no fastram in amiga 3000?

[sovietconscript]

did the amiga 3000 all come with fastram? i ask because mine says 1,6**,*** graphics mem and then 0 for other mem which i assume would be the fastram. i thought all 3000's came with 8 megs of it.

is there any mem upgrade cards anyone can reccommend?

[alexh]

I think some shipped with as low as 2Mbytes FastRAM, but it's 20 plus years since it was first sold, anything could have happened to it.

The Zip RAM could have been removed. The battery could have leaked and destroyed all the RAM circuits.

You're never going to know unless you LOOK INSIDE. Unfortunately to see that half of the motherboard you'll have to take out all the internal drives and shelving to be able to see.

http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/a3000

The RAM is in the lower left hand side of the motherboard as you look from the front.

Probably a good idea to get 16Mbytes of FPM or Static Column ZipRAM (32 * 1Mx4) off eBay before you start, then you can upgrade at the same time.

[alexh]

1Mx4 Zip RAM chips can be hard to get hold of, especially 32 of them.

DJbase on this board used to sell a ZIP to 72-pin SIMM adapter.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

The Zip RAM could have been removed. The battery could have leaked and destroyed all the RAM circuits.
.

last time i opened up i did see the battery. looked pretty good to me but since you mentioned it. any body have any experence with those lithum battery replacments? looks easy to replace the old batterys with but are they any known problems with useing them?

[alexh]

I still recommend removing the old NiCd battery before it leaks.

As for fitting a replacement, there are much better things to spend your time and effort on IMO.

Like

• Checking to see if you have any Zip RAM and upgrading to 16Mbytes FAST RAM.
• Checking to see if you have all the latest chips: Buster -11, DMAC -04 & Ramsey -07, SCSI -08 and KS3.1
• Buying & fitting a SCSI->IDE adapter
• Buying & fitting an IDE->CF adapter in the spare floppy bay. Makes it so easy to exchange files with the PC

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

I still recommend removing the old NiCd battery before it leaks.

As for fitting a replacement, there are much better things to spend your time and effort on IMO.


Like

• Checking to see if you have any Zip RAM and upgrading to 16Mbytes FAST RAM.
• Checking to see if you have all the latest chips: Buster -11, DMAC -04 & Ramsey -07, SCSI -08 and KS3.1
• Buying & fitting a SCSI->IDE adapter
• Buying & fitting an IDE->CF adapter in the spare floppy bay. Makes it so easy to exchange files with the PC

1) nothing in the DIP fast ram slots, there were 16 little block things in the ZIP ram slots though

2) MB B2 RV. 9/03 Kickstart 40.68
390539-07 71- Super Buster
390537-02 81- Super DMAC
390541-04 51- Ramsey

2 SCSI chips top one - 8520a -1
lower one - 2491 24

3) i'm intrested in the CF route and there is a slot in the daughter board so the panel one will work but there are not enough power connectors since the cf slot and the scsi > IDE adaptor need power


of course its all moot now because after putting the beast back together it won't power up correctly, as in i get a black screen. i swear that was one of the most frusterateing things i ever took apart and had to put back together. now i'm dreading takeing apart again to figure out why its not doing anything now.

[alexh]

Which revision motherboard do you have??

16 chips in the Zip sockets eh? I am pretty sure that some of it is your chip-ram but I'd have to know the motherboard revision (and perhaps a picture) to know for sure.

It is looking more and more like you have a fault somewhere, which was affecting the RAM. Are you sure there is no battery leakage? It would look like white crystals on the battery and green fur on other components.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

2 SCSI chips

There is only one SCSI chip, 8520A-1 is CIA.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

2491 24

Should say something like WD33C93A and then 00-08 or lower.

[sovietconscript]

wd33c93a -pl
00-04 9109
1683922 - 2001
PROTO

i took pics, i'll post later

[alexh]

Nursing your A3000 back into working condition is your first task. Any idea what has happened?

You might consider replacing the SCSI chip if it gives you any trouble in the future. It is the oldest version. The replacement parts are cheap.

If you ever consider upgrading the CPU or getting some Zorro boards you probably want to get a revision 11 buster too.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

Nursing your A3000 back into working condition is your first task. Any idea what has happened?

You might consider replacing the SCSI chip if it gives you any trouble in the future. It is the oldest version. The replacement parts are cheap.

If you ever consider upgrading the CPU or getting some Zorro boards you probably want to get a revision 11 buster too.

i'm going to open up again later and give a look. it could be anything even a loss cable. i had alot of trouble fitting it back together.

i'm considering selling my arcade supergun (which i never use) and just buying a 25mhtz A3000. that doesn't mean i'm not intrested in getting this one working again though. i'll post if i find anything tonight

[alexh]

Why buy another Amiga when you could spend the money on an accelerator, or more RAM or even a gfx card.

Why get another A3000? An 4000 will have AGA.

[sovietconscript]

Originally Posted by alexh

Why buy another Amiga when you could spend the money on an accelerator, or more RAM or even a gfx card.

Why get another A3000? An 4000 will have AGA.

i know, a bit of that is frusteration talking since its been alot of problems since i bought it i was thinking it may be just easier to by a 3000 that was already mostly decked out.

i don't really like the 4000been told its acually a bit inferior to the 3000 in a few ways as well but again i'm no expert on the subject. though i do eventually plan on buying a 1200 for aga games.

acceelerators also seem to be rare and about the same cost as just buying a new amiga anyways but again my searching has been limited to ebay so far.

but as i said i think i'm mostly just frusterated at the thing though these forums have helped tremendously. i'll hopeully open it up and take anouther look tonight but my end goal is to pretty much end up with a maxed out amiga.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

i don't really like the 4000 been told its acually a bit inferior to the 3000 in a few ways

Like what?

It has a scandoubler but AGA more than makes up for it.

Originally Posted by sovietconscript

acceelerators also seem to be rare and about the same cost as just buying a new amiga

040 accelerators start at $35 and go to about $100 and 060 ones start at $180 and go upto $300. They are not that rare, at least one per week internationally on ebay.

[sovietconscript]

i beleive it had to do with ram speeds or something. the 3000 could accually access its ram faster then the 4000 could.
again this is stuff i just remember reading on the web when i first bought the 3000 so i can't vouche for it completely.

here, i found the link, its at the bottom of the article http://www.vintageamiga.com/amiga4000.php

also being able to do VGA right out of the box is anouther big plus for me with the 3000.

my big problem is probibly being in the US. the amiga was popular here but nothing like it was in UK/Europe. so its harder to get parts here and generally it seems at a higher price. all the accelerators i've seen on ebay here are pretty pricy. and usually the shipping from the UK + exchange rate makes most purchases not worth it.


ok, looks like one of the ZIP DRAM blocks poped (first pic on the right) out and the pins are bent. i put it back best i could but still nothing. could that be the problem?

click on them to enlarge