#Newbie Questions
11 messages in this thread
Folks:
I just bought my new (well, used) A3000, and I have a couple of questions.
I haven't finished reading all the manuals yet, so if I ask dumb questions,
feel free to tell me RTFM…
When the A3000 is on, it sounds like it's constantly trying to access the
floppy drive, even though there isn't a diskette in the drive — is this
normal?
Is there a way I can tell what rev my ROMs are without opening the box?
I've found all sorts of rev levels for other stuff (Kickstart ver 37.175,
Exec ver 37.132, Disk ver 37.67, Amiga Release 2 displayed on power-up,
WorkBench 2.04 on the floppy, etc)?
Are there shareware Amiga games anywhere on CompuServe (I'm especially
interested in one called BattleForce or MechForce or something like that)?
How about PC emulator shareware?
Can someone recommend a good shareware comm program?
Is the performance gain worth paying more for SC Static RAM, rather than
paged DRAMs?
That's it for now (I think).
Thanks in advance,
–Phil
Any Amiga clicks its floppy drives constantly. It has something to do with
detecting whether there's a disk in them or not, but don't ask me why they
didn't just use the same method as on the PC. Under 2.x, the system can be
told not to click the drives though. There are lots of programs to do it;
Commodore didn't make it the default because it can cause problems with a few
third-party drives.
The ROM version is identical to the Kickstart version, in your case 37.175 AKA
2.04.
There are tons of games in the Amiga Arts forum. There are several PC
emulators either here or in AmigaTech.
Jim:
Thanks for the help!
–Phil
PCs don't check whether there is a disk in the drive or not; the OS could care
less what is in the floppies. AmigaDOS has (meaningful) volumes, however, and
has to know what's in each floppy. Thus, the click. You can turn it off,
since most drives are capable of figuring out "hey, somebody just shoved a disk
in here" and telling the OS, but a few aren't, so CBM left the click on.
Bob
Bob:
I know that the earlier drives needed to click to be able to check for
diskchanges, but as you said most drives can now without the click.
Wouldn't it have made more sense to have nonclicking as the default, with
a not in the docs that if you're using an older drive, and it's not
recognising diskchanges to then set the proper preference setting to on?
(and then provide a prefs program to set click or no right with the OS,
don't leave it for 3rd party programs to do!)??
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
It can't be the default because "no-clicking" a few certain drives makes
the noise louder and actually damages the drive.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.
Hey man, I didn't design the damn thing. Don't ask ME why C= does ANYTHING!
<g> <g> <g>
Philip,
Hey, RTFM !!! :^) Just kidding. NOBODY reads the manual.
re: Empty drive ticking. There is a freeware program in the AmigaArts forum
(either that or this forum) that eliminates the ticks. I'm using it and it
works great. Look under the utilities or tools libraries or go into libraries
and use the BROWSE option. At the options, search ALL libraries, use a key
word (maybe "tick"?), and tap through number of days. Download the file and
drag its Icon to WBStartup in workbench. When you boot, it will automaticaly
execute.
re: Shareware/Freeware games. Check out the AmigaArts forum (go amigaarts).
They have a huge supply of all kinds of games as well as MANY other programs
depending on how your system is set up.
re: Comm program. I'm on a barebones A500 system. I can't use the HUGE comm
programs available. Download JrComm from the communications library in this
forum. I've been using it for a month and it works just fine. If you have any
problems with it let me know. I've probably seen them all.
Also check out AutoPilot in AmigaArrts. I can't use it on my A500 but you
should be able to on the 3000. It supposedly saves HUGE amounts of money.
Finally, don't be afraid to ask questions. We're all here to help.
—Rich
Philip,
just to add to what the others have said, I happen to like NoClick2.0
(NOCLCK.LHA) which you just drop in the WBStartup drawer and forget.
There are several shareware, and freeware, comm programs available. Two
favorites of mine are Backtalk and NComm. I'm not sure what there exact
file names are here. If you check the games section over in AmigaArts,
you will find many games available there, including a BattleForce game.
Lastly, there are a couple of shareware software PC emulators available
online, but you might also take a look at getting CrossDos 5.0 instead,
which tosses in a PC emulator as well.
No idea on the static column vs. page mode rams. Sorry.
Brian
Brian:
Thanks for the info! No one else has had an opinion on the SC ZIPs vs DRAMs
either. Oh well…
Thanks again,
–Phil
The system does not care how fast your RAM is, as long as it is fast enough to
meet whatever timing specification it expects. In other words, if the system
requires 80 NS ram, you will get the exact same performance from 80 NS DRAMs or
20 NS super-burst-mode-neato-keen-screaming memory.
Bob