[comp.sys.amiga] A2091 / A2630 Prolems

eapu030@orion.oac.uci.edu (Jason Goldberg) (01/23/90)

About two weeks ago I added a A2630, an A2091 (two ST-157N's), and a
fatter Agnus to my Amiga 2000.  I also have a A2058 (2 Megs).  I have
been experiencing several software problems since upgrading to this
combination, and am wondering if anyone else has seen similar things.  It
is hard to debug since I added them all at once:
1.  Turbo Silver will crash upon booting up!  Impulse confirms this is a
	known problem with the A2630/A2091 combo and they blam CBM.  I 
	don't know how they figure that, but they are fixing it at there
	end.  It sounds like they have NO clue what is causing the problem.
2.  When running Q-Mouse I would experience System Lockups while quickly
	manipulating icons.  No Guru, just total lockup.  I have not been
	able to do this again, since taking Q-Mouse out of my
	startup-sequence.
3.  Numerous programs are having troubles prperly updating their screens.
	Both ProPage 1.3 and PageStream 1.8 can have their screens/gadgets
	messed-up.  Part of the tool will apear in the middle of the screen,
	part of pull-down menus will stay after you close the menu, etc...
	This seems to happen more on programs updating the screen fast.

I sent a letter to Dave Hayne before making these purchases for myself and 
my store.  I didn't specifically ask about the Combo, but Dave did mention
a problem with the prototypes working together, but he said it was quickly
corrected.  I also added a Fatter Agnus and don't know if it is causing
any of these quirky behaviors.

I really love the both the A2091 and the A2630, I am just hoping these are
known hardware/software bugs which are being addressed.  It also better not
cost me too much to get fixed :-)

-Jason-

jer@stiatl.UUCP (John Ramspott) (01/24/90)

I too have noticed the problem with QMouse locking up the system when I do
multiple button clicks, especially when I am using the "shift-click" method
to copy multiple files from one window to another. The problem is with the
A2630. I added the Fat Agnus months ago, and had no problems. I have the
GVP controller and not a A2091. The Problem showed up with the A2630.
   I hope someone figures out the problem with Pro Page since I was thinking
about buying it now that I have more memory and processing power.
  All in all, I am pleasantly surprised at how much software works on the
'030 board, including the old music software. Games get zonked something
awful, but I play those on the 1000.

-- 
John Ramspott						gatech!stiatl!jer
Sales Technologies, Inc
3399 Peachtree Rd, NE
Atlanta, GA  (404) 841-4000

eapu030@orion.oac.uci.edu (Jason Goldberg) (01/24/90)

In responding to my problems with the A2630/A2091 combo, John Ramspott writes:
>   I hope someone figures out the problem with Pro Page since I was thinking
>about buying it now that I have more memory and processing power.

I am not sure that ProPage has a problem with the hardware, I think I make 
have a flakey component in my system.  I just set up a A2500/030 at my store
which has the same components and it ran beautifully.  The A2630 really
makes ProPage a far more productive program.

I think the problem with the lockups is a inate problem with any of the
accelerator mouse programs which have a sun/moon feature.  I am assuming that
the A2630 just increases the problem by trying everything faster.

I can live without TurboSilver as Sculpt 4D works great, until Silver gets
fixed.  

To reiterate the problem that scares me the most:
	I added a Fatter Agnus, A2630, and A2091 to my system.  Now many of
my programs (ProPage, PageStream, SID disk utility) don't update the screen
properly.  They leave ghosts and parts of gadget on the screen after they 
are moved.  It is very wierd.  Does anyone have any ideas, or possible
problem spots.

Thanks,

-Jason-

daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (01/25/90)

in article <8636@stiatl.UUCP>, jer@stiatl.UUCP (John Ramspott) says:

> I too have noticed the problem with QMouse locking up the system when I do
> multiple button clicks, especially when I am using the "shift-click" method
> to copy multiple files from one window to another. The problem is with the
> A2630. 

A program that out and out fails, which sounds like what's happening with your
QMouse, the best bet is that the program has an 020/030 compatibility bug.

>    I hope someone figures out the problem with Pro Page since I was thinking
> about buying it now that I have more memory and processing power.

ProPage 1.2 and 1.3 works just fine on an A2630.  I've been using ProPage quite
extensively for the last two months on two separate machines.  I suspect the
reported problems were due to a bogus Agnus chip.

>   All in all, I am pleasantly surprised at how much software works on the
> '030 board, including the old music software. Games get zonked something
> awful, but I play those on the 1000.

Actually, I've had no problems whatsoever with games.  It probably depends
alot on which ones you play.  "Dungeon Master" and "Blockout" work perfectly.
Some of the older games have trouble on the '030, but some older games also 
have trouble with 1.2, Fast memory, etc.  There's no reason 99% of the 
software out there shouldn't work; most of the guidelines for CPU compatibility
were out before the first Amiga shipped to the public, and the few remaining
guidelines were covered in detail at the Washington DC DevCon a few years
back as well as in AmigaMail.  Any recent program that has problems on the
'020 or '030 does so only because the programmers ignored proper Amiga 
programming procedures.

> John Ramspott						gatech!stiatl!jer
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
                    Too much of everything is just enough

amercer@thor.wright.edu (Art Mercer) (02/03/90)

From article <1061@dialogic.UUCP>, by gerry@pencilbox.uucp (Gerry Lachac):
>> What "updated" fix needed to be done?  I have an older mother board
[...]
>> would like to know.  Could you elaborate?

Not really, I wasn't present for the fix and it was done free of charge.
Your best bet it to check with a certifed repair shop to get the information.

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Art Mercer
Associate Director, Academic Computing Resources
040T Library Annex
Wright State University
Col. Glenn HWY
Dayton, OH 45435

BITNET:	amercer@wsu.bitnet
Phone:	(513)873-4038
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