HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: skank@iastate.edu (George L. Hall-Skank)
Subject: Re: A1200 Custom Chips..
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 11:09:06 GMT

In article <Bz03zC.C51@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett) writes:
>
>   Yeah, right.  It would be VERY easy for Commodore to offer a motherboard
>upgrade for A3000 systems, but they are not going to.  Years ago, Commodore
>could have offered motherboard upgrades for A1000 systems, but didn't bother
>to do so then, either.  Commodore has never offered a motherboard upgrade for
>any Amiga.  Why should they start with the A4000?
>
>---
>| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
>--------------------------------------------------

     While it might be easy for Commodore to offer a motherboard upgrade
for a given system I can see no way this could be done econimically.
Consider the following, in order for a motherboard swap to be economical
for Commodore, the new motherboard would have to be from a currently
mass produced product, then there would be no re-engineering costs
involved.  Furthermore, this new board would have to have it's ports and
connectors in the same place as they were on the machine it's supposed
to swap into.  Consider the 3000 and 4000.  In order for a motherboard
swap to be economical for Commodore the 4000 motherboard would have
to have the same form factor as the motherboard for the 3000.  The
mouse ports would have to be on the right side (instead of the left),
all the ports in the rear of the machine would have to be in the same
place, and the 4000 would need a scsi controller.  Clearly this is not
the case.  Finally, in order for your new computer to be protected by it's
1-year warrenty and Commodore Direct service the swap would have to be
performed by an Authorized Commodore Dealer who would charge you $65 an
hour for the work.  After you have bought the new board (you don't
expect the new board to be free do you?), what have you (the consumer) saved?

		NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what's the big deal?
					--George
-- 
George L. Hall-Skank            |    The next wave in Object Oriented      ///
Graduate, Electrical Engineering| Programming languages: COBOLPlusPlus!   ///
Iowa State University, Ames,	|				     \\\ ///
skank@iastate.edu               |				      \\X//
From: aw2t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Alex R.N. Wetmore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: a1000 hacks
Date: 13 Dec 92 06:06:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.4f_py=q00iUz01Srd0
Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

My a1000 keyboard seems to slowly be dying (I have already had to
replace one of the keys, and it looks like another might be on the way
soon).  Is it possible to build an adapter to use the a2000 keyboard
with it (I would probably by a Northgate Omnikey, which says that it
works with the a2000).  This one just doesn't have the life left in it.

Also, has anyone ever tried remounting the a1000 motherboard into a
larger case?  I bought an old baby-at case as an expansion unit (to hold
a full height hard drive), and was wondering if I could just put the
whole amiga in there (it would be nice to not have three cpu boxes on my
desk (a1000, expansion box, and a 386).

Finally, has anyone tried the bynery hack, and had good luck with it.  I
am considering using it to get an old mfm drive working in my a1000. 
Does the guy who designed it still sell the extended drivers (so that
you can get more than 10megs out of a disk), or will I have to hack his
free drivers.

alex
From: matt-dah@dsv.su.se (Mattias Dahlberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: AGA USELESS - Thanks To Flicker In Higher Modes!!!
Date: 17 Dec 92 09:00:21 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

henigma@ac.dal.ca wrote:

: Excuse me, but the heck is the point with all the "Awesome" new AGA
: modes if the nice ones like 800x600 or 1280x500 flicker hardcore

He, calm down brother.

When a flicker fixer, which manages 1280x512, comes out, I'll just buy
one and then show some 700000+ simultanous colors, to my computer-pals.

Merry Chrismas.

--
=========================================================
=  Regards  =  email:              =  1280x512x262000+  = 
=  Mattias  =  matt-dah@dsv.su.se  =  I love it.        =
=========================================================
=  If we don't *buy* our programs, there soon won't be  =
=  any new software for the Amiga. Obvious, is it not?  =
=========================================================
From: gshaffer@frc.ri.cmu.edu (Gary Shaffer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Power Supply Upgrade
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:55:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.Bz9M03.H2u.2
Reply-To: gshaffer@frc.ri.cmu.edu
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

This is posted for a friend:

I am looking to upgrade the power supply in an Amiga 3000.  I flipped through an Amiga World and found a number of places selling the Big Foot power supply for between $90-$100.  Is this a good deal?  Has anyone done this - what were your experiences?  Is there a better power supply?  What are its ratings?  Does anyone have a suggested place to purchase from (or stay away from)?  I was thinking of mail ordering from Manta Computers and Software ($89) - what is your experience with this place?

Thank you for any input.

- Gary
From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: 35ns, and screen modes ?
Keywords: 35ns
Date: 15 Dec 92 05:40:56 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Dec14.054900.11989@sol.cs.wmich.edu> 22black@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Martin Black) writes:
> I have heard that the new aga chips do have a 35ns pixel clock.
> And as it has been explained to me you use this formula
> (1/pixel clock ns)*(1/pixels on screen)=fps or hz
> 
> So with some math I was looking at the 800x600 screen modes and it
> seems there is more room there than a 36 fps screen( ie 72 interlae)
> 
> you have:
>     1          1       1   
> -------   *  ----  *  ---  =  59.5 fps
> 35 ns        800      600
> 
> So isn't it concievable to have atleast a 50hz noninterlace 800x600 
> screen?
> 
> What part of this equation am I missing?

You need to include time for horizontal and vertical retrace.
Horizontal retrace is typically 20-33% of the horiztonal line
and veritcal 5-10%.  In addition, with the Amiga you need to
allocate the larger of the horizontal retrace time that the
monitor requies and the time required for the "fixed DMA slots"
the beginning of the scan line and any additional DMA slots
required for pre-fetching data to allow horizontal fine scrolling.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     work:   to be avoided at all costs...
but no way officially representing:   uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
Commodore, Engineering Department     domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
From: TomK@cup.portal.com (Tom R Krotchko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Marble Madness
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:46:27 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

>  I have heard of people running this game (Marble Madness) under 2.04, and
>under expanded machines.  I have an Amiga 2000 with3 megs of RAM (1M chip,
>2M fast on an old Supra RAM 2000 board), a 40 meg Quantum mounted on an old
>GVP hard card, and KS / WB 2.04.  However, the game simply will not start.
>It causes Very odd crashes and never gets to the title screen.  It also sets
>my clock to 2020, which has caused many a BMS timeout.  Argh.  So what is
>wrong?  Is one of my hardware devices incompatible?  Which one?  Is there
>something I can do to remedy the situation?  Oh, the GVP ROM's are v1.0,
>autobooting.

It just occured to me that years ago I used Marauder to strip the copy
protection.  I wonder if that's the difference...I'll have to pull
out the original disk...

TomK@cup.portal.com
Tom Krotchko
From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: That little half-line of flicker on my A3000
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:04:22 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In article <Bz9HpJ.CLB@unix.portal.com> danb@shell.portal.com (Dan E Babcock) writes:
>In article <1giefkINNln3@bigboote.WPI.EDU> jayscott@wpi.WPI.EDU (Jason Scott Anderson) writes:
>>
>>   Okay, I've been pretty patient with my computer for some time now with
>>regard to that half a line that flickers on my Amiga 3000 screen...but I'd
>>really like to find out if there's anything that I can do about it.  I
>>think I remember hearing that there was a program or something which could
>>take care of it, but I'm really not sure.  Is this just my monitor, or is
>>it just a "side effect" of the Amber?
>
>It's an Amber bug. QMouse (fish 731) will blank the top line of the display
>to eliminate the effect.

   Two people mentioned that QMouse will blank the top line to eliminate the
flicker.  But on my machine, under AmigaOS 2.1, that feature of QMouse 
blanks the WHOLE DISPLAY and not just the top line.  Is there a new version
with this little bug fixed?

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
From: rrkeuche@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Rainer Keuchel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Quantum Hangup
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:42:14 GMT
Organization: Student Pool, CSD, University of Erlangen, Germany
NNTP-Posting-Host: faui09.informatik.uni-erlangen.de


I have an AMIGA 500 and a Quantum ProDrive LPS 120 MB Harddisk.
It replaces to the old HD 520 from Commodore.
Sometimes when the Amiga reads/writes,the HD gets kind of locked.
The green LED stays on and I cannot do any reads/writes anymore,
must reboot.What can be the reason for this ?
Also I get read/write error messages sometimes,which dont repeat
when I cancel them.

(The A520 is connected to an external mem-expansion in the
expansion slot)

-Rainer
---
-General Paranoyaxc
"Man,all I saw were their teeth."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: charlet@hubcap.clemson.edu (Charles E "Rick" Taylor IV)
Subject: Re: A1200 - 68020EC ??
Keywords: A1200 68020EC 68EC020
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 17:24:16 GMT

adap@edmund.cs.andrews.edu (Edsel Adap) writes:

>>>What does the 'EC' in 68020 mean foe the Amiga A1200.
>>>How can you economize (sp) a chip that is pretty basic to begin with?
>>>What great features can you remove?
>>>And if they did remove something, WHY?  The 68020 is getting outdated
>>>already, why degrade more than its age already has?
>>
>>24 address lines, so they put the chip in a cheaper case.  Therefore, you
>>can't address as much memory as a full '020.  Else, it's pretty much the same
>>beast.
>>
>>(Correct me if I'm wrong on this ... :) )
>>

>Yes, I think you are mistaken. However I can also be equally mistaken.  But
>the 68EC020 and the 68020 have the same number of address lines that is they
>both have 24 bit address lines.

Actually, I meant correct me on the bit about the cheaper case if I was
wrong!  According to innumerable sources, the 020 has a 32 address lines
and the EC020 has 24.

>What makes a 68EC020 different from the 68020 is the absence of the MMU in
>the 68EC020.

Well, the MMU is most definitely absent in the EC020 ... you'll get no 
arguments from me there.  However, the 020 lacks an MMU as well.

The 030 has an MMU, while the EC030 (or whatever it's called :) ) doesn't 
have one.

Apologies if this horse has been beaten to death ...
-- 
+ Rick __     + EMAIL:charlet@hubcap.clemson.edu +   //\          + /|\ It's +
|      /aylor | IRC  : Tomalek / The Romulan     | \X/--\miga 500 |  J rainy |
+-------------+----------------------------------+----------------+----------+
+ "Every Girl Already Has A Boyfriend" --- Murphy's Law Of Dating...         +
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Subject: Re: I must find a way to read HD IBM disks!
Reply-To: accs1@bagheera.mumath
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 10:55:11 GMT


In article 62048@cc.usu.edu, slhmz@cc.usu.edu () writes:
>
>It has come to my attention that I *MUST* be able to read 1.8 Meg IBM
>floppy drives on my Amiga... AT ANY COST!
>
>I need to know if there is any way I can do this.  I don't care if
>I have to plug the drive into my SCSI port, but I *MUST* be able to
>read and write 1.8 Meg disks.
>
>Please help me out!
>
>--
>Faith Gibson
>

AT ANY COST ? Go get an IBM clone and connect your Amiga with a serial cable. Using
comm software on both sides allows you to transfer the data.
Frank
Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 16:59:24 EST
From: <LEEK@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Power supply for hard drive.
 <1992Dec19.133456.16044@zds-oem.zds.com>

In article <1992Dec19.133456.16044@zds-oem.zds.com>, easton@zds-oem.zds.com
(Jeff Easton) says:
>
>Check the documentation for the drive in question.  Look for the
>spin up current rating.  It could be specified at 1 Amp or more.

Yeap.   1A is probably for the newer hard drives.

On a Quantum Pro 40 or 105, the spin up current (measured) is close to
1.4A and it drops down to 150mA on just spinning and 350-400mA on disk
access.  Some other makes and model might run a bit higher.  A park on
the 40 take the same amount of current as startup...

>  There's more money in being a garbage man, trust me.  :-)

but I hate waking up at 5:30am every Thursday to go to work.  :)

>  ___  ___    Jeff Easton             easton@zds-oem.zds.com

K. C. Lee
Elec. Eng. Grad. Student
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: jfieber@sophia.smith.edu (John Fieber)
Subject: Re: 3-Button Mouse Questions
Keywords: 2 questions, 3 buttons, 4 me
Organization: Smith College
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 05:10:42 GMT

In article <24360@hacgate.SCG.HAC.COM> lee@vulcan1.UUCP (John Lee) writes:
>>2) Who makes them?  I looked in all the catalogs, but most people don't list
>>   the number of buttons on the mouse (any reccomendations?)--
>
>Commodore's own three-button "pregnant" opto-mechanical mouse for
>A3000UX systems.  

I have the C= three-button and like it a *lot*.  I don't know if
it is officially available as a "sold separately" item, but I
picked one up from Safe Harbor for about $50 when my old 2 button
one gave up.  Another dealer I called said it was only available
with the A3000 system.  The resolution is higher than my old
one.  I actually had to turn the preferences mouse speed down to
the middle whereas before I always had it at the top with an
accelerator to get more speed...


-john
-- 
=== jfieber@sophia.smith.edu ================================================
======================================= Come up and be a kite!  --K. Bush ===
From: Kevin_Freeman@crispy.carb.il.us (Kevin_Freeman)
Subject: Productivity problems
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Summary: A3000 display enhancer works, Productivity doesn't
Keywords: 
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: 14 Dec 92 21:53:08 CST
Organization: Mental Vortex BBS

I have noticed that several people who own relatively high-end 
monitors are complaining that their expensive monitors won't work 
properly with Productivity mode.  I am adding my name to this list.  I 
have an A3000 with a MAG MX15H monitor.  The monitor specs are:
 
  vertical   - 50 to 120 Hz
  horizontal - 30 to 68 KHz
  bandwidth  - 100 MHz
 
NOTE: I fully realize that this monitor won't display normal Amiga 
modes, SuperHires, or those crippled 24KHz modes.  I bought it for use 
with the display enhancer and Productivity, as well as all reasonable 
graphics modes created far into the future.
 
The problem is that while the display enhancer output is rock-solid 
(perfect, magnificent, ...), none of the supposed 31KHz modes which 
bypass the display enhancer (like Productivity) will work correctly.  
The Productivity modes are all very dark, almost unreadable and 
definitely unusable, except for a small horizontal band surrounding 
the title bar which looks normal.  Switching the display enhancer off 
has no effect.  I have tried using several VGA-only monitors and get 
the same result: de-interlacer looks OK, ECS is unusable.  Also, my 
monitor looks great when connected to a VGA-type card on an IBM.
 
Now here's where it gets interesting - I know that the ECS modes are 
working, at least a little.  By accident I discovered that if my 
monitor is chilled to about 40 degrees the ECS modes WILL WORK for a 
few minutes.  As the monitor's temperature rises, Productivity mode 
gets zapped at about 15 minutes, and Euro 72 quits working at about 20 
minutes.  I guess if I lived in an igloo everything would work great! 
 
To me, it seems that the ECS modes are nowhere near 31Khz x 60Hz, and 
my chilled monitor (with tolerances increased due to the cold 
temperature) can show them only until it warms up (when it reaches its 
published specs).  
 
Shouldn't the de-interlaced NTSC mode and the Productivity mode have 
almost exactly the same frequencies, and thus show up the same on the 
screen (i.e. Productivity should look perfect just as de-interlaced 
NTSC/PAL)?  If not, exactly how are the two signals different?  Are 
some signals re-assigned to different pins?  Or do all ECS modes 
operate at <30Khz horizontal, even though the A3000 manual, press 
releases, and ads state otherwise?  Someone please clue me in before I 
go completely nuts...
From: ree88132@zach.fit.edu (Keith Ledig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: A4000 and Zorro II SCSI
Date: 17 Dec 92 18:29:43 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne USA

In article <71848@cup.portal.com> TomK@cup.portal.com (Tom R Krotchko) writes:
>>if they'd work in an A4000.  The only one I'm really concerned about is
>>a GVP Hardcard (Series II).  It has the ram expansion, and I understand that
>>16-bit wide RAM would be near worthless, but could I still use the drive?
>>
>>Just pondering here in the dark...
>
>Its works, although it may need a ROM revision.
>
>TomK@cup.portal.com
>Tom Krotchko



Well, I personally feel that the IDE in the 4000 was a complete waste.  Why
did they put it in?  Were they saving a couple bux on a $4000 machine.  One
rule of thumb is that you don't cut corners on a top-of-the-line machine,
like the 4000, or at least not in that price range.  Compatibility with
600 or 1200?  Why?  They are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  I feel that
they should have kept compatible with the MUCH larger user base of SCSI
owners, HD's as well as Tape drives.  I see a 3rd party Zorro 3 SCSI2
controller card on the horizon.  No memory, just HD controller.  Maybe with
a FAST CACHE onboard that's selectable and expandable.  Dave Hayne himself
said that Zorro 3 is all we'll need for a long time cause of it's great
performance.  Jeers to Commodore for the IDE-in-a-4000.  Cheers (allthought
somewhat hesitant) to Commodore for the low cost IDE controller in the 600
- 1200 (but say bye-bye to effective multitasking while accessing HD).

And above all, Cheers to the Commodore hardware team for Zorro 3!!  Dave, 
you do a good job.  For as much as I criticize you folks, it's hard as hell
to compete against 500 other Korean and Tiawan owned government subsidized
cut throat companies that pay their employees 50 cents an hour.  Commodore,
good luck in '93!!!

Keith

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------      
Keith Ledig                                   Tech-Forum BBS 407-722-4400
ree88132@zach.fit.edu                                FidoNet (1:374/27.0)
                                                   Supports Amiga and IBM
From: pault@terapin.com (Paul Tibbals)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Syquest SQ555 Removable HD
Date: 12 Dec 92 22:32:06 PST
Organization: BBS

Regarding your Syquest - if it seems to be running at the start, and then hangs
up, it sounds like what mine used to occasionally do.  You might look into
calling Syquest and upgrading the ROMs, I hear that sometimes helps.  They did
have someone there who was quite knowledgeable about Amigas.  As I recall, they
are in Fremont, CA, I think that's area code 510.  It is also possible that
your termination is incorrect.  There should be terminating resistors on the
last drive on the chain.  AMigas are not always sensitive to termination, but
it's a possible problem.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: lahurst@unix1.tcd.ie ( )
Subject: Re: NEW 1960 monitor
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 20:59:07 GMT

In <Bz73pu.DEs@news.iastate.edu> skank@iastate.edu (George L. Hall-Skank) writes:

>In article <2082@vall.dsv.su.se> matt-dah@dsv.su.se (Mattias Dahlberg) writes:
>>Gary Sarff (gsarff@wicat.com) wrote:
>>
>>: The gray area of the screen still has a large black border on the
>>: left and you cannot move the mouse or the black adjustment squares
>>: into that area, so overscan preferences is useless for this.
>>
>>I get the problem, but it sure sounds strange. You haven't forgot to
>>flip the h-size-stretch...?

>     What's wrong with just turning the Horizontal-Centering knob on your
>monitor.  I had that problem with my 1950.  After a sufficiently large
>amount of tweaking knobs and playing with the Overscan perferences I have
>a setup which I like very much.
>					--George

Thats fine but on the NEW 1960 the thing won't move the screen left enough
so I am left with a gray strip(black if I use border off) of 1/2 inch on
my left side of the monitor.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: tres@netcom.com (Gary Chow)
Subject: Re: AGA artifacts, shimmer
Summary: 4000 display artifacts with certain monitors 
Keywords: AGA A4000 
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 08:13:16 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.043808.4117@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>In article <1992Dec15.032707.8522@netcom.com> tres@netcom.com (Gary Chow) writes:
>
>
>>
>>I have a 4000 sitting right in front of me.  And I can assure you that
>>David is not "seeing things" there are vertical lines 8 pixels apart!
>>(But you have to look real close) ... and it doesn't really bother me
>
>*** Action: Slu presses his nose against the screen and strains to see
>+the vertical lines...
>
>Are you using an A1960 also?  Perhaps this problem occurs with the A1960,
>but I can assure you that it does not with a Samsung SyncMaster 3, a
>Seiko 1450, or older Amdek multiscan...
>

I am using a Relisys 1520, it sounds to me like this problem only exists
on certain monitors.

>The display on my A4000 is flawless and is much better than that of my
>A3000 using the very same monitors.  I no longer have to deal with the
>half-line flicker, the sprite shattering, and the poor cold weather
>performance which plagues the A3000's display.  But I am certainly glad
>that my purchase did not include an A1960 as most owners are reporting
>very poor performance from those units.  Perhaps Commodore is still
>using the dreadful units manufactured by AOC...
>
>
>Skip Sauls, Amiga Advocate whose A4000's display is quite nice
>skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu
>
>

Agreed! Even with this slight hint of vertical lines, the 4000 has a
beautiful display!

Gary
From: gb03@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (GEORGE PHILIP BLUHM)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: High density drives
Date: 16 Dec 92 00:52:45 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <1992Dec14.120917.4605@memstvx1.memst.edu>, cse_stu@memstvx1.memst.ed
u writes:
>Why doesn't someone come out with a floppy control card for 2000/3000/4000 that
>can handle high density and 4meg ED floppy disks. Make a card and a driver and
>everyone can quit complaining. Maybe come out with an adatper card for the
>500/600/1200 also.
>===========
>video man
>======
>

I recall that teac has a high density 4 meg floppy drive that fits scsi.  May
be some people will try it.

Denials
Phylee THEE MacNasty
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware