Posts by rabidgerry

I have them, just not physical versions. I bought the digital pack. This is why I was having issues using Acatool before as I had to take out my CF card to install new OS on blank card and it was just a nightmare. Workaround was to use HstWB image for 3.1.4 install which have a rom switcher function built. Not quite sure how it works but it is able to find rom for 3.1.4 on your HD and this is placed there during installation from the image. It's all a little confusing actually but I have made OS 3.1.4 installs a few times now spliced with Classic WB full and it's great.

However as I have the rom files, a friend of mine is actually going to burn me chips as well. He's just waiting on blank roms.

Such a mystery! No one seems to know.

What is wrong with the roms? I have them the right way around don't I?

If you need closer let me know

[img]https://i.ibb.co/XpXgF4K/My-Amiga-Motherboard-rev2b.jpg[/img]

Sorry I totally did not realise you wanted pictures.

Ok so one positive thing so far, after getting a new battery the RTC actually WORKS! This is good.

But it still doesn't explain why the RTC is detected even when I remove it!

I will send you pics Jens sorry I missed your request.

Ok couldn't find a screen shot of sysinfo saying I had no clock but I'm pretty sure it did not before I ever attempted to install one.

I put the clck back on the ACA again and I tried something called "Restartclock" which is a program used to identify issues with an RTC and it of course through up errors indicating an issue.

I've just ordered a new clock today to try it out instead.

None of this of course explains the mystery of why it says I have a clock installed when I remove the module so I really don't know what else to try regarding that. I may get another RTC and find I still have the same issue but it's worth finding out I suppose.

No the only person who ever soldered anything to the main board was me and it was to carry out a modification to the RGB output. Basically a wire going from a resistor near the RGB output and soldered to my RF shield. I may not be describing this very well so here is a link to a picture of the mod.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/LgkhtYs/Wired2.jpg[/img]

It's strange as I never had any clock module before in my sysinfo until I installed this RTC module the other day. Obviously as it was not working I removed it. I am looking for an old picture of my sysinfo to check this.

setclock load

setclock reset

these commands don't seem to do anything. Which makes sense since there is no clock module currently installed. I still think it is weird that is appears in the sysinfo and in scout programs showing there is a clock installed. I even updated sysinfo from 3.26 to 4.3.

So I tried the RTC on the Amiga itself. It did not work. Could be the batter but either way I think it is a dud. Now the issue is that the Amiga reports a clock even when the clock module has been uninstalled. I realise this is probably nothing to do with the ACA1233n but I was just curious as it was on the card that I first tried the RTC.

Just a bizarre update to report with this, my Amiga is reporting in sysinfo that there is a clock found. Which of course there cannot be since I have uninstalled the clockmodule. Any ideas as to what this may be? A short circuit somewhere?

Hi, I have recently bought a Real Time Clock module and fitted this to my ACA1233n. Initially my Amiga 1200 did not boot but after re-fitting everything again it booted.

I then set the time and date via workbench. However when I powered down and left the Amiga switched off for 20mins I loaded up again and noticed the time had not saved using the real time clock however the date had saved. So I set the time again and before I turned the power off I decided to check the ACA1233n to see if it was behaving ok.

What I got was half the speed nearly when running a speed test. The speed was 5567 dhrystones where as I normally get 9201 dhrystones or else 9061 dhrystones. It is never this slow. So I decided to power the Amiga off again anyway and check later on if the date and time had saved.

The did not save. Both date and time where incorrect on bootup. So I figured there is something wrong with the RTC module I bought (it had a battery already fitted). I then went to check the speed of the ACA1233n and I noticed I was still getting slower speed than normal when the CPU was set to 40mhz. The speeds I was getting in sysinfo this time where 8567 dhrystones and fluctuating back and forth to around 9060 dhrystones.

So I then removed the RTC module. When I booted the Amiga 1200 again to check the accelerator without the RTC the speeds where normal and I got 9201 dhrystones over a period of an hour consistently.

So I am wondering would a faulty RTC cause such issue with the ACA1233N card?

The seller of the RTC also would like me to check the RTC module using the Amiga 1200 RTC header on the motherboard, however am I correct in my understanding that the Amiga 1200 RTC header cannot be used when you have a ACA1233n installed?

Thanks

RG

Even when installed I can't get open OS 3.1.4 hard drive on my Amiga, I get the error ""DH0: not a dos disk" unless I go back to 3.1 hard drive and map the new rom from there and then pull out the CF card at early boot menu and swap with new one, then boot.

This is even after the point where I have full installation complete on new CF HD, ACAtool installed and mapped to kick 3.1.4 rom on the new CF HD in devs/kickstarts.

So I have been messing around with this for some time now but I still don't understand at what point can I pull out my CF HD so I can format a new one with the new OS 3.1.4?

Sure I can' switch the Acatool to map to kickstart 3.1.4 but if I can't cold boot without losing the kickstart in ram and I can only softboot, when can I pull the CF out so as not to load all the partitions on it and allow a fresh install of 3.1.4 on a new CF card?

Ok tried this again.

I am getting into into ram now, well briefly however it wont stay there. I obviously need to remove my CF hard disk when I reboot so that later on I can place a blank one in and install OS 3.1.4 on it. However when I remove this HD my A1200 just reverts back to the chip roms 3.1.

I managed to achieve the 3.1.4 screen only twice and to this this mid way through a reboot I pulled the CF HD. There has to be a safer way than this? I thought once I loaded the rom into ACA memory it would stay there. I guess this is not the case?

I'm not sure what I should be doing in order to achieve the new rom insert disk screen.

If I leave the CF HD in and get this screen (see pic link)

[img]https://i.ibb.co/QPtGn6x/IMG-20200602-140844.jpg[/img]

and the only way to progress then is by placing in the install disk. So this leaves me no opportunity to remove the CF HD. Any ideas would be welcome.

I did originally try this with v1.05 but I shall try with say an earlier version.

I am really sorry to dredge this back up again , but I cannot get my ACATool to load kickstart 3.1.4.

So I have Classic Workbench 3.1 installed on my CF HD, I use the maprom feature normally and without issue on ACATool. When I try and map to kickstart 3.1.4 it simply will not work. I am unsure that when I map this rom do I need to remove my CF HD with 3.1 on it?

What I experience is usually this:

I use ACATool 2.4 to map to kickstart 3.1.4.

I then soft reset my Amiga

After a few seconds of a black screen my Amiga will eventually revert back to the installed chip roms for kickstart 3.1 and that leaves me at that screen prompting to insert a floppy disk.

What am I doing wrong? It is probably my lack of knowledge so I was just wondering if you had some advice?

BTW the 3.1.4 rom files are exactly 524288 bytes so I don't think there is anything wrong with my kickstart rom file. Also it works in WINUAE and give me the correct kickstart screen for 3.1.4.

Jens thank you for explaining that to me. I have enabled vbrMOVE now.

Now a little off topic, I hope you don't mind?

I understand the capabilities of the card in a more basic sense, being able to turn the processor off and using the A1200 stock processor for example and changing speeds of the 030, however I'm not quite sure about the options in the actual GUI and what they mean?

Could you tell me what each option does

With FastMem (this is everything on I think including fastmem and 030)

Fast No C0 Mem

Only C0 Mem

No FastMem

And do I enable cache and burst in SYSINFO?

Very grateful for all your help.

My apologies, I didn't realise there was a loss of data. Explains it all.

Ok so more developments and quite simply, I selected the original 3.1rom I had at the very beginning, mapped it using maprom feature in ACATool and tried my second hard drive instead of the other one I used first.

The alternative hard drive loaded no problem both on cold boot and soft reset. So this could be a card brand issue.

I have created another new hard drive literally just to test with the Maprom function so I will get back with the results from that.

I have a few questions if you don't mind answering them I would appreciate it:

1) What kind of benefits does the Maprom function have on the entire system, where would I see improvements?

2)What is vbrMOVE and how might it be useful to me?

Any information would be appreciated - thanks.

Is there any particular reason that I had to re-register my email address and username again to sign into this support forum and also create the thread I started from scratch? This a link to the original and it says the page cannot be found anymore?

ACA1233n-40 Maprom Issue

Briefly my issue before was I could not change kickstart in maprom and use left mouse button to bypass the acatool in startup sequence so I had to comment it out manually and change the rom in the tool again. But then encountered the issue of my cf card not loading from cold boot and having to soft reset once the kickstart screen loaded up in order for my CF card to load. I got some advice below.

Jens · Sep 27th 2019, 8:14 am

(Quote from rabidgerry)

Your description sounds like the CF card does not come up fast enough to be seen by the system. This is a decade-old problem of the Amiga and has been semi-solved by cutting the reset line of the IDE port, so the card/harddrive generate their own reset timing and come up a bit faster than when being kept in reset by the Amiga for a slightly longer time.

I call this "semi-solved" because it's not a nice solution. The original Kickstart 3.1 extends the wait-time for mass-storage devices to 30 seconds, giving harddrives plenty of time to spin up. What you may have found online are hacks, maybe not original ROMs. I suggest to go for the real thing instead of downloading from dubious sources: Get yourself the latest version of Kickstart and OS, version 3.1.4 from Hyperion, the official maintainers of the classic Amiga OS.

So the maprom function I am trying with other versions of kickstart and it is not picking them up, do I need to name the kickstart in a specific way for maprom to pickup the rom properly and save it into memory?