plw@rayssdb.ray.com (Paul L. White) (12/28/89)
I received CSA's 68020 accelerator as a gift for Christmas. It was just what I needed to speed up my PageStream desktop publishing program (love it, but it's painfully slow). Unfortunately, I found after installing it in my A2000 and firing it up...a blue screen. Whipping out my back issues of comp.sys.amiga articles, I found that blue screen = "bad custom chips." I reinstalled the MC68010 chip and the machine booted up fine. Then I carefully reinstalled the CSA daughterboard in the 68000 slot again and got the blue screen again. The sexy female voice on the CSA answering machine told me that nobody would be there until 2 January 1990. Anybody else have one of these things? Anyone else have this problem? Writing manuals for the DoD, I am painfully aware of ESD (although the part was in an ESD bag, the little manual contained no ESD cautions) and I don't think that this is the problem as I took adequate precautions. Thanks for any help that may be forthcoming. Here's hoping that all the amigoids received an adequate supply of blank disks and wonderful software for Christmas... ============================================================================= Paul White Knockertunity only opts once =============================================================================
aburto@marlin.NOSC.MIL (Alfred A. Aburto) (01/04/90)
In article <4098@rayssdb.ray.com> plw@rayssdb.ray.com (Paul L. White) writes: > >I received CSA's 68020 accelerator as a gift for Christmas. It was >just what I needed to speed up my PageStream desktop publishing program >(love it, but it's painfully slow). Unfortunately, I found after >installing it in my A2000 and firing it up...a blue screen. Whipping >out my back issues of comp.sys.amiga articles, I found that blue screen = >"bad custom chips." > This problem happened to me yesterday too when I was checking out new board from CSA. It crashed because I had no 32-bit memory installed but the AddRAM (wrongly) tried to add memory in anyway --- resulting in a system crash ... I guess there is a bug in that AddRAM routine (it should not have attempted to add memory that doesn't exist)... Al Aburto aburto@narlin.nosc.mil.UUCP
colyer@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (01/05/90)
On a related topic. Has anybody had any experience with the CSA Midget Racer 68020 card? Any thing a buyer should be wary of? Thanks... -- #include <std.disclaimers> #define JAMES_COLYER COLYER@silver.ucs.indiana.edu /* Amiga. One of the finer things in life. */ /* You'd better leave your underpants with someone you can trust -J.Tull */
scott@wilbur.uucp (Scott Beckstead) (01/07/90)
I happen to be the proud owner of the original CSA 68020 accelerator card serial number 2. However I happen to also be the not so proud owner of a Starboard II 2meg/multifunction card. The problem is that the Starboard II refuses to work correctly with the CSA board. I have contacted both companies and what I get from CSA is that they have tried to get Microbotics to work with them to fix the problem and have given up after several years of trying the story I get from Microbotics is that once you install the '020 in the AMIGA it is no longer an AMIGA and they will not be responsible for the consequences of my actions. No help is forthcoming from Microbotics and the fixes recomended by CSA don't quite work (minor improvement but not full function) Since I use my A1000 for video (3d rendering etc.) I need the speed increase provided by the 68020 and I need the ram afforded by the Starboard. I think that Microbotics attitude is deplorable and have resolved not to buy any more products made by this comapny (please feel free to join the boycott) however much satisfaction that this gives me it does not solve my problem. If anybody out there can help me I would appreciate it greatly. Scott Beckstead scott@wilbur.uucp (sorry all the address I have on the net) Or Scott Beckstead @ 206/2814 (Fidonet)
bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) (01/09/90)
In article <1990Jan7.052421.13946@wilbur.uucp> scott@wilbur.uucp (Scott Beckstead) writes: |I happen to be the proud owner of the original CSA 68020 accelerator card |serial number 2. However I happen to also be the not so proud owner of a |Starboard II 2meg/multifunction card. The problem is that the Starboard II |refuses to work correctly with the CSA board. I have contacted both companies |and what I get from CSA is that they have tried to get Microbotics to work |with them to fix the problem and have given up after several years of trying |the story I get from Microbotics is that once you install the '020 in the AMIGA |it is no longer an AMIGA and they will not be responsible for the consequences |of my actions. No help is forthcoming from Microbotics and the fixes |recomended by CSA don't quite work (minor improvement but not full function) |Since I use my A1000 for video (3d rendering etc.) I need the speed increase |provided by the 68020 and I need the ram afforded by the Starboard. I think |that Microbotics attitude is deplorable and have resolved not to buy any more |products made by this comapny (please feel free to join the boycott) |however much satisfaction that this gives me it does not solve my problem. |If anybody out there can help me I would appreciate it greatly. I can't offer any help unfortunately, but I would like to comment that it looks to me that Microbotics weren't able to come up with a fix and didn't want to admit it. My instinct tells me that they might not be too technically swift and didn't want to mess with something that they somehow got working. Perhaps this isn't the case, it's only a guess - but I am left with an uneasy feeling whenever a company takes such an uncompromising stand for no understandable reason. In any case, good luck... Sigh, -- \\\\ Bruce Becker Toronto, Ont. w \66/ Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu `/v/-e BitNet: BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET _< \_ "Head-slam me, Jesus, on the turnbuckle of life" - Godzibo
brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) (01/11/90)
In article <1936@becker.UUCP> bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) writes: >In article <1990Jan7.052421.13946@wilbur.uucp> scott@wilbur.uucp (Scott Beckstead) writes: >|I happen to be the proud owner of the original CSA 68020 accelerator card >|serial number 2. However I happen to also be the not so proud owner of a >|Starboard II 2meg/multifunction card. The problem is that the Starboard II >|refuses to work correctly with the CSA board. > > I can't offer any help unfortunately, but I > would like to comment that it looks to me > that Microbotics weren't able to come up with > a fix and didn't want to admit it. My instinct Just before Christams, I bought a used CSA board. It had no FPU (I'm going to fix that soon though :-) and I installed it into my system. Alone my ami 1000 had no problems. However, the memeory card (MicroBotics don't you know) did not work. I called CSA support and they told me they knew of this. The Supra didn't work either, but once I turned off blind reads, it worked fine. They also told me that they could fix the Microbotics for a small fee (about 40 bucks I think) since they had gone out and purchased one of these to test with. However, my Supra SCSI buss seems to clean up any problems that I was having with mu MicroBotics Board, so I never sent it in. Give CSA a call and see if they can help. They told me they could as of around the 20th of December. My situation now is Amy 1000 Supra 4x4 SCSI Board Microbotics Starboard II w 2 Meg. It runs fine. Just FYI brian moffet
keithh@atreus.uucp (Keith Hanlan) (01/12/90)
In article <1990Jan7.052421.13946@wilbur.uucp> scott@wilbur.uucp (Scott Beckstead) writes: >I happen to be the proud owner of the original CSA 68020 accelerator card >serial number 2. However I happen to also be the not so proud owner of a >Starboard II 2meg/multifunction card. The problem is that the Starboard II >refuses to work correctly with the CSA board. I have contacted both companies >and what I get from CSA is that they have tried to get Microbotics to work >with them to fix the problem and have given up after several years of trying >the story I get from Microbotics is that once you install the '020 in the AMIGA >it is no longer an AMIGA and they will not be responsible for the consequences >of my actions. Since I have both the HardFrame and the 8-Up! boards from Microbotics and I plan on adding an 030 board to my machine, this comment sent alarms ringing... I phoned MicroBotics and spoke to Bill Knox. He assured me that they have an obligation to support their product with all expansion products which conform to CBM's guidelines. However, processor replacement boards, such as Scott has, *general* are not reliable because they introduce too much noise. Bill thought that CSA's new board was better. Ronin (now defunct) made the Hurricane board which creates similar problems. The bottom line here however is that processor replacements do not conform to Amiga standards. That's why the A2000 has the co-processor slot. Scott's last (included) sentence is a sweeping generalization and is misleading. I just wanted to set the record straight. I have no affiliation with Microbotics other than as a satisfied customer. Keith Hanlan Keith Hanlan Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada 613-765-4645 uunet!utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!bmers58!atreus!keithh or keithh@bnr.ca