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GVP A2000 HC+8 woes!

P

Pet Rescue

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2010
Messages
484
Location
Staffordshire, England
Hope one of you guys has had experience with these cards.

I am after some advice on how to install one, without hard drive in place just the memory.

I have 6 simm cards and have set the appropriate jumpers and fitted it into my A2000.

But the memory available is the same as when it's not installed.

Does the GVP appear on the workbench 1.3 screen and are there any acknowledgement that it's installed?

I do not have any driver disks for the card, does it need one to install the card? (Without Hard Drive)

Are there any jumpers to set on the motherboard or not?

I am on my second GVP A2000 HC+8 (couldn't get first one work) so I am really unlucky and have two lemons or I am doing something wrong?

If by chance I have two lemons can they be repaired if so what is a common failure?

I appologise for all of the questions but it's driving me crazy!
 
WB 1.s shows chip RAM not total RAM until (I think) you right click on the top line to show both. The HD will not show up until you have it properly installed (terminated) AND you have partitioned/formatted it with the correct driver (GVP).
 
Cheers for the heads up on the RAM, I will try in the morning with a right click!
I only ever had an Amiga 500 back in 87 so I am new to the A2000.
I should have taken more time to learn about the machine instead of playing menace and r-type.
 
I have one of these cards, there is no acknowledgement on boot. No drivers are needed to see the additional Fast RAM. Does Workbench 1.3 come with the "ShowConfig" program? That will list all the installed Zorro cards.
 
njroadfan said:
I have one of these cards, there is no acknowledgement on boot. No drivers are needed to see the additional Fast RAM. Does Workbench 1.3 come with the "ShowConfig" program? That will list all the installed Zorro cards.
Click to expand...

I have looked on the Workbench disk but have not seen a "ShowConfig" program but there was a program on the extras disk called FreeMap, I executed the program which shows chip memory and fast memory but fast memory was showing "0" should this show up the additional memory?
 
If you've said somewhere how much RAM you do see available, I've missed it... What are you seeing?

Bear in mind that you cannot have more than a total of 8 megabytes of memory in the Zorro II space, which this card uses. If you also have an accelerator or other stuff with RAM, that could be your issue.

Pet Rescue said:
I have looked on the Workbench disk but have not seen a "ShowConfig" program but there was a program on the extras disk called FreeMap, I executed the program which shows chip memory and fast memory but fast memory was showing "0" should this show up the additional memory?
Click to expand...
 
dhoelzer said:
If you've said somewhere how much RAM you do see available, I've missed it... What are you seeing?

Bear in mind that you cannot have more than a total of 8 megabytes of memory in the Zorro II space, which this card uses. If you also have an accelerator or other stuff with RAM, that could be your issue.
Click to expand...

The memory available is 886520, I have inserted the bare minimum simm's onboard 2mb in each gvp. I have only used them one at a time.
I purchased the A2000 with the original gvp it came with a quantum hard drive.
The A2000 was non working with the usual battery damage, I replaced the 68000 socket etc and removed the corrosion from the board along with the battery.
 
If you are seeing that much RAM available then you're not going to be able to get any more via the HC8. At this point the only way to add more RAM is outside of the Zorro II address space. To do that you would need to purchase an A2030 with a DKB 2630 daughterboard or a Blizzard accelerator or something like that. These accelerators put their onboard RAM up above the Zorro II space, allowing you to exceed the 8 meg maximum for the Zorro II slots.

Pet Rescue said:
The memory available is 886520, I have inserted the bare minimum simm's onboard 2mb in each gvp. I have only used them one at a time.
I purchased the A2000 with the original gvp it came with a quantum hard drive.
The A2000 was non working with the usual battery damage, I replaced the 68000 socket etc and removed the corrosion from the board along with the battery.
Click to expand...
 
dhoelzer said:
If you are seeing that much RAM available then you're not going to be able to get any more via the HC8. At this point the only way to add more RAM is outside of the Zorro II address space. To do that you would need to purchase an A2030 with a DKB 2630 daughterboard or a Blizzard accelerator or something like that. These accelerators put their onboard RAM up above the Zorro II space, allowing you to exceed the 8 meg maximum for the Zorro II slots.
Click to expand...

I am a bit confused as that's only 865 kb (886520 / 1024) showing there, I thought you can go up to 8mb on the zorro II bus.

The mainboard is just a standard A2000 with no upgrades (standard angus etc.) apart from the GVP HC+8, I have the same amount with or without the HC+8 in it's slot.
 
Ah, I misread that as 8 with 6 digits after it. :)

If you were closer I'd offer to have you bring it over and test it out but you're a bit far. There is a very big Amiga following there in the UK though. If you're sure that the jumpers are all correct and that the RAM is all seated properly, that would be the next step.

That is a weird amount of RAM. It actually makes me wonder if the chips are properly seated. Have you tried moving the memory sticks around on the GVP to see if you get a different number?

Pet Rescue said:
I am a bit confused as that's only 865 kb (886520 / 1024) showing there, I thought you can go up to 8mb on the zorro II bus.

The mainboard is just a standard A2000 with no upgrades (standard angus etc.) apart from the GVP HC+8, I have the same amount with or without the HC+8 in it's slot.
Click to expand...
 
dhoelzer said:
Ah, I misread that as 8 with 6 digits after it. :)

If you were closer I'd offer to have you bring it over and test it out but you're a bit far. There is a very big Amiga following there in the UK though. If you're sure that the jumpers are all correct and that the RAM is all seated properly, that would be the next step.

That is a weird amount of RAM. It actually makes me wonder if the chips are properly seated. Have you tried moving the memory sticks around on the GVP to see if you get a different number?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer dhoelzer as you say it's a big pond :D I'll have to join the English Amiga Board.

The RAM is about right I'd say as it's a 1mb machine and part of it is taken up by workbench etc!

I have tried using different simm's etc I used them in their pairs as well.

Thanks for the suggestions though.
 
Yes, but the RAM on the motherboard is chipram (video RAM). The Zorro II stuff will be fast ram.

I'd still suggest taking out the SIMMs and swapping them around to see if you see a difference. I'd reverify the jumpers too. :)

Pet Rescue said:
Thanks for the offer dhoelzer as you say it's a big pond :D I'll have to join the English Amiga Board.

The RAM is about right I'd say as it's a 1mb machine and part of it is taken up by workbench etc!

I have tried using different simm's etc I used them in their pairs as well.

Thanks for the suggestions though.
Click to expand...
 
dhoelzer said:
Yes, but the RAM on the motherboard is chipram (video RAM). The Zorro II stuff will be fast ram.

I'd still suggest taking out the SIMMs and swapping them around to see if you see a difference. I'd reverify the jumpers too. :)
Click to expand...

The fast ram has never altered from zero I'm afraid, the figure quoted 886520 is the chip Ram figure.
l have tried different amounts of SIMMs up to 6mb on each GVP board with no joy and altered the jumpers to suit.
I think I must have a couple of lemons.
 
Ah. You have a problem then. :)

Can you get a SCSI drive to function connected to that board? Also, does Showconfig see it?

Pet Rescue said:
The fast ram has never altered from zero I'm afraid, the figure quoted 886520 is the chip Ram figure.
l have tried different amounts of SIMMs up to 6mb on each GVP board with no joy and altered the jumpers to suit.
I think I must have a couple of lemons.
Click to expand...
 
Hi there, I tried the exact same card in my a2000, I had a similar issue which turned out to be a conflict with the SCSI controller on my GVP 040 accelerator. I only put it in to check it worked but even if I disabled the 040's controller it still wouldn't detect the fast ram on the HC8. I pulled the accelerator and the HC8 worked perfectly, all ram available. Do you have anything else in your machine? The HC8 is in my 4000 now as a SCSI controller for an external CD Drive and works perfectly, I pulled the simms though as it already has 256mb.

I would recommend getting hold of a copy of Sysinfo, it gives you a detailed overview of RAM, locations and what's detected on the Zorro bus so should at least tell you whether the cards defective or not, if you don't have a way to get the ADF to floppy disk I'd be happy to drop you a copy through the post for free.
 
aysel said:
Hi there, I tried the exact same card in my a2000, I had a similar issue which turned out to be a conflict with the SCSI controller on my GVP 040 accelerator. I only put it in to check it worked but even if I disabled the 040's controller it still wouldn't detect the fast ram on the HC8. I pulled the accelerator and the HC8 worked perfectly, all ram available. Do you have anything else in your machine? The HC8 is in my 4000 now as a SCSI controller for an external CD Drive and works perfectly, I pulled the simms though as it already has 256mb.

I would recommend getting hold of a copy of Sysinfo, it gives you a detailed overview of RAM, locations and what's detected on the Zorro bus so should at least tell you whether the cards defective or not, if you don't have a way to get the ADF to floppy disk I'd be happy to drop you a copy through the post for free.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer of the disk aysel, no other cards or accelerators are on the board it's totally standard. I was going to build a null modem cable so it looks like I'll bring it forward and get the Sysinfo and Showconfig ADF's. That way I will know for sure if the cards are seen, the hard drive spins up but can't check it until I get some software.

I will post back any progress.
 
Showconfig is a part of your Workbench. Check around in System. I forget which drawer it's in.

Pet Rescue said:
Thanks for the offer of the disk aysel, no other cards or accelerators are on the board it's totally standard. I was going to build a null modem cable so it looks like I'll bring it forward and get the Sysinfo and Showconfig ADF's. That way I will know for sure if the cards are seen, the hard drive spins up but can't check it until I get some software.

I will post back any progress.
Click to expand...
 
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