry if I am dumb now, but... As I understood things, the ROM in the A690 I have is a battery backed up one, and now gone. Hard to read the ROM contents then. That's why I am looking for someone being able to read out the A570 ROM (which I do not have).

Jope · 14 June 2007, 21:31

No, dude.. If it's a 27c400, it's an eprom.. They are permanent until erased with UV light, if it has an erase window like the one in the circuit board shot you pasted in the first post.. If the EPROM contents are damaged, it usually doesn't empty all the way, but only some bits change. This would lead to crashing on startup.

The green wire goes to an address line, if I counted correctly. Probably just something they forgot in the PCB layout.

If you look closely, the minus end of the battery goes to ground and the plus terminal is connected to a track that leads away from the edge connector, towards R58.

Connect only the A690, boot up a floppy with Sysinfo (aminet), run Sysinfo and check the boards. You should have one Zorro II compatible board visible in there, that means that the DMAC is at least working. Then we can continue debugging.

30 May 2007, 17:56	#1
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	A690 CD-ROM for the A500 - ROM? Hello! I have one of those here at my place (A690, that is). However, it doesn't work now. Last time I tried it out (in 1999 or so) it worked perfectly though and since then I haven't really touched it, so I doubt it is broken. I read on the following page that there is a battery in it, and that it might be the case that when the battery is dead the contents of the ROM dies: http://www.cdtv.org.uk/1255.html (See the bottom of that page about A690.) There is also a picture of the motherboard: http://www.cdtv.org.uk/a690l.jpg There you can see a wire going from the battery to the ROM chip. It looks exactly like mine. Same revision and so on. ...and since it is 2007 now I guess this may very well be the reason for the "death" of my A690. Power lamps and such things seem to work fine though. Does anyone know if the ROM of the A690 is available somewhere? Either as a ROM file or as a chip. Perhaps ROM chips from A570 works on this one too? Any suggestions? A sticker on the ROM chip says: COPYRIGHT @1991 CBM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 391298-01 V1.0 C48D ...and the chip itself says: D27C400-150V10 I'd really like this drive to work now since I got a supradrive with passtrough port... By the way. If someone got a working A570 and wants to trade this for the A690, I might be interested. (Keep in mind that it would require fixing of the ROM, at least, to make it work in that case. View it as a collectors item. Personally I care more for a working unit to be used with my A500 than collecting value.) Have a nice day! //FTC Last edited by frantic; 30 May 2007 at 20:11.

14 June 2007, 21:31	#20
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,914	No, dude.. If it's a 27c400, it's an eprom.. They are permanent until erased with UV light, if it has an erase window like the one in the circuit board shot you pasted in the first post.. If the EPROM contents are damaged, it usually doesn't empty all the way, but only some bits change. This would lead to crashing on startup. The green wire goes to an address line, if I counted correctly. Probably just something they forgot in the PCB layout. If you look closely, the minus end of the battery goes to ground and the plus terminal is connected to a track that leads away from the edge connector, towards R58. Connect only the A690, boot up a floppy with Sysinfo (aminet), run Sysinfo and check the boards. You should have one Zorro II compatible board visible in there, that means that the DMAC is at least working. Then we can continue debugging. Last edited by Jope; 14 June 2007 at 21:57.

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31 May 2007, 07:25	#2
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,914	If you have a Supra, just get an external SCSI enclosure with a CD-ROM drive inside. The 25pin port in the back is the same as in a Macintosh. I don't mean to dishearten, but the A570/690 is not worth the trouble, better keep them as collectors items. :-)

31 May 2007, 09:44	#3
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	@Jope: Thanks for replying again. I guess you're right. Just felt a little frustrating to know that the hardware itself isn't really defect, but still doesn't work due to some lame battery. Anyway.. I guess I'll let it remain that way. Anybody knows how much these A690 drives has been sold for on ebay and so on?

31 May 2007, 15:24	#5
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	@jimbo: Nope. Just the ordinary Kickstart 1.3 hand (if no harddrive connected). The leds on the drive shine as brightly as ever though. I remember getting the CDTV screen when turning it on last time a bunch of years ago, so I know it worked by then at least.

04 June 2007, 06:01	#7
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	Any chance the contents this A570 ROM could be read somehow? I might be able to get hold of a ROM burner.

04 June 2007, 08:29	#8
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	it could be worth a try frantic, I supose at this point in your venture there is very little to lose... A question though, can an A570 rom be used in an A690 ? Could you not just change the CD drive mechanism for a working one in the A570 ?

04 June 2007, 09:35	#10
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	I have not been able to find any information whether the A570 ROM will work or not in a A690, but I guess it's pretty much the only thing I can do as I doubt there are any A690-drives left with intact batteries. And as zipper said here, they are very similar so in principle nothing prevents it from being worth a try as far as I know. The A690 drives released were done in 1991 so I doubt any batteries survived until this day, which would mean there is no A690 ROM chips/files available unless someone managed to read the contents of those ROM chips in the 90s or so. If anyone got an idea how to read the contents of a A570 ROM chip, let me know. Laters! //FTC

04 June 2007, 09:41	#11
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Frantic What series and factor is the A570 ROM chip? does it have a designation, Alexh / Jope are pretty hot a spotting a chip type or two. once you know what it is, then maybe (if read enable lines are intact) you might be able to use a simple serial reader. Take a picture and I am sure some one here would have a crack at it.

04 June 2007, 10:02	#12
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,466	I am 100% sure they use a 27C400 EPROM just like the Amiga kickstart chips.

04 June 2007, 10:59	#13
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@frantic "points to alexh" see .... told you....

11 June 2007, 15:05	#14
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	As stated in my first post in this thread, the chip says: D27C400-150V10 (just like alexh says) The main problem is getting the ROM (contents), I guess. Anybody got a clue?

11 June 2007, 15:11	#15
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,466	Remove chip, stick in (compatible) EPROM programmer, hit read. You could try hot-swapping with the kickstart ROM in an 16-bit Amiga (500/600/2000/CDTV) and using the transrom application, but I wouldnt!

11 June 2007, 16:20	#16
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,914	You also need to use a fastrom or relocing softkicking tool before hotswapping the kickstart.

11 June 2007, 17:30	#18
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,914	If it's a relocing kickstart mapper like skick, it would work ok. The kickstart rippers always look in $f80000, but skick usually kicks it at $200000 (depending of course on where you actually have some free RAM)

14 June 2007, 20:11	#19
frantic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Lund / Sweden Posts: 19	Alexh: Sorry if I am dumb now, but... As I understood things, the ROM in the A690 I have is a battery backed up one, and now gone. Hard to read the ROM contents then. That's why I am looking for someone being able to read out the A570 ROM (which I do not have).

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