exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

You need to be sure your TF536 card works before plugging it in A600, so please use A500 or A2000, once it is up an d running You can do A300/A600 tests

My only other machine is an A1200...

Aeberbach wrote: 25 Sep 2020 06:57 My only other machine is an A1200...

If you can not find anyone in your local area to test the card on a 500/2000, I will help you out, only problem is you will need to post it to Queensland, I have built a few 536's successfully, and have a few 500s and 2000s lying about that can be used to test the card. :D

8 Bit Dreams wrote: 25 Sep 2020 06:46 You need to be sure your TF536 card works before plugging it in A600, so please use A500 or A2000, once it is up an d running You can do A300/A600 tests

Exactly this. I made sure all was good on my tatty old A500 before even considering testing on the A600.

Best to try and get it working on an A500 first. As these adaptors are purely experimental and also require older TF536 firmware to work.

What CPUs are you using? I had no luck with RP33s so switched to RC50 gold tops (remarked RC25 by look of the old markings).

Two out four RP33s didn't work at all. One booted hut with screen corruption (everything is shown in green), the other one will only boot if I go to the early startup and disable the CPU caches.

What version of kickstart are you using?

Danoo wrote: 25 Sep 2020 07:38

Aeberbach wrote: 25 Sep 2020 06:57 My only other machine is an A1200...

If you can not find anyone in your local area to test the card on a 500/2000, I will help you out, only problem is you will need to post it to Queensland, I have built a few 536's successfully, and have a few 500s and 2000s lying about that can be used to test the card. :D

Also happy to help if needed. I'm in the US and have an A500 open and set up for testing.

Thanks for the offers! I think I am going to take it slow and check/replace one thing at a time until it works. Possibly I cooked something removing the RAM. I am sure it will boot in the A600 (see video in first post, and I watched DiagROM output) - so I just have to make sure everything is good. It’s an opportunity to get some better gear anyway, you have to look at the bright side.

Aeberbach wrote: 26 Sep 2020 00:50 Thanks for the offers! I think I am going to take it slow and check/replace one thing at a time until it works. Possibly I cooked something removing the RAM. I am sure it will boot in the A600 (see video in first post, and I watched DiagROM output) - so I just have to make sure everything is good. It’s an opportunity to get some better gear anyway, you have to look at the bright side.

I think someone may have suggested this before, the card should boot with no FASTRAM attached at all.
Maybe a good start in your fault finding would be to sweat off the RAM on one of the cards and test with no RAM attached at all.

I was building a TF534 a while back and the RAM was taking forever to arrived, so I tested it with no RAM installed.
This was the discussion thread: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =68&t=2668

It booted with a red defective memory screen which you simply acknowledge and the card would continue to boot. I believe this is the same for the 536, worth a try anyway. :)

I am also building a couple 536’s at the moment, but don’t have any RAM yet, but can confirm with the one I have programmed, it does boot without RAM installed.
As Danoo said, it boots to a red defective screen, then goes from there as normal. Found it won’t boot from a hdd though, I guess it needs ram for that.

Either way, if you need to test on an a500, happy to help, I’m in Melbourne.

The hard disk *should* work without the RAM chips installed but will not without the RAM CPLD programmed.