CompuServe Thread

Read/Write "Errors"

12 messages in this thread
#118545From: Tom EshelmanSep 1, 1990 9:14 AM
[ continuation ] MemPri also says I have 1 Meg for Chip ram and even reveals the start and end address. Their difference is the same value both programs say I have for chip ram. To me, this says Agnus and the installation is OK. The only sin I can think of that I may have done is that I don't think I had to remove the 2090A to replace Agnus. The MW and the GVP allowed me enough room. I, therefore, drilled the hole in the back of the case with the 2090A in the vicinity which would cause it to assume some vibration. I didn't knock the h… out of it, and drilled with a 3/32, 5/32 and then the 1/4. If I autoboot off the ICD / Syquest, I still get errors on the Rodime partitions when accessing them. No errors ever appear on the Syquest. The kicker: I just did a cold reboot with that switch thrown. I now have only a 1 Meg, chip computer. I have no cartridge in the Syquest. The Rodime is showing NO errors. It is perfect. This should finger the now dead GVP board, only it worked fine until Agnus came along. What do I do next? I smell buss contention, but fail to see how this would manifest itself in read/write "errors". Regards Tom
#118589From: John H. GrahamSep 1, 1990 1:20 PM
Check the unit or device numbers. Is autobooting turned off on the 2090A? Is the 2090A say the rodine is DH0: and not DI0: ? Check for bented pins on the agnus, thire hard to see. And check that more than one trace wasn't cut when you cut J500, you did cut j500?,. do a memtest on the GVP board.
#118614From: Tom EshelmanSep 1, 1990 6:11 PM
John: Thanks for the reply. I tracked down the problem to lack of speed of the 2090A or conflicts in that it addresses the same values as Agnus, ie: the upper 512K of the 1 Meg Agnus. The remedy was to tell SetCPU to hold down the speed. Two questions: 1. Do you know of a faster controller for the ST-506 Rodime? 2. Do you have anything particular in mind when asking if autobooting is turned off on the 2090A? The answer to the latter is "No." It autoboots, unless I boot with a bootable Syquest cartridge. In that case, the ICD muscles the 2090A out. Regards Regards Tom
#118624From: John H. GrahamSep 1, 1990 8:18 PM
I have a GVP and a A2090 in an Amiga at work. And a buss fight would break out on bootup. The two boards had the same boot pri. GVP fixed it witha new board. I now have a GVP II board with true DMA. It will hit 700K bytes/sec with DMA and CPU conteion. I'm now looking for a good scsi to st506 adapter like the apadtec used by Cltd. Now you Know why CBM does'nt support the 2090's. The 2090A being the worst. John.
#118910From: Tom EshelmanSep 3, 1990 3:07 PM
John: Well, to underscore your opinion, I don't have the A3001 EPROMs. I have an ICD Advantage 2000 working a Syquest external drive. It appears the 2090A doesn't want to be in CHIP ram but can't hack the speed of 32 bit FAST ram either. If I autoboot off the Syquest, all is well until I try and ACCESS the Rodime via the 2090A. *That* is all it takes to get read/write errors, unless I set my SetCPU program to DATA NOCACHE. Then it settles down, but the A3001 is down to a little less than 8 times the CPU speed of an A1000 according to a Ronin test program. The ICD, the Syquest and the Rodime can stand the heat of the 3001. The A2090 can't Regards Tom
#118939From: John H. GrahamSep 3, 1990 7:05 PM
Looks like you need Dave Heynies cachecard program. It will turn off the data cache every time the 2090A is accessed. And turn it back on when it's not. You can run at fullspeed on all other sys accesses. Note you will also need showcards for the config. data. John.
#118641From: ICD, Inc.Sep 1, 1990 10:13 PM
You can use, say, an Omti controller for the Rodime and run it from the ICD AdSCSI. Mounting the controller internally may prove to be an interesting puzzle, though. Craig
#118912From: Tom EshelmanSep 3, 1990 3:07 PM
Craig: It way not be worth it financially either. The ICD-Syquest has no problem keeping up. I do have an early A2000 at work which I don't get to use much. But it would not be a total loss to pull the Rodime and the 2090A and create a 2000HD from it. This leaves me out a bit over $500 to get an internal Syquest which the ICD controller will handle easily. If you want a special controller, you may wind up paying the best part of the $500 just for that piece, and still be "behind the 8 ball" as it were. The one remaining hitch that I will never be certain of, is whether my Fat Agnus and my installation thereof, is perfect. Do you know of any software that would test that? Regards Tom
#118932From: ICD, Inc.Sep 3, 1990 5:27 PM
Well, an Omti 3527 RLL controller is less than $150. Mounting in a 2000 would be the only concern. Of course, adding a drive like a Quantum would be nice, but it would cost more. I don't know of any way to test your Agnus installation. Sorry. Craig
#118678From: Don Curtis/SYSOPSep 2, 1990 2:14 AM
Tom, I hope you got the metal chips out of the machine before you turned it on! As to MaxTransfer…start at 128k (131072 bytes) and try that. If it doesn't work, cut it in half again to 64k (65536) and so forth thru 32k an 16k, etc. until you find a value that works. I'd also give CVP a call…see what they have to say. Don
#118913From: Tom EshelmanSep 3, 1990 3:08 PM
Don: Metal chips? Metal chips? 😎 Hey, I literally stuck the tip of a large Electrolux Tank vacuum to that pad when I was done. That sucker could have been used to remove the Agnus chip. 😎 What I found is that my SetCpu program is at "fault". If I downgrade it to DATA NOCACHE, my computer is fine. Only the Ronin test program says I am down to 7.83 * A1000 whereas otherwise, it was at 10.96 * it. The MaxTransfer didn't help. I had pulled one partition down to 512! and still got the read/write errors. My other controller in the computer is an ICD Advantage 2000. It drives an external Syquest. I can autoboot off the Syquest with no sweat. It is fine. But all I need to do to get "errors" is to read from the Rodime. I will call GVP, now that you mention it. They are only a few miles from where I live. (See…you should have stayed in Haverford. <grin> ) I'll ask you what I just asked ICD-Craig: Are you aware of any software that will do a full performance check on the Fat Agnus? There is still a chance it is doing me in. Like someone else who exchanged his, I tried GoPal on it and got a munged screen. I didn't try it, though, with the A3001 switched out. (The 3001 doesn't have autoboot EPROMS either), Regards Tom
#118989From: Don Curtis/SYSOPSep 4, 1990 1:08 AM
Tom, Nah…I should have stayed in Paoli. I rode with the Malvern Police (I believe GVP started out in Malvern), lived a block from Plank Ave in Paoli (which is where GVP moved) and worked in King of Prussia (which is where GVP is now)! By the way…when did I ever say I grew up in Haverford Twp.? I did, but I don't remember telling anyone here that. Oh well…back to your original problem. No, I know of no program that will give a comprehensive test to an Agnus chip…but if you're not having problems with the machine suddenly GURU'ing for no apparent reason…I'd suspect the chip is fine. Try this…in your mountlist for the Rodime…set the priority at about 15 and see what happens. If that doesn't work, try a priority of 20. I wouldn't go any higher than that (unless you know the GVP board is running at a higher priority…and then I'd only match it's priority, not go above it). Be careful of using a vacuum cleaner to clean out the inside of a computer. The air rushing thru the nozzel can create quite a static charge. Go to a photography store and get a can of compressed air instead. But make sure you use it in brief shots (brief as in 2 seconds or less) to avoid getting things too cold. Don