Problem with Amiga 3000T , Please help !

[nscaleworld]

I have an Amiga 3000T that has a couple of problems. First, I can not boot from any disk unless I first hold down both mouse buttons and then turn cpu cach off. Only after turning off the cpu cach will the Amiga 3000T boot from a disk. Second, I can not get the computer to recognize any SCSI hard drive. I can load up HDTools and low level format, partition, and verify a hard drive, but after I reboot, the hard drive does not show up in Workbench 3.1. The harddrive does not even show up in the list on the WB 3.1 Install disk.

Here are the specs of my Amiga 3000T:

030 processor on motherboard
2 megs chip memory
16 megs fast memory
Rev 08 WD SCSI chip
Kickstart 3.1 roms
880K Amiga 3000 disk drive (DF0)
1.76 MB Amiga 3000 disk drive (DF1)
Newer Ramsey and Demac chips

I am really scratching my head on this problem.

PS: Battery was removed and the motherboard is clean, almost new.

[magnetic]

Originally Posted by nscaleworld

PS: Battery was removed and the motherboard is clean, almost new.

This is possibly your problem right there. A3000 MUST have batt installed for proper SCSI operations.. possibly cache settings too. Put a battery in and report back. Google for directions there is tons of guides.

Also check to be sure that you have proper termination packs on MB where scsi chip is, if they are not present and you dont have a physical terminator on the external scsi port you could have scsi probs. But definately put the battery in.

[roy bates]

+1 for magnetic,put a battery back in. the 3000T wont like not having one because of the scsi.



EDIT:my bad i should know better#facepalm#

[magnetic]

roy

Righto. AFAIK the A3000 stores SCSI NVRAM settings in the Batt.

[nscaleworld]

WRONG! The Amiga 3000 computer does not need the battery for SCSI to work. I have other Amiga 3000 computers, all with battery removed, and they work just fine. I have a Commodore SCSI terminator plugged into the 25-pin SCSI port.

And, what about the disk problem, I should not have to disable cpu cach to get a disk to boot. My other Amiga 3000 computers boot just fine from a disk.

[lost_loven]

I second that too, ran my a3k longest time with out a battery and no terminator on the 25 pin port too boot!

lost

[nscaleworld]

Bump.

[nscaleworld]

I am finding it hard to believe that none of you knows enough about the Amiga 3000T to help me with this problem. If I had put this post on Amiga Org, at least 20 to 30 people would have responded by now.

So, again, here are the problems:

Amiga 3000T will not boot a disk unless I first disable cpu cach.

Amiga 3000T will not recognize a hard drive.

Do any of you know what the default jumper settings are for an Amiga 3000T with onboard 68030, I need the default for all of the jumpers on the motherboard.

Thank you.

[diablothe2nd]

Originally Posted by nscaleworld

I am finding it hard to believe that none of you knows enough about the Amiga 3000T to help me with this problem. If I had put this post on Amiga Org, at least 20 to 30 people would have responded by now.

so go post it on amiga.org

not a very nice way of asking for help imo.

[lost_loven]

here ya go, first hit i got on google

http://www.l8r.net/technical/t-3000-jumpers.shtml

picture of the mother board for something to compare

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/downlo...0tmb_rev61.jpg

lost

[r.cade]

It's just a "help vampire"

[lost_loven]

What id is the scsi hard drive set to? 7 is reserved so it has to be 6 or lower and be terminated. Is the hard drive set for auto boot? (checked off). Is it under 4 gigs for the first partition?

try just to partition the drive and reboot and see if it shows up in workbench.

lost

[nscaleworld]

The hard drive is set for SCSI ID 0 and is terminated. It is a Quantum 170S. I also tried a 249 mb Seagate hard drive. I do not need very big hard drives because I use a SCSI tower that has a CD Rom drive and a ZIP drive. Anyway, I do know what I am doing when it comes to SCSI, so that is not the problem. I believe that if I can fix the disk not wanting to boot problem, that would solve the hard drive problem. I think the 2 problems are tied together. So, what would cause a disk to not boot unless you first disable the cpu cach? Please, do not guess, THINK about the problem.

J853 should be set at 1-2 , But I can not find that jumper!

FYI: The industry standard for SCSI IDs are:

0 - hard drive
1 - hard drive
2 - hard drive
3 - CD Rom drive
4 - CD Rom drive
5 - ZIP drive
6 - ZIP drive
7 - SCSI controller

If everyone would follow this standard there would be less problems with SCSI and people would be on the same page.

[magnetic]

Originally Posted by r.cade

It's just a "help vampire"

Yeah kind of funny the guy asks for help then refuses to try the fixes we suggest kinda weird

[nscaleworld]

Originally Posted by magnetic

Yeah kind of funny the guy asks for help then refuses to try the fixes we suggest kinda weird

Because some of you do not know what you are talking about and are just talking out your butt. Amiga computers do not need the battery in order to work. All of my other Amiga computers have their batteries removed and they all work just fine. So, yes, I am not going to waste my time trying something that I know is not the problem.

[magnetic]

Originally Posted by nscaleworld

Because some of you do not know what you are talking about and are just talking out your butt. Amiga computers do not need the battery in order to work. All of my other Amiga computers have their batteries removed and they all work just fine. So, yes, I am not going to waste my time trying something that I know is not the problem.

haha how many amigas have you repaired? I used to have an Amiga retail business and repaired and built new tek toasters and flyers.

Many people here are "experts"

instead of being a fool and ridiculing people trying to help you why dont you do your own research on A3000 NVRAM settings, then again you probably dont know wtf NVram is.

[desiv]

Magnetic can be a bit abrasive at times (Maybe it's the Los Angeles thing, I grew up there and it wouldn't surprise me.. .. Man, I miss Tommy's.. er. sorry..), but it doesn't mean he's not right.

From here:
http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/amiga/a3000guide.txt

NVRAM
~~~~~
The A3000 also has a NVRAM configuration which is powered by the
same battery which the clock is. It supports the setup of the following:

SCSI Controller ID: This places the onboard SCSI controller
at a specific ID location, 7 by default.
You can change this to something else,
to get a device at 7, but be careful
of conflicting the SCSI controller and the
device addresses.

Long SCSI Timeout: This slows the boot process for SCSI
drives, for those units which take longer
to spin up and be ready.

Synchronous SCSI: This enables Synchronous SCSI mode,
which can speed access on some drives.
This is fully operational on Kickstart 3.1.

Multiple LUNs Mode: This enables multiple LUN's, which allows
for multiple drives at each address.

These options can be toggled using various freeware programs
available on the Aminet file archive on the Internet. SCSIPrefs
(Aminet:hard/drivr/SCSIPrefs.lha) is one of them, but there are many
others. Some things to note: It's a better idea to get a Prefs program
that is simple, basic and doesn't use any OS extensions like MUI, as if
you accidentally set something wrong and your system doesn't boot, it'll
be easier to load your basic Prefs program than something which requires
all of MUI. Why do I write this? A friend did this and had to install a
base MUI setup, taking many extra hours.

I suppose it's possible that the default settings (if there's no battery) will work for most situations. You "might" be OK without a battery, but it sounds like you probably really should have a battery..

desiv

[nscaleworld]

Ok, I have decided to go ahead and install a coin battery holder and diode. I have never done this before, so I need instructions. I do have the C2032 coin battery holder, but I do not know what diode to get. After I do this install, I will let you guys know if it fixed the problem.

[nscaleworld]

Have any of you installed the coin battery holder and diode? If so, what diode did you use? Any pictures of your work?

[roy bates]

you can use a schottky diode,or if you want it to be even simpler try a vl3032 rechargable battery and no diode.

as for the cache problem,that could be a motherboard logic and/or cpu problem.
try re-seating all the socketed ic's including ram check for cracks around the plcc sockets and check the power supply.

without actually seeing the machine diagnosing problems like this can be very difficult.