M1230 XA problems
10 messages in this thread
ANYBODY!
I have recently installed the M1230 XA 50Mhz with 68820/50Mhz maths
co-processor and 8 Megs RAM into my AMIGA 1200.
However when I wrote into the startup sequence the lines (as recommended
in the info sheet) SETXA ADDMEM; I was presented with the phrase
"System/AutoXA unknown command – SYS System/AUTOXA failed returncode 10""
on switching the computer on.
SETXA also resulted in a "SETXA unknown command – failed return code 10"
I have also found that I have lost rather a lot of chip RAM. I am only
reading 1,021,320. This cannot be right surely? I thought that when fast
ram was introduced it released the chp ram completely.
I`m still configuring my system and would appreciate any help on the above
problems.
Thankyou In Advance.
CALLING IN FROM SCOTLAND
ON A 68030 AMIGA 1200!
From your description of the problem, it sounds like the system
cannot find the SetXA program. You may not have copied SetXA from the
floppy that came with the M1230XA to your boot disk's Utility drawer,
or you may have modified your S:Startup-sequence file so that it no
longer adds SYS:Utility to the command path.
If the fast RAM is not added to the system using SetXA (or some other
method) then you will indeed use up a lot of chip RAM, as that is the
only RAM the system knows about.
DAN,
I did as instructed in the leaflet by placing the `SetXA` icon into the
Utilities drawer and placing the `AddXAMem` icon into the Startup Drawer.
When I noticed that one could speed up the action of AMIGADOS by entering
the commands "SETXA ADDMEM" into the startup-sequence directly I attempted
to do so and this resulted in the reaction SYS "System/AutoXA: unknown
command …. failed returncode 10" with the same notice appearing for
SetXA. I then removed the "SETXA ADDMEM" command from the startup-sequence
and retained the icons in the two drawers. I have not altered the startup
drawer to remove the SYS:UTILITY command path.
On my initial workbench screen I have 1,130,560 graphics and 8,384,248
other memory. When calling up AVAIL in the Shell window it indicates that
I have access to the full 2MB of chip ram but that a large amount is
already in use – though I am running no other programs. 17 icons
representing various partitions (5) and programs are present. It puzzles
me no end. I was worrying that I may be losing my chip ram permanently.
Does this sound as though I have a serious malfunction in my machine?
I`m also using a Maxtor 250MB IDE drive.
I`d appreciate any further help Dan on this or from anyone else, please.
IAIN.
CALLING IN FROM SCOTLAND
ON A 68030 AMIGA 1200!
Iain,
I hope you don't mind my butting in a bit.
I want to ask a few small questions before saying much.
Before you installed your 1230XA, how much memory did the Workbench
claim you had available after start up? Do you have a lot of RAM buffers on
that 250MB HD? (Just curious.)
Do you have the complete path for calling SetXA? (I.e. if it is in
the system drawer, do you call it with "SYS:SYSTEM/SetXA"?
I have the newer AutoXA in my System drawer and call it with
"SYS:System/AutoXA >NIL:" as the line IMMEDIATELY after the SetPatch in my
Startup-Script.
The figure of 8384248 sounds about right for 8MB Fast RAM, it only
seems that you have NOTHING else in Fast RAM. It all seems to still be loading
into Chip RAM.
The docs say that anything that the scripts try to run before SetXA is
first run, will still be loaded into Chip RAM.
Good luck.
Joe
A1200 '030 50MHz, '882 50MHz, 6MB RAM, 213 MB 3.5" HD.
Joe's got it right. You want to use the complete path if you're
running SetXA in the beginning of your startup-sequence file, because
the Utilities drawer hasn't been added to your path yet at that
point. When you get this working correctly, remove the AddXAMem icon
from the startup drawer, because it's redundant.
No, it doesn't sound like a hardware malfunction, just a problem
getting SetXA to run early enough. The best place to put it is right
after the SetPatch line in the beginning of S:Startup-sequence. This
way, you'll get the maximum benefit you can get from using SetXA
ADDMEM.
Now, what you really want to do is to use AutoXA instead of SetXA for
adding the fast memory to the system. Look in the download libraries here
for AutoXA. It can get the fast memory added to your system even earlier
than SetXA can, so that more of your chip memory is freed up, and your
system will run a little bit faster too.
– dan
DAN & JOE,
The previous chip ram was in the region of more than 1.9Mb, the exact
figure I cannot recall.
I have 5 partitions on my hardrive with a number of icons displayed
outside their drawers. When I removed these icons back to their drawers I
ended up with GRAPHIC 1,291,160 and FAST 8,303,136 available. Avail says I
have a maximum of CHIP 2096128 but that 809072 is in use.Isthere any way
of getting shell to state what is using up this memory. I have Virus
Checker running automatically and a few programs in the user-startup
drawer.
I tried to run Pro-Page and once running it left me with GRAPHIC 784,904
FAST 6,665,464. So the fast ram is being used but I was unable to run a
second Pro-Page, which I have done before on my A500+ as I was out of chip
ram.
How do I check for the amount of memory used in the ram buffer you
mentioned? There appears to be nothing in the manual about it.
As per recommendations I wrote into the ed s:startup-sequence the
following lines after C:SetPatch QUIET …
SYS:SYSTEM/SetXA
SYS:SYSTEM/AutoXA >NIL:
but this only produced an aborted startup when rebooted with the comments
SYS:SYSTEM/SetXA: unknown command
SYS:SYSTEM/SetXA failed returncode 10
I removed the SetXA line but still had the same result with
SYS:SYSTEM/AutoXA: unknown command
SYS:SYSTEM/AutoXA failed returncode 10
Both of the SetXA and AutoXA icons were in the Utilities drawer as
recommended by the information sheet supplied.
I look at all this and cannot see at what I am doing wrong.I am following
the instructionsbut it just isn't happening with my machine, so I really
appreciate any help you fellow M1230XA users out there can give me.
A new alarming problem is that AUTOPILOT is crashing on me with
frightening regularity. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with
M1230XA problems. (I am actually typing/sending this reply on the
AUTOPILOT A500+ as I am unable to use the AUTOPILOT A1200 anymore).
IAIN.
AMIGA 1200 on AUTOPILOT from SCOTLAND!
iain@altspor.demon.co.uk
Your problem is that, after the c:setpatch quiet command, you should
have:
SYS:Utilities/AutoXA >NIL:
This should fix all your problems. (Even the low chip RAM)
You should not have the SetXA command in your startup if the AutoXA
command is there.
I don't know about the problems with Autopilot, My 1200 is configured the
same as yours and Autopilot runs fine.
Bob Comer — Flying high and fast with my A1200HD'030 on Autopilot!
From Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
Iain, if you've got AutoXA in your SYS:Utilities drawer, then that's where
you need to refer to it in your S:Startup-sequence file. Put this line
after the SetPatch line in S:Startup-sequence:
SYS:Utilities/AutoXA >NIL:
This will add the XA memory to your system and immediately reboot the
machine, so that the second time around, AutoXA will see that the memory
is there already, and will then let the system come up normally.
The reason it's not working for you now is that you've put AutoXA in the
SYS:Utilities drawer, but you're trying to run it from the SYS:System
drawer instead of the SYS:Utilities drawer. Since AutoXA is NOT in your
SYS:System drawer, AmigaDOS cannot find it.
Lets get AutoXA running properly on your system first, then we can address
the other problems, such as the amount of chip RAM avilable, etc. You may
find that once AutoXA is set up to work correctly, some other problems you
mentioned may go away. In any case, it's generally best to try to work on
one problem at a time, or you've got no idea which change fixed which
problem.
– dan
Iain,
I can see your problem right now:
When I said to type in "SYS:SYSTEM/SetXA" in your Startup-Script, I
implied that SetXA would be IN the drawer named SYS:SYSTEM. If you actually
have the files in your UTILITIES drawer, use the command line –
"SYS:Utilities/SetXA" (or AutoXA…you only need to run SetXA once, then use
only AutoXA from your S-Script.)
Your script can't find the file. If you use the full path, then the
path must actually lead to the file. If you use just the file name, then the
line to run the file must appear AFTER the point in the script where the PATH
variable is set to include the path to the file.
Either change the script line to point to the drawer where the files
are actually stored, or move the files into your SYSTEM drawer.
Joe
Thanks for helping Iain, Dan. Iain: Dan is giving you good advice.