A2386 vs A2620 ???
5 messages in this thread
I added a used A2620 card with 68881 and 4MB. The dealer who sold it to
me got it as a trade-in on an 030 card. I didn't get any docs or software
with it. (Seemed like a good deal at the time.)
Unfortunately, my A2386 card is now unavailable. I keep getting a
cannot-load, or cannot-open, janus.library error when I try to use PCprefs
or PCwindow. I re-installed the bridgeboard software three times.
Neither enforcer nor CPU seemed to control the problem. I get the
impression a ROM on the A2620 card is grabbing the system on boot-up and
preventing NODATACACHE from taking effect. (Does OS2.1 require new ROM's
for the A2620 card?)
I've just added parallel/serial I/O, Paradise Accelerated VGA, MS/DOS 6.0,
and Geos2.0 (recommended BTW). I don't want to have to choose between the
A2386 and the A2620. I have the usual college faculty financial blues,
and can't justify much more in upgrades. And the IBM compatability is
pretty much mandatory!
Any advice and information would be appreciated. Thanx.
C F Coats –> via AutoPilot
Your problem is simply this: If you have any 16 bit RAM installed, you must be
sure that you have NOT MORE than 7.5 meg of total RAM including the 4 meg on
the accelerator. That accelerator does not map its 32 bit RAM out of
autoconfig space, so you cannot have more than 7.5 meg of total RAM. If you
have any 16 bit RAM disable some of it. You may not be able to disable 16 bit
ram in less than 2 meg increments, which will reduce your total fast ram to 6
meg. You don't need to worry about the data cache on the 2620. The 020 only
has an instruction cache, so that shouldn't be a problem. However, judging
from your message, I would bet you have too much fast ram for the BB to run.
Steven,
Yes, that was it! Thanks. I disabled 2MB on the 16-bit card, and the BB
ran fine.
Some areas of the campus (Clone-Zones and Mac-Fanats) have been telling
the students what they can't do. Now I'm back to demonstrating what they
Can Do (pun intended).
C F Coats –> via AutoPilot
C F Coats –> via AutoPilot
C F,
Glad you got it working. It's rather unfortunate that CBM doesn't make
any mention of the autoconfig requirement for the BB to work. I think they
must assume that no one has 16 bit RAM or older accelerators which cannot map
ram outside of the autoconfig space. They also conveniently have forgotten to
include a mention of the need to run Enforcer or CPU nodatacache when the BB
runs. These two areas seem to have created a lot of problems for people who
are relatively new to the Amiga or haven't the hardware expertise. I guess
they think that only dealers will do the installations.
How much total memory do you have. If you have more than 8 megs that is
your problem. The bridgeboard needs at least a 512K of autoconfig space so
if you have a machine with more than 8 megs you have to get it down to at
least 7 some how, the general rule of thumb is that you have a bridgeboard
and 6 megs of memory.
Greg
Greg Givler – CBMSER Sysop
"By the way, don't eat the figs", Lydia, 'I Claudius'