#Warped A3000
20 messages in this thread
"So you're a Buffalo!"
Weeeelll, I was actually thinking more along the lines of pitchforks and
bright red underwear.
};^)
BTW, congrats on the Warped A3000!!
I'd like to replace the GVP boat anchor I've got in my A3000 right now and
get another WarpEngine.
(The WarpEngine on my A4000 works like a charm! The GVP 40MHz 040 worked
just fine in the 4000, but when I moved it to the 3000, it started locking
up randomly. Over the period of several weeks, GVP grudgingly admitted
that I'd have to "upgrade all my custom chips" to insure reliable
operation of their product in the A13K – gee, thanks guys!
After $75 of new chips, it still locks up the SCSI bus, and I _CAN'T_ find
a SuperDMAC 'to save my life'!)
Erik Flom
Thanks!
I can't say I'm 100% pleased with the situation in my A3k right now, but that
may or may not be MacroSystem's fault. This is actually the 3d time I'm
writing this message. My system is hanging regularly since the addition of the
WarpEngine. It used to hang occasionally, and very possibly because of the
Retina software, but now it's gone berserk. 🙁
It's kind of wierd too, because if the machine hangs and I do a 3 finger
salute, the power light dims but then doesn't brighten again when I release,
and nothing happens, so I have to cold reboot. Otoh, if I get a requester
telling me there's a software failure – which is no more frequent than it was
before – I =can= do a a warm reboot.
It's all very puzzling.
In addition, I think (that's probably the understatement of the year) that
there's a mistake in the installation manual. It states in the jumper section,
J104 This jumper needs to have the two pins on the left connected
together(The two toward the Expansion connecter at the center of the
computer). This is the stock configuration of the machine, which, I believe,
sets things so that the CPU clock signal is coming off the motherboard. ???
So we put the board in according to the instructions and tried to boot and
nothing happened. My dealer and I were both stumped and pissed, to say the
least. So then I remembered that when I was trying to install the PP040 in my
3k, I'd had to change that jumper to External – the 2 pins on the right. So we
did that, and the machine booted finally.
Also, there's another peculiar thing. I have a double-sided 16meg SIMM that
has 8 chips – 4 on each side. They don't list this chip as existing in their
chart of the different kinds of SIMMs that exist and which jumpers to set.
They list a single-sided SIMM with 8 chips all on the same side, and a
double-sided SIMM
For some reason AP is much freezier than other apps. This whole message
process has hit the 1 hour mark now. 🙁
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – now on a WarpEngine 3040!
'This whole message process has hit the 1 hour mark now. :('
Your diligence is greatly appreciated!
Sorry to hear of your 'random lockups'…..
In all cases, I seem to remember setting J104 to external on my A3000 when
installing an accelerator.
What version KS ROMs are you using? How about 68040.library?
Were there any restrictions as to chips revisions? (The GVP G-Force 040 40
board requires 'all recent custom chips' to work properly!)
I hope you can work it out with the guys at MacroSystems.
At least they offer live voice tech support.
I just upgraded to WarpEngine in my A4000 to a single 32MB SIMM, and it
has 8 chips on each side of the stick. I don't see why the 16MB SIMM you
have should cause any problems…..I assume you've run a mem test on it?
Later,
Erik Flom
Erik-
Yes, setting J104 to external is the logical thing to do. I'm surprised the
manual went to such great pains to explain otherwise, and you can be sure I'll
tell them about it tomorrow.
I've got 3.1 ROMs, and version 37.30 of the 68040.library, which, surprising as
it seems, is the version that came on my 3.1 disks. The manual states that the
board requires no particular versions of custom chips to work – that it will
work independantly of those bugs but not fix them.
>I hope you can work it out with the guys at MacroSystems. >At least they offer
live voice tech support.
I'm not so sure about that last part. Their tech support line is supposed to
be open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Lousy as that is, I can understand
it in today's Amiga market. But yesterday my dealer and I called them several
times and left messages and didn't get any response.
As to the SIMM – in and of itself it's fine. It worked on my 1200 very nicely
for quite some time. However, it's of a configuration different than any
mentioned in the memory configuration section of the manual. But it seemed to
work OK with the double-sided setting that they recommend against – though who
knows, I suppose that could possibly be the problem. Unlikely though.
In all this mess the power supply on my main 3k somehow seems to have died. So
I swapped in the supply from my other 3k, and thankfully everything seems to be
working now, though I haven't yet put back the Retina or the Ad516, and the
WarpEngine is, for now, retired.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped
Hmmm, in looking at the WarpEngine manual for my A4000 (about 6 months
old), I see that JP2-B&C are the ones you're setting.
Since JP2-B toggles double-sided, and JP2-C selects the chip density, then
I'd think you'd want to select Double-sided, 16Mb density. (32MB in my
book, but since your 16MB SIMM uses the same density chips…)
'the power supply…seems to have died.'
That could have been another problem (flakey voltages).
I would strongly recommend the Micro R&D replacement supply. I fried my
supply when I added an old GVP A3000 accelerator to my 'Toasted' 3000
about 2 years ago. The replacement supply worked great, but I fried that
one too (my mistake this time. :^)
The second replacement supply I got from them is a newer model, and fits
right in the old PS case. (The first one required some concerted work with
a file to be able to wedge it in the case.)
The new fan _is_ kind of noisy though……
May the 'Warp' be with you……
Erik Flom
Yup, exactly what I did with the B and C jumpers. It did seem to be addressing
the memory fine, too.
After the ps died I was REALLY hoping that that was the problem, even though it
didn't completely make sense since the freezes had come with or without my
Retina and Ad516, so I put the whole shebang back together with my 1 remaining
working ps, and it froze again.
The Micro R&D should be available from mail order houses, right? Well, I'll
find out. Thanks for the suggestion.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped
Actually, I'm not sure if you'd find them through distributors.
I'va always gone directly to them.
Christ! I couldn't find their ads in any magazine, so I dug up the
invoice. Guess what – the pinheads didn't put their number on the invoice!
If you're desperate, you could probably call information for 'Loup City,
NE' and ask for the number for 'Micro R&D' (It just occured to that you
could get their 800 number from 800-555-1212.)
Good Luck!
Erik Flom
Well, several interesting things happened today. I called Macrosystems, and
the guy I talked to was 99.44% sure that the problem was my undocumented type
of SIMM. This does not make me happy, because (a) their ads say that the board
takes any "industry standard 72pin SIMM" – not "certain kinds only that you'll
find out about after buying the board", and (b) because my dealer had told them
when ordering the board that his customer – i.e. me – had a 16meg SIMM he
wanted to transfer over to the board, and they just said "16meg SIMM? Fine."
So I went up to my dealer – no short journey either, from NJ to CT – and he,
generous person that he is, loaned me a 4meg SIMM out of his 4000. I ran the
machine for a while there and everything seemed fine, and then I came home, set
up my machine, and started writing this machine. Lo and behold: FREEZE!
So this is the second go-around again. 🙁
At this point I have no idea of what the problem could possibly be. But for
some inexplicable reason, my power supply is working again.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped
Acch! You're just having a hell of a time with that thing!
What revison RAMSEY and SuperDMAC do you have? Is your 3K a later model,
or one of the early SuperKickstart ones?
If you _DO_ have the newer chips (rev 7 RAMSEY, and SuperDMAC rev 4, I
think), then I was going to see if you'd be interested in some kind of
swap.
I've got this GVP accelerator w/8MB RAM, but it needs the newer chipset to
work reliably in the A3K. You've got the WarpEngine – which I want, since
I can't find a rev 4 SuperDMAC – and I was thinking that maybe we'd have
better luck with different boards. (Obviously, I might have to pay a
little to get the Warp board, and you could keep your 16MB SIMM. Or….I'd
include 4-12MB of ZIPPS to help you fill out your GVP system – since it is
maxed out w/ the 8MB on it.)
BTW, when your A3000 locks up, is it during SCSI access, or just randomly?
(The GVP board locks up when more than one task is running, and the A3K
SCSI is accessed. I've replaced the RAMSEY & WD SCSI chip, but neither
fixed the problem.)
Finally, if you _DO_ have a rev 4 SuperDMAC, and don't want to swap CPU
cards, I'd be _very_ interested in buying your SuperDMAC, in exchange for
cash, and my old SuperDMAC.
Interest in any of the above?
Erik Flom
Actually, things are working now. Amazing, isn't it? I'm not absolutely sure,
but I think I have the old Ramsey and SuperDMAC. For some reason, SCRAMmer now
lists my Ramsey as "Type Unknown" "Code $2d". I can't seem to find a listing
on my SuperDMAC, but I assume it's old too since the two have to be upgraded
together.
In any case, my system seems to be functioning ONLY as long as I boot it with a
floppy in the drive and leave that floppy in there. Is that wierd or what? It
sounds like a CIA chip defect, but I might be wrong. I only found this out by
accident too – I happened to leave the WarpDisk floppy in my drive, and I've
been humming along for almost 24 hours now. The one time I took the floppy out
and booted, I had problems.
So, in summary, I don't think I have the chips you need, and I'd be scared to
try a swap anyway. 🙁 I love how the AW review of the GForce board – which
they recommended over the WarpEngine for the 3000 – failed to mention the
requirement for new chips, which I'm sure virtually NO 3000 has.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – Warped again?
Well, I'm at least glad that your machine is working now!
(OTOH, I'm really looking to unload this GVP thing! ;^)
As for the RAMSEY, I think my original (old) RAMSEY was listed as $2d by
SCRAMmer, the new one is listed as 'Unknown $ff'…..
Your solution (leaving a floppy in) is definitely weird?!? If it's any
consolation, _MY_ Warped 4000 doesn't work with a DEC 1GB drive I've got –
whenever it's set to auto-mount, the system reboots when it gets to that
drive. The only workaround is to manually mount the drive once the system
boots! (And, as you said, tech support is pretty lousy.)
As for the fact that A3K's need new chips to work with the GVP:
GVP first told me I had to replace the RAMSEY (no mention of this was made
in their documentation). Fifty dollars later, I still had problems.
Their second FAXed response basically said that their board performed so
well that the system required the latest chipsets. (ie: It's not _their_
fault it doesn't work…..Oh, and by the way, here's some places in
_Australia_ you can call to _try_ and find the chips you need.)
Well, Congrats!!
Erik Flom
Paul: Have you tried running a memory test program Paul? When I first got
my Warp 4040 I had all kinds of weird problems. I finally traced it down
by using Microbotic's MBRTest-2 memory checker which revealed that after
the 4000 had been on for 15-20 minutes, it would start giving memory
errors. Knowing that this was a sure sign of a heat problem, I mounted a
small fan above the Warp SIMM area and that cured the problems. Actually,
I need to mount a better fan in the power supply but I just haven't gotten
to it yet.
// John (Warp 4040 & Emplant Quadra 840)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
Paul,
PMFJI….but I'm hanging on your every word. How 'bout you just put 4 meg back
in and sell me the other 4 ;-). Keep plugging and I'm sure you'll get that
Warp workin'. Keep in touch!
The Bobster….going Amiga 'til the hard drive dies.
Bob-
Unfortunately, at this point there is only one 4meg set of ZIPs in my entire
demesne. So while my machine is unWarped, I need those ZIPs. 🙁
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped
Paul,
I am truely bummed.
The Bobster….going Amiga 'til the hard drive dies.
Bob-
Well, don't totally give up hope. Right now my machine has been running with
the WarpEngine without freezing for several hours. Go figure. I'm 100%
boggled. If it works for another couple days, everything's Full Steam Ahead.
But it did freeze once in its current configuration in AutoPilot, which never
ever froze before, so I'm reluctant to say things are happy. Basically, I'll
put in a full day's writing work tomorrow and see what happens. Regardless,
MacroSystems isn't going to refund my money, so you can bet that I'm going to
fight to make this thing work right. And now that I've gotten a taste of Warp
performance, I sure don't want to go back!
I am, though, tempted to write an alternate review of the board and upload it
to the libs here – I think that review was cursory at best, and the rating of 4
out of 5 stars is only justified if you ONLY consider the board once it's
installed and working and having no problems. Tech support is indifferent at
best, poor and dishonest in a more realistic analysis, and the manuals are just
awful. It was only through the combined knowledge of me and my dealer – 2
people fairly experienced in installing things in computers in general and
Amigas in particular – that things have even progressed this far. There are
several simply inexcusable errors in the instructions.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped
Bob-
Good news! The Warp seems to be fine and our deal is on!
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped