guest@hpfclr.HP.COM (Guest account) (01/11/89)
I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for my
amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with his. Can
anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the A-1000? Is the
starboard reliable?
Doug Quarnstromscotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) (01/12/89)
From article <11300003@hpfclr.HP.COM>, by guest@hpfclr.HP.COM (Guest account): > > I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for my > amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with his. Can > anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the A-1000? Is the > starboard reliable? > > Doug Quarnstrom I have had a Starboard 2 2-Meg expansion on my 1000 since shortly after they came out (more than 2 years) with no problems, including one move, and some lugging the computer around with it. A friend has had his for about a month less than me, and has had it go bad twice, (once just a few months ago), but Microbotics fixed it for free both times. I call that good service! BTW, I am also using the Stardrive SCSI interface on mine, and it works well, though not as fast as the DMA units. ## Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com> ## ## still writing .signatures by hand.......... (someday...) -- Scott Henry
pdg@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Paul Gootherts) (01/12/89)
> I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for > my amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with > his. Can anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the > A-1000? Is the starboard reliable? I bought mine two years ago. I got it with an upper deck and populated both boards with a total of 2Mb of (then cheap) memory. I followed the instructions and it worked perfectly the first time. It's performed flawlessly since. I added the StarDrive module a couple of months ago. Installation was straightforward and it worked perfectly the first time. It's performed flawlessly since. My only gripe is that the StarDrive instructions and installation software don't discuss the FastFileSystem. It works just fine, but you have to leave their installation program in order to format the disk using the 1.3 format (to get FFS partitions). I'm very pleased with MicroBotics. - Paul Gootherts, Hewlett-Packard Co, hplabs!hpda!pdg PS: I like the idea that I can cheaply move the StarBoard II to a 2000 if I ever decide to trade "up". Disclaimer: I'm not connected with MicroBotics, except as a customer.
mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (01/12/89)
guest@hpfclr.HP.COM (Guest account) writes: > I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for my > amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with his. Can > anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the A-1000? Is the > starboard reliable? I have a Starboard II with 1 MB of memory (no Upper Deck) and a StarDrive SCSI interface installed. It works just dandy on my computer, an A1000 with a 1 MB Squeeze RAM memory hack installed internally (it is a $C00000 memory board which installs between the motherboard and the Kickstart tower). However, when the internal drive on my A1000 died recently, I borrowed a friend's A1000 system unit. I could not get the Starboard to work reliably with my friend's A1000 -- the system would consistently crash a few minutes after booting. I think the SBII itself is reliable, though you may find an occasional flaky A1000 it won't work with. -- Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University INET: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu / BITNET: mp1u+@andrew UUCP: ...harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+ "I'm very sorry, Master, but that WAS the backup system" -- Slave
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (01/13/89)
> > I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for my > amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with his. Can > anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the A-1000? Is the > starboard reliable? > > Doug Quarnstrom > ---------- (Slight commercial mode on) A friend and I bought some RAM chips at a good price that we are trying to move. We figured that populating some Starboards might be a good way to do it. In doing so, we came up with some Starboards (w/2 megs, and we have a spare StarDrive and Multifunction Module) for sale, and learned quite a bit :-) Any interest in one of them, or in 256k x 1 150nS chips, please contact me. (Commercial mode off) Some of what we learned: I was using a BearBoard (2meg), with no problems. I could replace it with any of the Starboards with no problem. However, I couldn't get either two Starboards or a BearBoard + Starboard (4meg total) to work on my machine, and my friend couldn't get even one Starboard to work on his. Symptoms were that in most cases it would try to boot, might even get to a Workbench screen, showing proper amount of memory, but soon after would crash, often all the way back to Kickstart. I went through the "PAL Grounding" trick on mine, and after that, found I could use the BearBoard with a Starboard, so now I run 4.5 megs. I've been using that combo for several weeks with XCAD in RAM:, using up all but a few hundred kbytes, and have had NO problems. We grounded the PALs on the friend's machine, and now he can run a single Starboard just fine, but he was not successful with the same BearBoard/Starboard combo that works on mine, nor with 2 Starboards. I think the problem can be solved with additional beefing up of the ground in the Amiga; I agree with the previous reply that said the Starboards are pretty solid, but not all A1000's are. However, if you aren't afraid to go into your machine, or have someone do it for you, I believe you can get your A1000 working reliably with at least one peripheral on the expansion bus with very little effort. There is one other problem I have had, and I suspect it has to do with the fact that the Starboard is autoconfiguring, and the BearBoard is not. I use a 5-1/4" drive to xfr MS-DOS files to Amy. I use the 1.3 enhancer extras PC transfer program. It chokes with the Starboard hooked up, but works fine with the BearBoard alone connected, or with no external mem connected. The 5-1/4 drive works fine for Amiga format disks with any of the mem configurations, just not for MS-DOS xfrs. Anyone know anything about that one??? BTW, does anyone have any experience with trying to solve an A1000 problem by grounding PALS without success, then replacing the PALs and succeeding? Or the other way around: trying new PALs first unsuccessfully then grounding with success? This is for expansion problems, like hooking up external memory or other devices . . . Any experiences could be helpful. Cheers, Tom Bruhns tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
me128-aw@kepler.Berkeley.EDU (me128 student) (01/13/89)
In article <11300003@hpfclr.HP.COM> guest@hpfclr.HP.COM (Guest account) writes: > > I am tending to lean toward a starboard 2 memory expansion for my >amiga, but I had someone tell me that he had trouble with his. Can >anyone let me know if this is a general problem on the A-1000? Is the >starboard reliable? > > Doug Quarnstrom The starboard is a good device. There are only 2 minor difficulties I have heard from people with them. ( I have had no problems ) 1) As is true with any A1000 expansion devices, you may need to ground your pal chips, expecially for 2+ devices. 2) For the hurricane board or other power guzzlers, some people have needed to put filter caps on the power pin to their starboards to get the accelerators to work. other than these minor points, no worries! Before you buy, however; I will be acquiring a new 2meg expansion board for the 1000 in the near future, and will be selling it for a little over the cost of the chips, if you or anybody else are interested. -Vincent H. Lee