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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

4799.0. "XT bridgeboard (2088) advice needed " by PAMSRC::63643::BARRETT (I will not instigate revolution) Fri Jun 07 1991 19:33

I need some advice. I have one of the first U.S. releases of the 2088 XT
bridgeboard (it even has a wire ECO on the backside). This board worked
fine (even with PC harddisks), except it was often difficult to get it working
again if it was removed or touched (when in this state, a binddrivers command
simply would not cause the board to be seen or the floppy LED to light.This
seemed to be the cable connection to the floppy drive). Once it worked and the
system was closed up, it ran fine through infinate powerups and uses.

Now to my story - several months ago I was forced to upgrade my motherboard
from a rev 4.mumble to a rev 6.2B. Ever since then, the board hasn't worked
correctly. It seems to init, the LED lights, an IBM harddisk with Amiga
partitions will even work, BUT it will not boot MSDOS (or other programs).
It reports a memory checksum error and hangs. Although I don't depend on it
working anymore, I miss the MS-DOS abilities and the 2nd serial port I added
on the IBM side (plus I had planned to add a FAX board). I have tried cleaning
it and the system, using various hardware slot positions, re-seating chips,
different cables, all without success. The board is now sitting on my shelf.

Can I get this looked at somehow, or repaired, or traded in toward an AT board?

Perhaps some hardware type would like to buy the whole PC/XT kit cheap from me
and deal with it?

Is there anything I can do to either get it working again without a headache, or
get some $$ for it?

Thanks,
Keith Barrett
PAMSRC::BARRETT

T.R Title User Personal
Name Date Lines

4799.1 If you want a Bridgeboard, upgrade to the 2286 CX3PST::WSC160::D_WHITE I'm patient if it doens't take very long Sat Jun 08 1991 03:03 39

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4799.1	If you want a Bridgeboard, upgrade to the 2286	CX3PST::WSC160::D_WHITE	I'm patient if it doens't take very long	`Sat Jun 08 1991 03:03`	39
	Keith, I was forced to replace my bridgeboard when my system was stolen. I originally paid $450 for the 2088 and found it to be fairly usable, if somewhat slow. The major problem was that it only had 512K on the board, so many PC applications would give a one-finger salute and tell you to go away until you have 640K. I had corrected the problem by getting a 128K memory expansion card for the XT bridgeboard for something around $100-125. I also had a 40 Mb Miniscribe ST506 drive sitting behind the bridgeboard to boot the PC from, which ran $329 mail order. All told, I figure I had around $900 invested in the hardware for the PC side. My dealer gave me a deal on a 2000 he was taking in trade from someone who was upgrading to a 3000. As luck would have it, the price of the AT bridge- board came down about $500 right around that same time ($699 if I recall correctly). I went ahead and got one. While I was at it, he had a good deal on Quantum 100 Mb drives, so I traded in the discreet SCSI controller and memory boards and the 5.25 Seagate 80Mb that was clogging up the drive bay for a GVP controller with the aforementioned Quantum drive on it. I have since upgraded the memory on the controller to 4Mb, for a total of 5Mb. As things stand now, I have created a 32Mb AmigaDOS file which the I*M sees as a hard drive that it can autoboot from, and the remaining space on the hard drive is for Amiga stuff. It's really neat -- both processors auto- boot from the same hard drive partition. The 2286 is about twice as fast as the 2088, and it already has 1 Mb on board, so there are no more one- finger salutes about inadequate memory. So, with what I paid for the 2286 and taking about one third of what I paid for the hard drive, I have again spent in the $900 neighborhood for the PC side. However, now I have a faster processor, more memory, and a faster hard drive (albeit with 8 Mb less space than I had before) AND a 1.2 Mb floppy drive instead of a 360K floppy drive. I would suggest that you trade in your 2088 and upgrade to a 2286 if you want a bridgeboard. Of course, this assumes that you have the $200-300 to do this. If you are interested, send me mail, and I will have my dealer get in touch with you about trade-in/upgrade prices. Dave

Keith,

I was forced to replace my bridgeboard when my system was stolen.  I
originally paid $450 for the 2088 and found it to be fairly usable, if
somewhat slow.  The major problem was that it only had 512K on the board,
so many PC applications would give a one-finger salute and tell you to go
away until you have 640K.  I had corrected the problem by getting a 128K
memory expansion card for the XT bridgeboard for something around $100-125.
I also had a 40 Mb Miniscribe ST506 drive sitting behind the bridgeboard
to boot the PC from, which ran $329 mail order.  All told, I figure I had
around $900 invested in the hardware for the PC side.

My dealer gave me a deal on a 2000 he was taking in trade from someone who
was upgrading to a 3000.  As luck would have it, the price of the AT bridge-
board came down about $500 right around that same time ($699 if I recall
correctly).  I went ahead and got one.  While I was at it, he had a good
deal on Quantum 100 Mb drives, so I traded in the discreet SCSI controller
and memory boards and the 5.25 Seagate 80Mb that was clogging up the drive
bay for a GVP controller with the aforementioned Quantum drive on it.  I
have since upgraded the memory on the controller to 4Mb, for a total of
5Mb.

As things stand now, I have created a 32Mb AmigaDOS file which the I*M sees
as a hard drive that it can autoboot from, and the remaining space on the
hard drive is for Amiga stuff.  It's really neat -- both processors auto-
boot from the same hard drive partition.  The 2286 is about twice as fast
as the 2088, and it already has 1 Mb on board, so there are no more one-
finger salutes about inadequate memory.  So, with what I paid for the 2286
and taking about one third of what I paid for the hard drive, I have again
spent in the $900 neighborhood for the PC side.  However, now I have a faster
processor, more memory, and a faster hard drive (albeit with 8 Mb less space
than I had before) AND a 1.2 Mb floppy drive instead of a 360K floppy drive.

I would suggest that you trade in your 2088 and upgrade to a 2286 if you
want a bridgeboard.  Of course, this assumes that you have the $200-300
to do this.  If you are interested, send me mail, and I will have my dealer
get in touch with you about trade-in/upgrade prices.

Dave