Very Computer

Hallo allemaal,

This is the first time ever addressing these newsgroups. It could be that
there is a FAQ, if so,where can I find it?

I own several A500s. Except one they all have that little C= square at the
right site of the computer. The exception has a big inlay of about 2*5 cm
saying Commodore A500 (IIRC, forgot a paper with some notes :( )

Last saturday I was given a A500 that had been rescued fron the trash. The
case was badly damaged but the computer itself worked fine. That is, it has
a switch to start up from different ROMs; V3.1 works fine, the other one
ends up with a green screen.
The card holding the two ROMs has an empty socket for a third one and is
connected to the original socket using a piec of flatcable. On the card are
some jumpers and a GAL16V8. Does that sound familiar to anyone and is some
info available about this card?

The expansion slot contained a memory expansion card with 1 MB DRAM, an OKI
clock-IC, a 74LS139 and a battery. A small flatcable is running from this
card to the 6719, that is, a small board placed between the IC and the
original socket.
On the MOBO is a sticker saying "A500 P". Does this mean this is a A500+?
What is the technical difference between a A500 and a A500+ ie. what ICs do
both machines use? (I have some A500-ICs laying around so I maybe could
upgrade one of my 500s to a "Plus")

Any URLs with technical info, hacks, processor-upgrades etc. are welcome.

Thank you very much.
    ___
   / __|__
  / /  |_/     Groetjes, Ruud
  \ \__|_\
   \___|       http://Ruud.C64.org

Hi Ruud,

Look first at:
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/
http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminetbin/find?
http://project64.c64.org/hw/amiga.html

best regards,
Willem.

Quote:>This is the first time ever addressing these newsgroups. It could be that
>there is a FAQ, if so,where can I find it?

Nice seeing you on this side of the net too.. :-)

Quote:>I own several A500s. Except one they all have that little C= square at the
>right site of the computer. The exception has a big inlay of about 2*5 cm
>saying Commodore A500 (IIRC, forgot a paper with some notes :( )

That'd be either an A500+ or one of the last A500s. The badge is exactly the
same but the other model is lacking a plus after the 500.. ;-)

Quote:>Last saturday I was given a A500 that had been rescued fron the trash. The
>case was badly damaged but the computer itself worked fine. That is, it has
>a switch to start up from different ROMs; V3.1 works fine, the other one
>ends up with a green screen.
>The card holding the two ROMs has an empty socket for a third one and is
>connected to the original socket using a piec of flatcable. On the card are
>some jumpers and a GAL16V8. Does that sound familiar to anyone and is some
>info available about this card?

A kickswitcher. Probably the jumpers are wrong - the other rom probably is 1.3
- it has a few address lines less than the newer ones so old motherboards
needed a modification to the new rom (not the 1.3 rom).. It might be that the
modification jumper is set for the 1.3 socket, if there is such a jumper.. I'm
not a kickswitcher expert, sorry.. :-)

Quote:>The expansion slot contained a memory expansion card with 1 MB DRAM, an OKI
>clock-IC, a 74LS139 and a battery. A small flatcable is running from this
>card to the 6719, that is, a small board placed between the IC and the
>original socket.

That's common practice with any ranger fast expansion (over 512k in the
trapdoor.)

Quote:>On the MOBO is a sticker saying "A500 P". Does this mean this is a A500+?

No, the A500+ has A500+ written with a large font on the silkscreen on the
middle of the motherboard.. You can't miss it.

Quote:>What is the technical difference between a A500 and a A500+ ie. what ICs do
>both machines use? (I have some A500-ICs laying around so I maybe could
>upgrade one of my 500s to a "Plus")

The plus has 1MB CHIP on board, a better Agnus that supports 2MB chip and the
Super denise. You can upgrade a normal A500 to an A500+ by swapping the denise
with a super denise and installing a "mini-megi(sic) chipram upgrade" that has
the newer 2MB agnus and some ram on board.

You can't install the 2MB agnus without rewiring your motherboard, so you need
the mini-megi adaptor.

Oh, and the A500+ configures all mem stuck in the trapdoor as chip. Only old
512k and A500+ specific 1MB cards work there, don't try your ranger fast card
- it most likely won't work.
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Quote:> >On the MOBO is a sticker saying "A500 P". Does this mean this is a A500+?

> No, the A500+ has A500+ written with a large font on the silkscreen on the
> middle of the motherboard.. You can't miss it.

> >What is the technical difference between a A500 and a A500+ ie. what ICs
do
> >both machines use? (I have some A500-ICs laying around so I maybe could
> >upgrade one of my 500s to a "Plus")

> The plus has 1MB CHIP on board, a better Agnus that supports 2MB chip and
the
> Super denise. You can upgrade a normal A500 to an A500+ by swapping the
denise
> with a super denise and installing a "mini-megi(sic) chipram upgrade" that
has
> the newer 2MB agnus and some ram on board.

> You can't install the 2MB agnus without rewiring your motherboard, so you
need
> the mini-megi adaptor.

> Oh, and the A500+ configures all mem stuck in the trapdoor as chip. Only
old
> 512k and A500+ specific 1MB cards work there, don't try your ranger fast
card
> - it most likely won't work.

Check the chips first to see if it's really necessary!

Some of the latest 500's already had the ECS chipset built in. I discovered
this after running a kickstart emulator on my A500, when suddenly I could
select Super High-Res! I opened the case, and found it had the new chipset.
It gave me a BIG smile when I found out :).

This machine was labeled and sold as an A500 (it had just 512kB chip), and
didn't have a Plus motherboard!

Hi,

It could've be a simple case of the previous owner upgrading the Denise
chip to ECS (common in the days) of their Rev 6A A500 (the popular ones
that already had an ECS Agnus).

Regards,

Ross..

--
*TO E-MAIL ME: Reverse the order of the domain name in my e-mail
address.*

Ross Vumbaca, a 'poor' Uni student at USyd.edu.au
http://members.optushome.com.au/rossv1

Flagship: Amiga 3000 (030/25), GVP Spectrum, C= A2065,
12Mb Fast/2Mb Chip, HD FDD, 9.1G-UW-SCSI (connected to A3000 SCSI),
Kickstart 3.1 (40.68), OS 3.9, Linux m68k 2.2 (Debian 2.2r0).

A pc.
--

Quote:> > Some of the latest 500's already had the ECS chipset built in. I
discovered
> > this after running a kickstart emulator on my A500, when suddenly I
could
> > select Super High-Res! I opened the case, and found it had the new
chipset.
> > It gave me a BIG smile when I found out :).

> > This machine was labeled and sold as an A500 (it had just 512kB chip),
and
> > didn't have a Plus motherboard!

> It could've be a simple case of the previous owner upgrading the Denise
> chip to ECS (common in the days) of their Rev 6A A500 (the popular ones
> that already had an ECS Agnus).

If I bought it second-hand, you could be right. But it was a *new* Amiga,
fully packaged, which I bought from a shop! And to be even more certain: the
shop didn't buy or sell second-hand computers :).

I remember some 'rumours' about this printed in a Dutch Amiga mag, so I
probably wasn't the only one who bought one.

--
Regards,

Robert

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001 22:16:16 +0100, "R. Spanjaard"

That's a very rare occasion that a Rev6 motherboard has a super (hr) denise
preinstalled. Must be a very late A500.

This still doesn't mean you can just stick in a 2MB agnus, though!
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                  GSM: +358-40-5679999, IRCNet: Jope
                    Arabuusimiehet World Domination

Quote:> That's a very rare occasion that a Rev6 motherboard has a super (hr)
denise
> preinstalled. Must be a very late A500.

It was. I don't remember the exact time, but the A600 was already available.

Quote:> This still doesn't mean you can just stick in a 2MB agnus, though!

I was referring to the Denise.
I quoted too much text, I'm sorry for that!

--
Regards,

Robert

On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 00:25:56 +0100, "R. Spanjaard"

Heh, I was just reminding you. :-)
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                    Arabuusimiehet World Domination

Quote:> >I was referring to the Denise.
> >I quoted too much text, I'm sorry for that!

> Heh, I was just reminding you. :-)

Thanks!

Oh, and a happy new year, ofcourse! :)

--
Regards,

Robert