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A-Max IV Problems

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Bob Dickow

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Jan 15, 1994, 10:46:10 PM1/15/94
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Well, partly to make all you Emplant owners feel better, I
just got my A-Max IV today. Several significant problems:

(1) Can not use any EGS screens via my GVP EGS Spectrum
24/28. Support drivers are included for GfxBase, Piccasso,
and Retina. The manual says that other boards 'should'
work. I don't think they checked 'em all out.

(2) Mac always boots in black & white and have to go
into the control panels to set the monitor to 16 color
native Amiga ECS output, which does work BTW. It won't
remember this next boot.

(3) The Mac always crashes the Amy on shutdown. No Guru,
just complete lockup.

(4) Now the good part: I can't figure out yet exactly
when it occurs, but my SYS: partition gets trashed
many times after running A-Max. I have reformatted and
restored from backups more times than I care to talk
about.

On the plus side: If these things get fixed this will
be a great emulation system, with just a couple of
downgrades: The Mac no longer reminds you to pop out
your floppies and DD floppies can no longer be
handled as they were before.

Anyone else observed these problems? I am trying to
figure out if it is all because of my config or
other programs running. Still checking.

--

--Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)

Bob Dickow

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Jan 16, 1994, 12:55:31 PM1/16/94
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Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu) wrote:
: just got my A-Max IV today. Several significant problems:

: (3) The Mac always crashes the Amy on shutdown. No Guru,
: just complete lockup.

..Not to mention that it corrupts my SYS: hard drive
partition when it does so. I reformatted and restored too
many times to mention before finding this temporary
workaround:

On initial Amy bootup I have my user-startup copy the
devs: directory over to a recoverable RAM disk, then
reassign devs: to that. Voila! Now a file called
A-MaxParamRAM, which never appeared in the hard drive
devs: after running the Mac side, shows up, and allows
the Mac to 'remember' its color settings, etc. Before
shutting down my Amy I hit an Icon called 'Shutdown'
that runs a little script to move the ramdisk based
devs: back to the hard drive.
Indeed, the Mac's freezing on shutdown was preventing
its 'battery backed settings file' to be written and
properly closed on the Amy side, thereby corrupting the
partition, obliterating the block bitmap, and causing
a checksum error.
Now, if only I can figure out why the Mac is not
able to gracefully close down its screen all (or most)
will be well.

: --Bob Dickow

--

--Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)

Daniel C. Browning

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Jan 16, 1994, 5:30:52 PM1/16/94
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I sure want to know more about your SYS: partition being trashed. I have
AMAX IV but have not yet gotten it to successfully boot up. It locks tight
at the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen. I have mac system 7.1 installed, but
the tech support guy at ReadySoft insists that my mac system is the
problem. It was installed under AMAXII+ using the 800k disks provided by
Apple. This brings up my problem. AMAXIV does not read 800k disks, and I
don't have a HD drive. Further, the Disk Tools of the 800k set is actually
a system 6.0.8 because 7.1 will not fit on an 800k disk--therefore, I
cannot use the FileTranfer program which comes with AMAXIV to mount a disk
image (AMAXIV crashes under system 6). Any ideas? Has anyone successfully
used AMAXIV without a HD drive?

I thought I was in bad shape, but I sure am glad I have not trashed my
SYS: partition yet. Are others having this problem too?

Herb Brown

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Jan 16, 1994, 7:42:03 PM1/16/94
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In article <2hcf6s$j...@server.st.usm.edu> brow...@whale.st.usm.edu (Daniel C. Browning) writes:
>I sure want to know more about your SYS: partition being trashed. I have
>AMAX IV but have not yet gotten it to successfully boot up. It locks tight
>at the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen. I have mac system 7.1 installed, but
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>the tech support guy at ReadySoft insists that my mac system is the
>problem. It was installed under AMAXII+ using the 800k disks provided by
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>Apple. This brings up my problem. AMAXIV does not read 800k disks, and I
^^^^^

>don't have a HD drive. Further, the Disk Tools of the 800k set is actually
>a system 6.0.8 because 7.1 will not fit on an 800k disk--therefore, I
>cannot use the FileTranfer program which comes with AMAXIV to mount a disk
>image (AMAXIV crashes under system 6). Any ideas? Has anyone successfully
>used AMAXIV without a HD drive?
>
>I thought I was in bad shape, but I sure am glad I have not trashed my
>SYS: partition yet. Are others having this problem too?
>


Wait one minute! I thought APPLE did not supply system 7.1 on 800k disks.
What's going on here?

Does APPLE supply system 7.1 on 800k floppies?

Herb

--
Herbert I Brown Mathematics Dept, The Univ at Albany, Albany, NY 12222
Director, (518) 442-4640
Computer Assisted Instruction in Mathematics hib...@math.albany.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anthony Kilna

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Jan 17, 1994, 2:58:10 AM1/17/94
to
Herb Brown (hib...@phoebe.albany.edu) wrote:

: Does APPLE supply system 7.1 on 800k floppies?

: Herb

I work for an apple reseller, yes they do, but you have to buy a package
with 1.44 disks. Then you call an 800 number and have them ship you the
800k disks... screwy, but I suppose it works.

--
/|
ricochet @ netcom.com < | / I N F O R M A T I O N
--------------------- \|/ -------------------------------
Ric Kilna /|\ S O C I E T Y
/ | \
|

Bob Laughlin

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Jan 17, 1994, 2:33:50 PM1/17/94
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> --Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)

I've been using A-Max IV for about a month with very few problems. The only
major problem I've had is that PC Exchange v. 1.0.1 no longer works. PC
Exchange allows MS-DOS floppies and files to show up on the Mac Desktop.
A-Max IV also has some incompatibilities with the PD utility QMouse (beta?
2.90). Don't use the QMouse screenblanker option and be sure to use the
NoActivate option with later versions of QMouse otherwise the Amiga<->Mac
File Transfer utility will freeze up. The other incompatibility I've
encountered is that CrossPC (CrossDOS IBeM emulator v. 2.22) can only be run
AFTER A-Max IV is running. If CrossPC is running, A-Max IV crashes on
startup.

But a few days ago, I suddenly started getting the same problem you
describe...a crash on exit with just a black screen and a hung Amiga. This
crash would also cause disk errors some of the time. I finally managed to
track down the problem.

Don't ask me why but by removing all the .info files from DEVS:DOSDrivers
the crash on exit has stopped. Keep in mind that I was using A-Max IV for
weeks without ever having this problem. Very strange. Took me a day of
reinstalling everything and adding things back to discover this. All my disk
errors were in DEVS:. I'm not sure what I did to initiate these problems.

I had .info files for PC0, PC1, and PCC in DEVS:DOSDrivers. PC0 and PC1 are
CrossDOS mountlists for MS-DOS disks in df0: and df1: and PCC: is an MS-DOS
harddrive partition.

--
Bob_La...@mindlink.bc.ca Vancouver Canada


Bob Laughlin

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Jan 17, 1994, 3:11:07 PM1/17/94
to
> Daniel C. Browning writes:
> I sure want to know more about your SYS: partition being trashed. I have
> AMAX IV but have not yet gotten it to successfully boot up. It locks tight
> at the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen. I have mac system 7.1 installed, but
> the tech support guy at ReadySoft insists that my mac system is the
> problem. It was installed under AMAXII+ using the 800k disks provided by
> Apple. This brings up my problem. AMAXIV does not read 800k disks, and I
> don't have a HD drive. Further, the Disk Tools of the 800k set is actually
> a system 6.0.8 because 7.1 will not fit on an 800k disk--therefore, I
> cannot use the FileTranfer program which comes with AMAXIV to mount a disk
> image (AMAXIV crashes under system 6). Any ideas? Has anyone successfully
> used AMAXIV without a HD drive?
>
> I thought I was in bad shape, but I sure am glad I have not trashed my
> SYS: partition yet. Are others having this problem too?

You need to have a Mac system installed for Any Mac. I had installed for a
Mac Plus when I was using A-Max II+. I strongly recommend using the default
Easy Install option when installing Mac Systems on A-Max IV ... that includes
all printer stuff etc. The Easy Install should install for Any Mac. After I
did this I discovered I had a Quadra 950 (G-Force 040-2000). Here's what
happened to me:

I have System 7.1 on 800K disks. It came on 800K disks when I bought it from
Egghead (came bundled with Apple Font Pack). I have an HD drive so I actually
wanted HD floppies. Anyway, A-Max IV now accesses 800 disks by mounting them
as file devices (Amiga harddrive files). Unfortunately, the 800K Apple System
7.1 Install disk would not work as a file device. The Mac wanted the real
disk. ALL other 800K install disks I've seen since DO work as file devices
(this includes things like PageMaker 5). I had System 7.1 installed on A-Max
II+ for a Mac Plus. I needed to re-install for "Any Mac" but I could no
longer install from the 800K disks as file devices. To make a long story
short, I had to remove the A-Max IV chip from the A-Max card, and use the
original A-Max II+ chip to re-install System 7.1 on my Mac partitions. I also
ended up having to do the the Easy Install (default) to get everything to
work (another long story). Installing just the bits I thought I wanted did
not work. Don't know why.

TIPS for updating A-Max II+ to A-Max IV:
----------------------------------------
1). Install System 7.1 on your Mac harddrive partition before updating your
A-Max II+ card with the A-Max IV chip. System 7.0.1 may work as well. Have'nt
tried it. AMax IV will not boot off a System 6.x floppy or harddrive
partition (as far as I know).
2). Install for ANY Mac and use the Easy Install option. You can delete extra
printer drivers etc. later.
3). An HD floppy is nice but you can work around it, except if you have a
System 7.x on 800 disks (see above).
4). If you have any old proprietary A-Max-ONLY format floppy disks, copy them
to your Mac hardrive before updating the A-Max card. This format is no longer
supported. This is not likely if you already have a II+ card since it can
read 800K regular Mac disks.


--
Bob_La...@mindlink.bc.ca Vancouver Canada


Bob Dickow

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Jan 19, 1994, 4:42:04 AM1/19/94
to
Well, I figured out a fix for my mac shutdown/
restart lockup problems. All I had to do was
set the task priority to -1 in the A-MaxIV
startup 'multitasking' preferences. Is my
40MHz 68EC030 too fast? ReadySoft needs to
straighten this bit out a little.

Now the Mac behaves much better, and I can
put devs: back on the hard drive (the Mac
trashed the file structure on shutdowns
before.)

Another possible problem: If I have a few
programs running on different screens, plus
the Mac screen, and AMIGA/M flip between
them a few times, sometimes the system locks
when reactivating the Mac cursor. Still
exploring this one. Could be one of my
commodities or something, right?

--

--Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)

Bob Dickow

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Jan 21, 1994, 1:38:11 PM1/21/94
to
Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu) wrote:

: Now the Mac behaves much better, and I can
(stuff deleted

..Well, more problems have raised their ugly
little heads. Printing from some applications
does simply not work. I have tried Chuck's
printer driver, PanasonicDriver, and PowerPrint
on the Mac side to no avail printing from
Quicken and Finale, for example. I can print
from TeachText, though. On the others the
Mac kicks back errors (-39 et al). Darn! I have
sent yet another FAX to ReadySoft on this.
: --

: --Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)


--

--Bob Dickow (dic...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu)

BobEller

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Mar 2, 1994, 9:06:02 PM3/2/94
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Hi guys! I'm Bob Eller and I was the main author of the A-MaxIV manual. My
A-Max IV system consists of an Amiga 3000 with Picasso II, external Mac hard
drive, Apple 300 CD ROM. I just got access to the Net via American OnLine
running under A-MaxIV (and at 9600 baud).

Earlier questions...yes, you can get System 7.1 on 800K disks. I explain in
the manual how to use these if you don't have a high density drive.

If you're sending questions please let me know what machine you're using. It
helps figure out what problems you might have.

Bob Eller

BobE...@AOL.COM
Bob....@GEnie.COM

esuc...@acm.org

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Mar 6, 1994, 2:04:13 PM3/6/94
to

Bob,
I have a question thet perhaps you could check into. I have an A4000/040,
A2091 controller, AMAX-IV, Picasso II and PowerCD. I am unable to get
AMAX-IV to boot the PowerCD at all. (Running under System 7.1 Pro).
The SCSIProbe tool can see the CD-ROM, but refues to boot it. Also,
The 800K disk reader often will not read disks on my machine. I get errors
around sector 130 pretty consistently.

If you could relay these problems for me I'd really appreciate it. I really
need to get the CD-ROM drive working.

Thanks,
Eric Suchanek

==============================================================================
= Eric G. Suchanek - esuc...@acm.org - You got your Molepeople in my
= SGI Crimson Elan - - Batwoman! No, you got your Batwoman
= Amiga 4000/40, Quadra 950 - in my Molepeople. MST3K
= Yamaha SY85
==============================================================================

BobEller

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Mar 6, 1994, 11:54:05 PM3/6/94
to
Eric...the only guess I have as to why your PowerCD isn't working is:

1) The CD software isn't installed properly on your Mac boot disk; or
2) The 2091 can't handle the CD.

I'd bet on 2..the 2091 may not be able to handle the thoughput needed for CD.
All I do to get the CD300 booted is to select its SCSI ID in the
Preferences...the Apple CD software does the rest...oh, and DON'T boot
the CD on the Amiga side...that will cause problems!!!!!

As far as your disk problems...likely your drive isn't quite up to specs..I'm
using an Amiga HDensity and haven't had problems.

Oh...and you should make sure you have at least Version 4.007 of the A-Max IV
software....it fixes a number of problems that were prevelant with the Amiga
4000 and A-Max IV.

Hope this helps!!
Bob

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