Stuck at 3m?
Abstract: Attempts to add more RAM (chip or fast) to my accelerated A2000
with 3M have consistently failed. Most experimental evidence points to
the accelerator board as the culprit, but other evidence seems perhaps to
exonerate it. I hope there are some engineering-type lurkers out there
who can help me reanalyze the problem.
I got my A2000 just before the "A1000 + $1000" trade-up fiasco ended. Shortly
thereafter I added AdRAM-2080 2M board. It worked fine for a couple of years.
Then I added VXL-30 accelerator with 2M 32-bit RAM piggy-backed on it. At cold
boot I subsequently had 5M. But inevitably the system would soon hang in the
middle of some program or other, and generally not be rebootable until I shut
it off for a while. Attempts to run AIBB, even right after a cold boot,
resulted in a hang-up right after the "Evaluating system, please wait" message
came on.
Neither ICS (AdRAM) nor Microbotics (VXL) were able to help over the phone or
by mail (though both were fully responsive), and I was never able to determine
whether the fault was in the accelerator or the memory board. Preferring a fast
3M machine over a slow 3M machine, I put the RAM board on a shelf, where it has
rested ever since.
I recently purchased a 2M Agnus board, but with it installed I cannot boot. The
hard drive chugs away, but just about the time the boot window should show on
the monitor, the power light blinks six short and one long blinks, and
everything stops. But then I tried it without the VXL-30 boards and sure
enough, had 2M chip memory, 0 other memory!
So I applied a little bit of logic(?): AdRAM and VXL-30 don't work together.
Fatter Agnus board and VXL-30 don't work together. Common element: VXL-30.
Must be something wrong with my accelerator. If I replace that everything will
be OK.
But I tried one other experiment. Please see "Stuck at 3M? Part2"
Bart Mathias