#TOASTER Disaster!
13 messages in this thread
Have just invested over $2000 for a TOASTER board for our Amiga 2000.
To-date this has been a D I S A S T E R !!!
With the Toaster board correctly installed, and all the software on the
hard disk… our faithful computer WILL NOT EVEN BOOT UP! Remove the
Toaster board and all is well.
For info: We have WB Ver 2. Super Denise. Fat Angus. 8K of RAM. A 120
Meg hard drive. A GVP A3001 accelerator board (28 MHz). All have worked
well for past 18 months – until the Toaster!
Have put all details in a FAX to the Technical Support people at NEWTEK. So
far… NO HELP or response.
Has anyone any suggestions – other than writing it off as a very bad
purchasing nistake?
Regards…………… Hilary.
Hilary,
Hmmm, sounds like a problem. First, which version of the Toaster do you
have: 1.0 or 2.0? From what I understand, there are problems with the
ECS Denise chips and the Toaster getting along (supposedly fixed in the
latest revision of each product).
First step would be to install the Toaster in another system and see if
it boots there. If so, it may be something within your machine.
What exactly do you mean by not booting up? What *exactly* do you see
when you flip the power switch? (Those colors and flashes mean something
about what the Amiga is doing when it powers up — sort of like the
RAM count and checksum garbage an MS-DOS machine will show when it boots.)
I wouldn't write off a Toaster that quick. Double check everything and
get back to here with a detailed description of the symptoms.
-Chas
AM-Report
Thanks so much for the come-back Charles.
First – your questions. Toaster Version is 2.0 2). "Not booting up" means
just that. Turn on the mains switch. Some activity from the hard drive.
Screen clear – then a message appears at top saying "software failure".
Followed shorty by the dreaded red GURU message. Putting in DF0: the WB 2.0
disk – and then trying to boot, gets the same results. The floppy is not
activated.
Next… to continue the disaster here! I tested all the 8 Megs of installed
RAM. It was OK. Next, backed up my complete 120 Meg hard drive and
re-formated – putting on just enough WB 2.0 for it to boot up. Did this in
case I had some conflict in "commands". Still would not boot up. Next
started pulling boards in the 2000. Eventually found that if I removed my
GVP A3001 (28 MHz) accelerator board, the macine would boot and I could use
the Toaster software after installation. Conclusion (to-date) is that
somehow the GVP Board and the Toaster are NOT compatible!
Sent a FAX to Technical Support at NEWTEK. A Mr Bob Stratton called me
back. I explained the situation and what I had found. Of course he passed
the buck along to GVP – advising me to contact them. I was rather taken
aback by Stratton's "Just to Bad!" attitude in general.
FAXED GVP late yesterday (Friday) and hope for some form of HELP early next
week.
In meantime…… am plodding along SLOWLY… minus my GVP accelerator
board, which I miss badly. There must be some solution? If GVP boards are a
problem with the Toaster, the poetential customer should be warned.
Would be most glad of any suggestions from you or anyone else. I just feel
let down!
Best regards…………. Hilary.
Hillary, I have almoast the same setup as yours. (keep in mind i'm a
computer moron). Check with gvp, it might be that your jumpers are not set
corectly. I went round and round in circles with that, finally with the
help of a lot of nice people, most here in the forum, i got the
configuration streight. I was ready to throw the beast in the river. I'm
glad i did not. Toaster is working fine now. So don't give up.
George…. Have just now got my IBM working after a lightning strike put
paid to most of its guts.
Now back to the TOASTER….. Did you mean by saying that you had the same
setup, you had the GVP A30001 accelerator board in it? If so – do you
happen to know how the jumpers on the board were set up so that it worked
amicably with the TOASTER?
Most certainly will check once again with GVP. The last time their attitude
seemed to be… "Too Bad!"
Thanks again. Regards….. Hilary
Yes, I have A3001 rev. 7 gvp. gvp was actually fairly helpfull. they told
me which jumper should be set. are you using the card with a hd driver?
It's possible that e-promm on the card is not installed. If you need an
e-promm, i happen to have an extra one. Give them another try, they should
come through. Who did you buy your toaster and computer from. they also
should offer some help. hope it helps, let me know how you make out and
don't give up. I was ready to throw my "beast" in the river. Waiting paid
off. george
Thanks George for your encouragement! (I need it). You mention a certain
E-PROMM…. where should it be located on the A3001 ? Can't see any empty
chip sockets on my card(s).
I drive my hard disk from another GVP card which I got soon after buying
the Amiga. Not too long ago GVP advised me to change the ROM on that card
to their so-called "FAAASTROM" – which I did. Have never added, altered or
subtracted anything from the A3001 however. Got the TOASTER via Mail Order
from ComputAbility.
Following your advice, I am FAXING a man recommended on this Forum at GVP.
(Bill Prescott). Have given him all details – even to the jumper settings
on the card.
Some folk have spoken about the TOASTER/A3001 working in some Amiga 2000's
– and not in others. As I am a retired bloke on a very fixed income, I
simply cannot afford to buy new motherboards on the chance it will work in
one of them!
Will keep you posted… Regards, HILARY.
George. Think (and hope) that I may be getting a little nearer to having
GVP and NewTek co-exist inside my Amiga 2000. Had another "go" at the
DISASTER. Much the same as before… but the notice that came up on screen
was "SOFTWARE FAILURE"…. followed shortly by red GURU.
I found the GVP A3001 users booklet. Seems that there is some type of
installation software to be used after putting the board into the machine.
I just do not have such a disk! Do you?….is there such a beast? Have been
trying and trying to get some answers out of GVP, but nothing yet.
I suppose the software installs some files – or alters others. Just wish
that I could find out.
Hoping and a bit of praying ! Regards…. Hilary.
Hilary,
I don't think there's a generic problem with GVP accellerators and the
Toaster. I've installed Toasters in systems with GVP cards & they work
fine. However those GVP boards were the newer 'Combo cards', not the 3001
that you have. It's possible that board could be incompatible. It would
also be interesting to put your accellerator & Toaster into another 2000
motherboard. I know that few people have a spare machine laying around for
testing…. but it's possible that your 2000 doesn't like having both
boards installed. I've seen wierder things, like a 2000 that wouldn't work
with an '040 board unless the other memory cards were pulled.
Jim
You didn't mention it, but do you have one meg of chip ram in your system?
If not that would be a possible problem.
As for GVP cards, one of my Toasters uses the 50 mhz card and it works
fine.
Lou
Believe it or not, I had the same trouble, except it wouldn't go away when
I removed the GVP. I simply had an A2000 that wouldn't work with the
Toaster. I sent the Toaster back to NewTek for a new one, yet again it
wouldn't work. I swapped A2000s and it worked. I was lucky enough to be
able to diagnose it over the phone with Tim Jenison himself, yet we
couldn't figure out what was wrong. I chalk it up to cosmic rays. Or
flakey A2000s – there's been a lot of revisions, and there's little to no
diagnostics that could tell you that a custom chip is malfunctioning.
Almost all problems (aside from custom chip swaps) are "solved" by dealers
with a motherboard swap.
If you get on the phone with GVP (no small feat in it self!) ask for Bill
Prescott in Technical support. A fine dude who knows his stuff.
Good luck :
Trent
Hilary, On the front end of the Toaster board is a copper heat sink/ground
flange that looks like a comb with bent, rounded bristles. It is very easy
to have this peice of copper slide down ehnd manuevering the Toaster into
the slot, particularly if you are sliding it by the power supply bridge. If
it slides down too far, it contacts and shorts some curcuitry on the
Toaster board that will then prevent the Amiga from booting. It may even
boot with the amiga cover off, but not boot with it on!
If this is your problem, simply slide the copper piece as far up as
possible and be careful when replacing power supply/amiga cover that it is
not pushed down again. All should work well then.
As for NewTek support, it sounds as if your fax didn't go through or the
return info was garbled. They are usually good at support. I suggest you
try the toll free phone number. You'll most likely have to leave a
message, but they usually call back within 4 – 6 hours.
wmc