[ACA500plus & ACA1234] no fastram while booting in 68000 mode

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hello Everyone,


    I'd like to keep the possibility to boot the ACA500plus/ACA1234 set in vanilla 68000 mode as well. However, after doing so, the ACA500plus Fast memory seems to vanish completely. There is just 1MB Chip and 0.5 MB Slow instead. When I remove ACA1234 everything returns to normal.


    Does anyone have similar problem? Am I doing anything wrong? Or maybe this is expected behavior?


    Best regards,

    Robert

    Thank you for your response Jens. Do we have the very same problem for ACA500plus & ACA1221lc?


    ----------------------

    Note, I attached the wrong memory status screenshot in the original post.

    Here is the proper one, made while booting in 68000 mode.

    Jens Is there a solution on the way for this problem? It's really annoying, that the fastram of the ACA500plus is not usable, when in 68000 mode in combination with ACA1234.


    Ist there something that can be done to help finding a solution?


    Thanks in advance.

    Quote from nils.schomber

    Ist there something that can be done to help finding a solution?

    The ACA500plus registers are openly described - you could check with a monitor or some small routines if you can switch on the memory and if it's usable. This would at least give a hint if it's a hardware or a software problem. I don't have the time to attempt a replication of the problem right now.


    Jens

    I found the documentation of the registers. But since i'm not a prorammer, i don't understand what to do to switch on the memory. Would you be so kind , and explain in some short sentences how to activate the fastram of the ACA500+ with the registers?


    But i just observed some strange behavior: I switched of the ACA1234 in F3 Menu, loaded my 68000 configuration, with kick 3.2.2 and Amiga OS 3.2.2.1. After booting up, i saw there was the missing fastram. When i rebooted and went in configuration menu of the ACA500+, i couldn't reactivate the ACA1234 in F3 Menu.


    After switching off and on the a500, the ACA1234 was active again. I tried to replicate the former behavior, but i wasn't able to recreate this.

    Before I explain what values to write into which register in which order, please let me know what tools you have available to manipulate registers or memory of the Amiga.


    Jens

    Megamon, C-Mon, HRTmon - but if you have never used any of them, it'll take me longer to explain than to do it myself - which is not an option on a day when quarterly taxes must be completed.


    Jens

    Any chance to get this problem solved? It's really annoying, because in some cases it's really useful to just use the 68EC000 of the ACA500+ instead of the much faster 68030 on the ACA1234. But without the FastRAM i can't use WHDLoad.

    There has been an update of the ACA500plus menu system, which fixed ACA1234 and Kick/WB 1.3. Did you install that and tried if it still has this problem?


    Jens

    Hmm... there seems to be an old version in the Wiki - must be a backup database or some other hickup. Last version is from April of this year.


    I'll check/fix that. Give me some time...


    Jens

    Fixed - V0.148 from April 17th, 2024 is available in the Wiki now.


    Edit: Internal notes atually say that 68000 mode with ACA1234 connected actually attempted to handle 128M Fastmem, which is fixed in this version. Might actually be the cause of all other fastmem disappearing.


    Jens