exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Finally after replacing the four buffer chips below the RAM 64M of memory is detected and tests OK.


I have a flash module on the IDE connector with 3.1.4 installed; without the TF536 installed (and with 3.1.4 ROM installed) it boots to workbench. With TF536, no boot :-(

With the mask-programmed 2.0 ROM (37.300) it boots to the screen requesting a workbench, or to various games if I "insert" them in the floppy emulator. Perhaps I need the 37.350 ROM that supports drives greater than 40MB?

So if you have any idea - what ROM/workbench should I get for the A600 with TF536? (Bummer that Hyperion 3.1.4 isn't working, but at least I will get my money's worth on the A1200.)

IIRC the native A600 ROM had the addition of scsi.device, card.resource and carddisk.device over the slighty older A500+ ROM in order to support its IDE and PCMCIA ports. So I know you definately need at least that version (v2.05 rev 37.350 was the latest I think) if using IDE. From what I know 3.1.4 ROM's would give you everything it needs to boot from IDE.

I'm confused though (and it seems strange to hear of a TF536 in an A600) are you using the IDE socket on the A600 Motherboard? It sounds like you are in which case if it boots without the TF536 then the ROM must be fine and the problem is something else. Have you tried to boot with the flashcard plugged the IDE port on the TF536?

You can use an A500 3.1 (recommended) or a kick 2.06 which has the HD driver.

Kickstart ROMS are either for A500/A600/A2000, A1200, A3000 or A4000. You can’t swap 1200 roms into A500 class machines and have everything work. Although it will work enough to have you questioning your hardware

Have tried:

Kickstart 37.350 (A600); found a Workbench 2.05 set (four disks). It boots OK will not install; doesn't like my hard drive, I think it is looking for the 40MB original. No WB 3.1 will install of course it detects the kickstart version is wrong.

Kickstart 40.063 (A500); Will not boot with TF536 in system. Allows the HD that was installed with Hyperion 3.1.4 to boot when TF536 removed.

So close to having a perfect WHDLoad A600...

The one i have listed for the 600 is...

Kickstart v2.05 rev 37.300 (1991)(Commodore)(A600HD).rom

When you say it doesnt like your hard disk what are you doing and which IDE interface have you got the hard disk plugged into? The TF536 will trump the onboard IDE.

37.350 is a small increment on 37.300 I think - http://wiki.classicamiga.com/A600_Upgrade_Options

The failure may have been the disk module. I took it out and tried another one I had, a M.Sata to 44 IDE module. Seems to be working so far? (this is connected to the TF536 header, unbuffered)

update: it succeeded!

Great to hear you have the TF536 operating correctly, and also working in the A600.
I have this down in my own list of future projects, was going to use Lemaru's adapter (a derivative of kludge's adapter if I remember correctly) Time seems to always be the enemy, one day :!: :!:

Which adapter did you use in the end :?:

I used the one from Lemaru, also sanded down the PLCC socket according to his socket rework guide. His repo is here: https://github.com/LemaruX/Amiga-A600-68k-PLCC2DIP - I did use the v1 riser not the v2. Since I have no A500 or 2000 (wish I did) I mounted the TF536 permanently to the riser without using a DIP socket/connecting pins. Using only pins between the boards results in a much lower overall height and there is no difficulty closing the case and no need to mount the accelerator on an angle. It is also a good idea to put some mechanical support near the PLCC socket so that the top board cannot press down and contact the bottom board, there are plenty of exposed pins there. If you use a strip of pins that is spaced with a plastic carrier then some of that plastic, with the pins pulled out, makes a perfect spacer glued between the boards.

Glad to hear you got it running. I'll be sticking some updates to the adaptors on my GitHub in the coming days. Nothing major, just a few tweaks to provide a bit more power, and maybe the option to also provide additional power from the floppy port

Regarding your hard drive. You will find it much easier to set up your CF/SD card in WinUAE. Then you can just stick it in the Amiga and job done

That's interesting - what made you add external power? Obviously the 68030 and RAM require more power than a 68k. Did you measure?