Is SDMAC rev 04 buggy?
rno
from an A4000 I was told. I myself own an A3000 machine. After cutting a square
hole in the drive bay to give space to the 040 heat sink, I installed the
A3640. I had captured various messages in c.s.a.hardware about hints and
suggestions regarding how to install an A3640 board into an A3000, and had
upgrade from my V36-with-softkick kickstart to kickstart 37.175 chips, and I
had replaced the very first Static Column ZIP module with a Page Mode ZIP. I
did make sure 68040.library was present on the boot partition. But upon
starting, the best I could achive was a yellow screen.
I had a newer set of SDMAC and RAMSEY chips available. The A3000 was originally
shipped with SDMAC-02 and RAMSEY-04, and I had SDMAC-04 and RAMSEY-07
available. Now, this was a year ago, and I am not sure I remember exactly what
I tried and what happened. But I know the only combination I could use that
worked with the A3640 installed was SDMAC-04 with RAMSEY-04. Otherwise I only
got the yellow screen, or another cute problem: In one configuration, the
system started, but failed to read the battmem bits, and system time & date
alike. Certain bits were always zeroed when being read, giving very funny
results when the system attempted reading and setting the Real Time Clock for
instance.
However, using the SDMAC-04 and RAMSEY-04 combination proved to be not entirely
successful in the long run. I have had the system running like this for a year,
but there was two problems I noticed: The shareware program TrapDoor was unable
to read its keyfile ('keyfile fatally damaged') and IPrefs claiming it couldn't
find the background picture I had selected in WBPattern. Upon running LoadWB
the picture always loads fine anyways. The problem with reading the keyfile was
solved, amazingly enough, by using "DynamiCache" on the disk partition where
the keyfile resides. No other cache program had this effect. It does something
with disk access that 'bypasses' this hardware related problem.
Now, I decided to invest in Ami-FileSafe, having read the review in
c.s.a.reviews. But now this problem with the A3640 surfaced again... I cannot
format AFS partitions, they give all sorts of errors UNLESS I happen to set
DynamiCache to cache that partition, then the AFS partition works just fine!
But that is an unacceptable kludge, I need to get this working properly.
Therefore, I took the system apart today I wrote down everything that I thought
could be of help in determining what could be wrong with my hardware setup.
Here it goes:
A3000 MOTHERBOARD
-----------------
Commodore B2
FAB 313312 REV 9/03
P/N 313313 REV 9/03
TF/HD/DH/GB/SH/JB/MN
A3000 PCBA 0103391031331004100665
COPYRIGHT 1990 COMMODRE AMIGA INC.
QC / ASSEMBLED IN HONG KONG / PASSED
A3000P
S/N 10947
HKC WW 35/00/91 (35 handwritten)
[PAULA]
8354R7
2891 27
[DENISE]
8373R3
4390 23
[FAT AGNUS]
8372B
318069-03
4190 23
[AMBER]
390538-03
51-AMBER
(C)(M) CBM 1989
2891 50006D
[CPU]
MC68030FE25B
09C74N
QEFC9047
MALAYSIA
[FPU]
MC68882FN25A
0C35H
QEUR9040
[both 8520 chips]
8520A-1
2991 24
[SCSI]
WD33C93A-PL
00-08 9244 F
68110A102005
[DMAC]
390537-04
65-SUPER DMAC
(C)(M) CBM 1989,90,91
5192 50009D
[GARY]
390540-02
41-FAT GARY
(C)(M) CBM 1989, 90
3990 50008B
[RAMSEY]
390541-04
51-RAMSEY
(C)(M) CBM 1989,90
4290 50012D
[BUSTER]
390539-11
45-SUPER BUSTER
(C)(M) CBM 1992
0594 50013K
JUMPERS
J483 NC
J481 2-3
J482 1-2
J200 2-3
J350 1-2
J352 2-3
J852 1-2
J151 1-2
J152 1-2
J102 2-3
J104 2-3
J100 3-4
J103 3-4
J851 2-3
MEMORY
All ZIP sockets are populated, giving me the full 16MB capacity. Bank 0 is
Static Column with the very first one exchanged for a Page Mode ZIP. The rest
are all Page Mode ZIPs.
A3640 CPU BOARD
---------------
A3640 BOARD REV 3.0
COPYRIGHT 1992 ...
ASSY 364856
FAB 364855
JUMPERS
J100 1-2,3-4 (the one next to J400)
J400 1-2
J100 1-2 ("DO NOT REMOVE", seems to be labled J100 too?!)
Here are some messages from the TrapDoor support conference I saved, that might
be of interest:
o /
-+-+-X-+-+- CUT HERE -+-+-+-+-+-+-
o \
*** Area: [FidoNet] TrapDoor Support Datum: 10 Apr 94 15:15:00
*** Från: Glyn Hughes (2:252/420.0)
*** Till: Jean Perez
*** Ämne: 040 & Trapdoor
In a message dated 31 Mar 94 20:08:23, Jean Perez wrote:
JP> I'm currently using 1.83 i dont think anyone is running older version
JP> today!!! Thanks anyway, the problem is now fixed. It was the DMA-C
JP> chip revision 04 seen to have a big bug. I installed back the revision
JP> 02 and now i can again launch trapdoor correctly. I'm goin to have a
JP> phone next week with C= to talk about this problem.
Slightly off-topic but.....
I was beginning to wonder if I was imagining things. I use an Amiga 3000T with
Mercury 68040 accelerator and have recently updated the WD SCSI and Super
Buster chips. On fitting the updated SDMAC I noticed two things. Although my
CD-ROM drive was recognised none of the 640MB data on it was! :-( The flashy CD
disk icon turned into the built-in Amiga DOS icon and all the files had
disappeared. On refitting the standard SDMAC it was back to normal.
On experimenting, even with the machine back to its standard revision of chips,
just by updating the SDMAC had the same effect!
This also would not decode my TrapDoor keyfile! (Back on-topic ;-)
Any ideas Max, Rene, Roger, Peter......?
__
/// Regards,
__///
\XX/ -=Glyn=-
-+- DLG Pro v1.0/PDQMail v2.53
+ Origin: MERCURY AMIGA, UK [+44-(0)295-272662] (2:252/420)
*** Area: [FidoNet] TrapDoor Support Datum: 16 Apr 94 9:18:15
*** Från: Jean Perez (2:301/330.0)
*** Till: Glyn Hughes
*** Ämne: 040 & Trapdoor
*In a message dated Sun 10 Apr 94 15:15 Glyn Hughes wrotes:
Hi Glyn!
> On experimenting, even with the machine back to its standard revision of
> chips, just by updating the SDMAC had the same effect!
>
> This also would not decode my TrapDoor keyfile! (Back on-topic ;-)
Does the revision of your upgrade SDMAC as the nr. 04 ?? because seen to be a
BUG in the rev.04 Technical C= home told me about a revision 06 of SDMAC and
also a new SCSI chip available on April. I not called back to upgrade because i
have all running fine at this time. Ask your dealer or directly to C=.
Greats... Jean.
-+- MEBBSNet 0.143
+ Origin: -HANDY- 5.0 Giga for AMIGA (2:301/330.0)
o /
-+-+-X-+-+- CUT HERE -+-+-+-+-+-+-
o \
So, what is the story? Is rev 04 buggy? I guess I should have updated RAMSEY at
the same time, but I did try a newer version that was supposed to work the rev
04 SDMAC, but it failed to work with the A3640 board installed.
NOTE THAT THE PROBLEM WITH DISK READING IS PRESENT EVEN IF I REMOVE THE A3640!
Just the SDMAC switch from rev 02 to rev 04 produces this effect. But with the
older rev 02 I cannot seem to get my A3640 board up and running...:-/
Please help, anyone!
Is there a SDMAC-06, and where can I get it?
_ . __
_ // /!Net /est Bench
-\X/-SYSO...@atb.ct.se-
... Logic is a systematic method of coming
to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
Joern Plewka
(02.09.1995)
> About a year ago, I got myself a A3640 rev 3.0 board, that had been removed
> from an A4000 I was told. I myself own an A3000 machine. After cutting a square
> hole in the drive bay to give space to the 040 heat sink, I installed the
> A3640. I had captured various messages in c.s.a.hardware about hints and
> suggestions regarding how to install an A3640 board into an A3000, and had
> upgrade from my V36-with-softkick kickstart to kickstart 37.175 chips, and I
> had replaced the very first Static Column ZIP module with a Page Mode ZIP. I
> did make sure 68040.library was present on the boot partition. But upon
> starting, the best I could achive was a yellow screen.
You need 3.1 of better 3.2 rework.
> I had a newer set of SDMAC and RAMSEY chips available. The A3000 was originally
> shipped with SDMAC-02 and RAMSEY-04, and I had SDMAC-04 and RAMSEY-07
> available.
You got a DMAC-04? Congratulations! Somebody wanted to pay $100 for mine;-)
DMAC-04 and Ramsey-07 is the right combination.
> Is there a SDMAC-06, and where can I get it?
None after -02 is available -04 was the last one.
/ J_Pl...@Amtrash.comlink.de \
| J_Pl...@People-S.people.de |
/ Plew...@Informatik.fh-hamburg.de \
+-------------------------------------+
\ A3000/030/6/52 A3000T/040/18/800 /