CompuServe Messages

Rich, some of your questions call for knowledge that I don't have. For instance, I don't know why your clock might run slow. I know that you can set the time with the DATE command, and you can often recover from a BATTERY BACKED-UP CLOCK NOT FOUND problem by using the CLI or shell, and typing SETCLOCK RESET. On some Amigas, there were a couple of bytes or so of memory that were used for test purposes. Once in a while an errant program would write to those few bytes of memory, and the system would not be able to find the clock because of the unauthorized code being where the clock should be. This was corrected a long time ago, but it is possible that your A500 was one of those that had it. I don't have a 500, so I'm not knowledgeable about drives that work with it. So far as I know, there is no maximum size set for the size of your drive. ROM upgrades: The Amiga was first released in 1985 with a very buggy 1.0 version of the ROM, which was then loaded from a Kickstart disk into the A1000. Before very long, they issued a version 1.2 of the Kickstart disk (and Workbench) that were far more stable. Later, 1.3 was introduced, which added lots of capabilities to the operating system. More recently, the size of the ROM has been doubled. Beginning with 2.04, more and more capabilities have been built into the ROM, making it much easier for programmers to access the system software and to do things that simply could not be done with earlier versions. Each version has added new abilities to the machine, but 2.04 was the major update. Since then, we had 2.1 and 3.1. The major addition in 3.1 was datatypes, I believe. You should have *at least* 2.1 in your machine – and if you are buying an upgrade, get 3.1. There are Amiga mailorder houses. I suspect Software Hut in Philadelphia is one of the largest, but I think Safe Harbor in Michigan (I think it was Michigan) is still available as well. I'd suggest that you get a copy of Amazing Computing and look at the ads. You are not supposed to post anything here that has been copyrighted by someone else. Newspapers are always copyrighted, so you'd need their permission to upload here. If you have the permission from the newspaper – or from the person who posted the newspaper ad – I know of no reason why you couldn't post it here. It should be plain, however, that you are posting an ad from someone you don't know. People here are putting lots of trust in the people who post ads. If they are members of our 'forum family' we have a bit of knowledge about them. From newspaper ads, we don't. —Betty