CompuServe Messages

#kickstart-eliminator

#: 65968 S11/HardwareForum unknown
    02-May-87 20:11:28
Sb: #kickstart-eliminator
Fm: Patrick Annette 72747,633
To: E. J. Lippert II 71330,2365

This message turned up in search, but its forum couldn’t be identified from the original transcript, so it may not be linked into its thread.

Hello Ed, Last Monday I installed the 'Kickstart Eliminator and RAM Expansion Kit from Creative Microsystems Incorporated. It took about three hours, although it could probably be done in one now that I know how. It works exactly as described in their instruction booklet, which is quite good. Anyone who is able to repair computer circuit boards could easily handle the modification, but it certainly is NOT for the inexperienced! When completed the Amiga no longer needs the kickstart disk, since it is in ROM; and using the software CMI provides, you can use the 256k of RAM formerly used for the WCS. Slick! There IS a caveat: anyone having the aMEGA ram expansion from C Ltd should be aware of the following quote from the last page of the CMI booklet: "The only expansion port peripheral we have found that doesn't function properly on the modified Amiga is C Ltd's aMEGA Card. However, the friendly folks at C Ltd. provided us with a simple fix that is described below." I have the aMEGA card, which has worked well in the past; but indeed the Amiga would not boot after the conversion with the aMEGA attached. Then I discovered that it worked fine with the TFB (three finger boot). It's a minor nuisance at worst, but today I tried to implement the 'simple fix' from the friendly folks and found that the Amiga would then no longer boot at all with aMEGA attached! I restored the original aMEGA components and all is well, but now I have to do a TFB every time I start the computer. No big deal, but had I known what I know now when buying the memory expansion I would probably not have chosen aMEGA. Is there a fix that will correct the timing problem on power-on boot? Will I be able to find a hard disk system that works with kickstart in ROM and aMEGA? Is it true that all other peripherals work with the Kickstart Eliminator, or has CMI given C Ltd a bum rap? Patrick Annette