#Upgrade Help
14 messages in this thread
To all tech types,
I have an A500 with an ICD AdIDE hard drive controller and 130mb 2.5" hard
drive inside. I recently tried to upgrade to 2.04 O.S. and 2.1 WB but have
found that the controller is not compatible, it has a jumper for O.S. 1.2 and
1.3. Does anyone know if there is a patch or other fix to make this controller
compatible with the 2.04 O.S.? The A500 is for my wife's and children's use
and I hate to see them working in the stone age, besides the fact that most of
the programs that I want to get for them require at least 2.1 O.S. Is ICD
still in business?
David
(75714,2776)
David,
I believe the jumper really just toggles the autoboot setting of the
controller. Prior to 1.3 a hard drive could not autoboot so the manufacturers
built in some hack to enable it to do so. As of Kickstart 1.3 this is no longer
needed and a 'normal' autoboot ROM takes care of it. This (jumper set to 1.3)
should work with 2.x/3.x as well without a problem.
Did the drive fail to boot as soon as you put in the 2.04 ROM (i.e. before
installing the new Workbench)?
Cheers,
// Christian "ELP" Busse
\X/ near Frankfurt, Germany
Christian,
Yes, the A500 that I have the ICD controller in would start to boot then
crash and reboot itself just to have it happen again and again. It would not
even boot from a floppy with the 2.04 chip installed. My wife's system
consists of the following:
A500 (bought new from Montgomery Ward in November of 1994, box was covered
with dust and I payed too much for it but hey, it's new!!) 2mb RAM board
from M-Tec Germany 130mb 2.5" internal HD ICD AddIDE 40 hard drive controller
(relocated from my trusty A1000 so I
could get the case closed again, you can only stack soo many
add on items on top of the 68000 socket before they go through
the roof) <G> I have the jumper on the ICD set for the 1.3 O.S. and
don't think changing it to the 1.2 O.S. would be worthwhile. Any suggestions
you have will be appreciated. I'd rather not spend any more money on this
computer but would like to be able to use the 2.1 O.S. Thanks for any help,
P.S. I have re-installed the 1.3 chip and the computer is working fine again.
David
(75714,2776)
David,
sorry this took so long but I haven't been online for nearly 2 weeks… Well, I
somehow get the impression the OS 2.1 ROM is faulty if it won't even boot from
a floppy (with HD installed or not?). Do you know anyone you could take the
chip to and try it out in his/her A500? That's about all I can think of doing
now…
Good luck!
// Christian "ELP" Busse
\X/ near Frankfurt, Germany
Christian,
<<Well, I somehow get the impression the OS 2.1 ROM is faulty if it won't
even boot from a floppy (with HD installed or not?). Do you know anyone you
could take the chip to and try it out in his/her A500? That's about all I can
think of doing now…>>
I thought the same thing so I bought a brand new 2.04 chip from Software Hut
and tried it, same results. I put the other 2.04 chip back in my A1000 and it
works fine there. The strange thing is I think I used these same items (2.04
chip and ICD AdIDE controller) in the A1000 once upon a time. The 2.04 was
installed in a DKB KwickStart II board as the alternate ROM. I could be wrong
on that though.
David
(75714,2776)
I have an A500 (transfered to a PC desktop case) with AdIDE/2(I coudn't tell ya
the difference between the original and 2) with an M-Tec 68020/881 accel. w/4MB
32-bit fast-RAM and OS 2.1, MotherBoard Rev. 5…NOW! what revision is your
MotherBoard if less than 6(I believe) a jumper wire must be soldered between
two pins of the 2.04 ROM…If this hasnt been done I could crack open my case
and tell which pins.
Lowry Stiles AKA Psyclone
Thanks for the reply, I think my Motherboard is version 6 but I'll open it back
up to confirm. My father also has a A500 which I am planning to upgrade to
2.04 O.S. and 2.1 WB this November when I go to visit him. His A500 is
probably an older version so if you don't mind could you check which pins need
to be jumpered and get back to me? Thanks again for the help.
David
Just waiting "two more weeks" <G> for my 060/A4000T
Pins 1 and 31 should be jumpered on the 2.04 ROM
Lowry Stiles AKA Psyclone
pins 1 and 31 should also be jumpered on the 3.1 ROM, as long as your machine
requires it of course 🙂
Phill
David,
as Lowry Stiles rightly pointed out, there has to be a wire between 2 pins of
the OS ROM. I quote from the ROM installation doc: <Quote (translated)>
8. There are several different versions of the A500's motherboard: Rev.3,
Rev.5, Rev.6A, and Rev.7 (You find these numbers printed on the upper side of
the motherboard in the front right corner).
Installation varies depending on the motherboard version:
A – On boards Rev.3 and Rev.5 the ROM's pins 1 and 31 have to be connected by a
wire. This connects A17 (pin 1 of the ROM chip) to A17 (pin 31 on the board).
Insert the 2.04 ROM into socket U6 and press firmly into place. Check, whether
any pins have been damaged.
B – On boards Rev.6A and above you have to remove any wires from the upper side
of the chip. Insert the 2.04 ROM into socket U6 and press firmly into place.
Check, whether any pins have been damaged.
<Unquote> Good luck!
// Christian "ELP" Busse
\X/ near Frankfurt, Germany
Thanks for the help, I'll check the motherboard tonight. I think it is a 6a
version. If I understand your post correctly though, with the 6a version
motherboard no modifications are needed to the 2.04 ROM.
David
Just waiting "two more weeks" <G> for my 060/A4000T
David,
that depends… the 2.04 ROM chips usually came _with_ the wire bridge, so you
only had to cut this if not needed, without danger for the chip because of
unprofessional soldering technique…
Cheers,
// Christian "ELP" Busse
\X/ near Frankfurt, Germany
DM <<I have an A500 with an ICD AdIDE hard drive controller and 130mb 2.5" hard
drive inside. I recently tried to upgrade to 2.04 O.S. and 2.1 WB but have
found that the controller is not compatible,>>
I use to use an A500 with AdIDE couple of years ago. I don't known if they
ever updated the controller software. I got the drive working under 2.04, but
I'm not sure how (I never really trusted the AdIDE under 2.04, but it may have
been the IDE's firmware).
I believe I got the drive working by using the OFS instead of the FFS. The OFS
doesn't use the MASK or MAXTRANSFER options… I not sure, but only the Boot
partition may be the only partition that needs to be OFS.
Ron.
Turner's Law #14: You're only young once,
but you can be immature forever!
You can contact ICD via fax (only) at 815-968-6888
-sja