danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) (05/09/91)
I am thinking of using the Power Up program and upgrading my A2000 to
an A3000. I have several questions that I would like answered to help me
make my decision.
1. I know that the A3000 will support the 68040 but am I correct in
saying that the A2000 will not support the chip?
2. The 3000 has its hard disk controller on the motherboard, not in
an expansion slot, right? Can you add other hard drives to this
controller or do you have to get a new controller and take up an
expansion slot?
3. The 3000 has fewer expansion slots than the 2000 but it has two
of the main things expansion slots are used for on the motherboard
(up to 18meg, hard disk controller) so even though it has fewer slots
it is equally if not more expandible than the 2000?
Now for some questions about my 2000.
4. The battery in my clock seems to have died (I think). When it happened
I was in the preferences drawer, and when I came out I got a message
that said "battery backed up clock not found". When it did this the
screen went weird. It changed colors and scrammbled the video. I ended
up rebooting. Any way I tried the soulution someone suggested on the net
using setclock reset but I got the same message, clock not found. To get to the point my monitor did the same sort of thing just yesterday. I
couldn't get it back either. I tried turning it off but that didn't help
Now is this something from my clock (I doubt it) or was my monitor and
clock going out at the same time a coincidence. By the way the monitor
also has a tendency to shake, not interlace flicker, the whole screen
shakes, and I get line across it while it does this. It also used to
make an annoing whine on startup. What do you think, is my monitor gone, and is my clock battery just dead, and if so can I replace it or should
my dealer do it. By the way the monitor is a 1084s.
Thanks for the help,
a very confused Amiga person
Dan Reuther.
danr@clark.edu
metahawk@itsgw.rpi.edu (Wayne G Rigby) (05/09/91)
In article <1991May8.185513.14126@clark.edu> danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) writes: > I am thinking of using the Power Up program and upgrading my A2000 to >an A3000. I have several questions that I would like answered to help me >make my decision. > > 1. I know that the A3000 will support the 68040 but am I correct in > saying that the A2000 will not support the chip? I'm not quite sure what you mean by support (the A3000's 32 bit architecture makes it much easier to interface to the 68040 than the A2000's 16 bit bus). There are 68040 accelerator boards being designed for the A2000 series. > 2. The 3000 has its hard disk controller on the motherboard, not in > an expansion slot, right? Can you add other hard drives to this > controller or do you have to get a new controller and take up an > expansion slot? Yes, the disk controller is on the motherboard, and all you need to do to add other drives is to by a SCSI hard drive and plug it into the SCSI port on the 3000. Of course, if you want to, you canbuy a controller and plug it into a slot, but a SCSI drive is cheaper. > 3. The 3000 has fewer expansion slots than the 2000 but it has two > of the main things expansion slots are used for on the motherboard > (up to 18meg, hard disk controller) so even though it has fewer slots > it is equally if not more expandible than the 2000? Almost. Considering you can get a card for the 2000 that contains a hard drive controller, a hard drive, and 8 megs of RAM, only one slot is taken up to get these capabilities. The 3000 has 4 Zorro III slots, with one inline with the video slot and two inline with the IBM slots. The 2000 has 5 Zorro II slots, 2 IBM slots, with two of the Zorro slots inline with two more IBM slots, and there's a seperate video slot. With only one slot taken up with the drive/controller/RAM card, the 2000 still has 2 more IBM slots and a seperate video slot, which allows more flexibility. Of course the inline video slot of the 3000 series could mean some interesting peripherals in the future. > Now for some questions about my 2000. Can't help you here. > Thanks for the help, > > a very confused Amiga person > Dan Reuther. > >danr@clark.edu > > Wayne Rigby Computer and Systems Engineer (in training) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute metahawk@rpi.edu
jpotter@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Jonathan Potter) (05/09/91)
In article <1991May8.185513.14126@clark.edu> danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) writes: > 1. I know that the A3000 will support the 68040 but am I correct in > saying that the A2000 will not support the chip? The 2000 should support the 040 as far as I know, but without the 32-bit architecture of the 3000 you are really wasting what is currently a $1000+ chip. > 2. The 3000 has its hard disk controller on the motherboard, not in > an expansion slot, right? Can you add other hard drives to this > controller or do you have to get a new controller and take up an > expansion slot? The 3000's controller is SCSI, and as such, allows you to plug another 6 devices into it. If you want to run ST506 or IDE drives or the like you would need another controller. Jon -- | Jonathan Potter | | I'd really like to change | | P.O. Box 289 | jpotter@guests.adelaide.edu.au | the world... | | Goodwood, SA | FidoNet : 3:680/829 | But they won't give me | | Australia 5034 | | the source code. |
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/10/91)
In article <1991May8.185513.14126@clark.edu> danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) writes: > I am thinking of using the Power Up program and upgrading my A2000 to >an A3000. I have several questions that I would like answered to help me >make my decision. > 1. I know that the A3000 will support the 68040 but am I correct in > saying that the A2000 will not support the chip? A 68040 board could be built for the A2000's coprocessor slot much like the 68030 boards that exist today. A company called RCS Management has put adds for such a board in AmigaWorld a couple of time. I have no idea if this thing is real, the adds seem suspiciously like transcibed 68040 spec sheets. But the concept is certainly valid. Now, a 68040 board may wind up costing you more for the A2000. You'll certainly need 68040 bus memory, and many of these things now include hard disk controllers. A 68040 board for the A3000 doesn't have to have any more 32 bit memory, since the A3000's 32 bit memory will be reasonable for the 68040 to talk to. > 2. The 3000 has its hard disk controller on the motherboard, not in > an expansion slot, right? Can you add other hard drives to this > controller or do you have to get a new controller and take up an > expansion slot? The A3000's hard disk controller is SCSI. Like all SCSI buses, it can support a total of at least 8 devices, including the host adaptor. So you could add up to six extra SCSI devices to the A3000, assuming most of them went outside and ran off their own power supply (the A3000 can handle two 3.5" internal drives). > 3. The 3000 has fewer expansion slots than the 2000 but it has two > of the main things expansion slots are used for on the motherboard > (up to 18meg, hard disk controller) so even though it has fewer slots > it is equally if not more expandible than the 2000? In most regards, its more expandable. All four Amiga slots in the A3000 are 32 bit slots, so you can put more interesting things into those slots. The main thing its lacking in is BridgeCard support. With a BridgeCard in place, you have one free ISA slot that overlaps an Amiga slot. On the A2000, you could have three free ISA slots by overlapping one Amiga slot, or two free with no overlap. If BridgeCards are real important to you, you may wish to consider the A3000T, which has the same number of slots as the A2000. Without the BridgeCard considered, I find my A3000 has as an extra slot free over my A2500 setup (consisting of the basic A2630, A2091, and A2052, with other cards depending on which of machines you're considering...). > Now for some questions about my 2000. > 4. The battery in my clock seems to have died (I think). From what you're saying, it sounds more like the clock chip may have died. Did something zap your system? A thunderstorm perhaps? I guess if the battery were shorted somehow, your clock wouldn't respond, though when the computer's on, it does get its juice from the main A2000 power supply, so if the battery were simply not holding charge properly, it would still be visible to the software during operation. It sure sounds like something has been messed up. It will probably require a dealer's attention. The battery and clock chip are both soldered into the motherboard, so if either needs . Screwy video could be the result of a monitor problem, but it could also be the result of something mysterious going on in the video section of your computer. > Dan Reuther. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.
mmm@reaper.Chi.IL.US (Michael Marvin Morrison) (05/11/91)
In article <1991May8.185513.14126@clark.edu> danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) writes: > > I am thinking of using the Power Up program and upgrading my A2000 to >an A3000. I have several questions that I would like answered to help me >make my decision. > > 1. I know that the A3000 will support the 68040 but am I correct in > saying that the A2000 will not support the chip? No. CSA has created an '040 board that goes in the processor slot, and sports a SCSI2 hd interface. I believe that it can support up to 32 megs of ram also. It was apparently demo'd at a show in NYC. According to CSA "The hard drive controller is so fast, that 'they haven't made a hard drive that can keep up with it yet'". I believe it is scheduled for release Q4 of this year, and is an expensive item. If you want more info, call CSA at: (619) 566-3911.. > 2. The 3000 has its hard disk controller on the motherboard, not in > an expansion slot, right? Can you add other hard drives to this > controller or do you have to get a new controller and take up an > expansion slot? Nope, it's SCSI. You can have 7 devices in a SCSI daisey chain. > 3. The 3000 has fewer expansion slots than the 2000 but it has two > of the main things expansion slots are used for on the motherboard > (up to 18meg, hard disk controller) so even though it has fewer slots > it is equally if not more expandible than the 2000? That's up to personal judgement. The 20mb/sec ZorroIII bus on the 3000 is much faster than the ZorroII clocking in at 3.5mb/sec on your 2000. > Now for some questions about my 2000. Sorry, can't help you with your clock.. >danr@clark.edu > > -- Michael M Morrison /| |\ mmm@reaper.chi.il.us <or> | | Cash, for Cache.. | | reaper!mmm@miroc.chi.il.us \| Hmm.. sounds fair. |/
plav@cup.portal.com (Rick M Plavnicky) (05/11/91)
In a recent posting daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: >In article <1991May8.185513.14126@clark.edu> danr@clark.edu (Dan Reuther) writ > [bunch chopped] > > > 4. The battery in my clock seems to have died (I think). > >From what you're saying, it sounds more like the clock chip may have died. Di something zap your system? A thunderstorm perhaps? I guess if the battery >were shorted somehow, your clock wouldn't respond, though when the computer's >on, it does get its juice from the main A2000 power supply, so if the battery >were simply not holding charge properly, it would still be visible to the >software during operation. > >It sure sounds like something has been messed up. It will probably require a >dealer's attention. The battery and clock chip are both soldered into the >motherboard, so if either needs . Screwy video could be the result of a monit would also be the result of something mysterious going on in the video section >of your computer. I wonder, why was the decision made to solder that battery in there in the first place? Was it because the NiCad was supposed to last virtually forever (or at least as long as the machine)? Of course, I replaced mine last night else I wouldn't be asking. :-) :-) My old battery seemed to have broken itself in half. Took me about 40 minutes, don't know if that'd be considered good time or not... Anyway, experience suggests that the only time you'd notice a dead (or missing) battery is when the power is interrupted. The system clock should be normal otherwise, even through warm boots. I didn't catch Mr. Reuther's original post, but if the clock on the A2000 doesn't seem to be keeping the most accurate time have a look at jumper J300. The jumper should be normally installed on pins 1 & 2. Mine wasn't, discovered when adjusting the A2320, and when the jumper was moved the clock's accuracy improved noticeably. This was also the trip `in' that I noticed the severed battery... > > Dan Reuther. >Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" /* Rick Plavnicky ...!sun!cup.portal.com!plav -or- plav@cup.portal.com */