#Atonce
20 messages in this thread
To all:
I need your help. I just installed an Atonce board in my A500. I have an
A501 and a Xetec harddrive with 2 megs. I followed the instructions to the
letter including using a grounded antistatic mat and grounded wrist band.
The computer booted just fine. Next I clicked on the Atonce icon. The
computer seemed to reboot and then nothing. I tried this 3 times with no
luck. The computer was still autobooting fine. After an hour or so of
trying different software configurations, all of a sudden my computer
wouldn't even boot from the harddisk. I was able to boot with a floppy,
but I can't bring up a shell or CLI. I'm pretty much dead in the water, as
most of my applications are accessible only from the CLI. Did I blow my
rom chip or worse. I bought the Atonce from Safe Harbor, but they don't
answer their phone (probably closed on Saturday). Can anyone offer any
help or suggestions. I'm not very happy at the moment. Thanks.
George
George,
First thing…remove the ATOnce…see if everything returns to
normal. Then contact Safe Harbour on Monday.
Don
George,
I would first follow Don's advice and remove the ATonce and try your amiga
again. When you said you couldn't bring up a CLI or SHELL, were you trying
to do this from your harddrive partition? I seem to remember a couple of
months ago I had screwed up my startup sequence and booted from a disk and
when I tried using from my harddrive I had the same problem.
I have the ATonce and a Xetec drive also and have it working fine. Also,
describe exactly what hardware and software changes you made and maybe I
can talk you through this.
-Rick Graff
How well is the atonce working for you and are you using it with a 2000 or
2500 …do you use it with any music programs.. for instance could you run
the turtle beach harddisk recording software etc…thanks DA
DON,
I am using the ATonce on an A500. Vortex will have an adapter out shortly
that will let you use it with an A2000.
Once I got over a few bugs using it with my harddrive system, it has worked
very well. I have used DOS 4.01, Windows, a bunch of shareware utilities
so far. I have also been able to auto boot from my hardrive use my mouse,
serial port and printer.
-Rick
Richard…
Bob Lipman says you've been a big help to him.
Can I quote your experiences (and his) in CROSSINGS?
Marion
CROSSINGS (Bridgeboard newsletter)
Marion,
Quote away <G>. If you can wait a week or two, I'll write a short file
about my experiences with the ATonce.
-Rick
Rick…
Thanks…
My deadline is the 20th of each month.
Marion
Rick:
As it happens, there was nothing seriously wrong. The only problem was
with me. For one thing, I had the GARY adapter installed. Worked fine
after I removed the adapter. The other problem (now don't laugh) was that
I had named the MSDOS partition "c" with Amigados instead of with the
Atonce software and FDISK. I know this is a BIG blunder, but I wasn't
thinking. I went into the partitions program off of my Xetec floppy,
turned the c partition off and everything was back to normal. I then
reformatted the partition and named it dh1. Everything seems to be working
fine. The CGA 16 colors is fairly nice, but it is very slow. For now, I'm
running in Hercules interlace. I've got a couple of questions for you, but
I will e-mail them to you so as not to bore the public. Thanks for being so
helpful.
George
– via Whap!
George,
Can expansion boards be added when using ATonce?
…Dave
Davey:
The ATonce plugs into the CPU socket. There is no card cage or the like
for expansion boards. Craig from ICD said that the Adspeed accelerator
could be used with the ATonce, but it required desoldering the 68000 from
the ATonce. Also, there isn't much clearance between the ATonce and the
metal shielding. It was close enough that I glued a small piece of
insulating material to the shielding-just above the ATonce. I can't
imagine plugging something in that would raise the CPU even more. The more
I use the ATonce, I feel that it does just what they said it would. It's a
good product, but it pales next to the Amiga. George
– via Whap!
So it is NOT possible to use anything in the IBM expansion slots. Is that
correct?
…Dave
Dave,
There are no IBM expansion slots with the ATonce.
you may be able to hook your A500 up to the bodega bay and utilize those
IBM expansion slots and keep the ATonce on you mother board, but don't
qoute me on it. <G>
-Rick Graff
Don't have an A500, got a 2000. I have an XT Bridgecard in there and a FAX
board. From what I gather ATonce can't address the IBM expansion slots and
is therefore of no use to me. Better off with an accelerator for the XTBB.
…Dave
Davey: That's correct. The ATonce is a printed circuit board that plugs
into the A500's CPU socket. Physically, the board is smaller than a 3.5
inch floppy and contains no slots. Maybe a creative hacker could figure
something out, but that is way above me.
George
Davey: That's correct. The ATonce is a printed circuit board that plugs
into the A500's CPU socket. Physically, the board is smaller than a 3.5
inch floppy and contains no slots. Maybe a creative hacker could figure
something out, but that is way above me.
George
– via Whap!
George,
Wonder why I got two duplicate messages from you. Via Whap!.
…Dave
George,
Have you tried windows with the ATonce yet? A friend lent me a copy so I
could see if I would be interested in buying it. I can't figure out what
the DOS people love about it, it was slow and not very adaptable in my
opinion. I never used any computer other than the amiga since I got the
ATonce, and DOS on a whole is a "kludge" when compared to the amiga.
Did Craig from ICD say he has tried adapting the ADspeed to the ATonce? It
is an interesting thought if it works. I have been wanting an excellerator
for my 500, and it looks like with the new "mega midget racer" I might be
able to do it and keep my ATonce installed. The "mega midget racer" has a
separate slot for the original 68000 cpu and is software switchable between
the 68030 and the 68000. With a math coproccesor and some 32bit static ram
it should be a real screamer.
-Rick Graff
Rick:
I searched my Amigauser.kpt files for Craig's message to me but I guess I
didn't keep it. I don't think that he tried adapting the ATonce to the
Addspeed but he did say that it would work. If memory serves me, I think
he said that it would require removing the 68000 from the Atonce and then
soldering a socket on to the board. You then plugged the Adspeed into the
ATonce. As you know, that would make it a little on the tall side. After
talking with Craig, I think I would go the MMR route. Sounds like it would
be easier and the performance would be quite a bit better all $$$$$$ aside.
As far as trying Windows out, I haven't. The
electrical contractor that I work for is in the process of buying a
'486-25 from Gateway Computers and Windows 3.0 is part of the package.
From what a lot of my friends tell me, that is just about the power level
of machine that is needed to run it efficiently. Also, 4 megs minimum is
suggested. Sucha deal.
George
– via Whap!
Rick:
P.S. The first time that I ran the Fixatcfg program that Xetec sent me, it
trashed my harddisk. I got a bad header and disk not validated message. I
had to reformat and reinstall my entire harddrive. Lucky for me, I had a
recent backup and nothing was lost. The new X-Chive archive program is
great. Did you get it from Xetec? It doesn't compress the data, but other
than that, it works quite well.
George
– via Whap!