Hi,
I have tried the various Amiga Web browsers (AWeb, IBrowse, Voyager) and am wondering what change I can make to my hardware to improve the performance of the browsers. I have an A1200 with 4 meg. fast RAM, but no accelerator processor or FPU. I have noticed that when I view a web page with any of the Amiga browsers, the screen scrolling is not very smooth at all. If I install an accelerator board in my A1200 will it improve the scrolling? I am considering buying a 50MHz Blizzard 1230 board, but I have heard that it may cause overheating problems. Is this the case?
Thanks,
Lucas Swineford
An accelerator, especially a 50MHz 68030 accelerator, will improve your Amiga's scrolling speed, as well as the speed of just about anything your AMIGA does. I have a very old Microbotics (anyone remember them?) accelerator card with a 50MHz 030 and 16 Megs of fast RAM. My 1200 has only ever overheated once when it was warm out. Of course I also have a Dataflyer SCSI+ in the case, plus a Squirrel, so it really came as no real surprise that my 1200 could overheat. It was warm that day and I had been using my 1200 for a long time before the heat caused the machine to crash. Up on supports and with a small fan blowing on it, my 1200 was right back up in operation after only a 5-minute rest. In a cool room I have no problems at all. In a warm room and when the machine will be on for an extended period of time, I suggest replacing the rubber feet on the underside on the 1200 with slightly taller feet to give more clearance under the 1200 for airflow. For extended surfing, one of those small, $10 clip-on fans for the desk directed onto the 1200 should eliminate any possibility of a heat problem.
Anthony Becker
Executive Editor
Can you install a fan in there also? Like a small one (they make them for the chips nowadays).
Here's a cheaper way to get decent results: is there room in the 1200 for a dedicated serial card? That will definitely give excellent results for cheaper. I think the Squirrel would work just fine.
Greg Noggle
Hardware Guru
Hello and thank you for taking the time to look at this.
The Amiga Monitor is the best online magazine I've ever seen, read and enjoyed!
My question today stems from my problem printing from my Amiga. I have a 500, OS 3.1, and the ECS chips. I don't use any stupid hacks.
Printing from my 500 is atrocious. I have a brand new Canon BJC 4100, a fast and excellent printer. I have tried many different utilities to help me print, appicons, commodities etc., but none do the job right. I also use a Mac and I can tell you that is the way printing should work: select 'Print' from the menu or drag'n'drop a file on the printer icon and presto: it prints. Simple and effective.
When I print from a utility like 'PrintFiles' the output is NOT what I set in Prefs. Printing from 'Read', a text-viewer with printing facilities, is okay, but again does not reflect my Prefs. I am currently using Wolf Faust's excellent CanonBJ software as my printer's preference program. Nothing better as Canon preferences is there to be found anywhere [sic]. The printing application included does me no good; it just crashes or outputs garbage to my printer.
Next I downloaded a demo of Irseesoft's new printing program: 'TurboPrint'. This has rudimentary printer preferences (but Wolf Faust's prefs solve that) and its printing application is excellent. It has real preview support for many graphics formats and so on, but makes hash out of any file I try to print. I don't know why. I think there might be a conflict with a custom format that TurboPrint needs, but I can't determine what, if any.
I've tried everything, honestly, and I wouldn't bother you at all but I just can't stand it anymore; I can't print! At least not print anything that could show off the capabilities of my printer.
Oh yeah, the Canon 4xxx-series printers come with a CD-ROM with 'Creative Software' on it: for Win95 only. And the manual and drivers are Win95-specific also. Not even support for Macs! This is pathetic and I have told them so. They should support an excellent printer like this with Mac drivers. Anyway after a long year of my wife mocking my Amiga's printing ability I am to the point where I am about to agree with her and do all my publishing on her Mac. I don't want to, so any help you could send my way would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much, and may the great GURU upstairs bless you.
Gilbert Carriere
I'm sorry to say I don't have any good ideas for you. I know I went through some printing trouble of my own when I acquired a new Epson Stylus printer, trying various drivers before I found serveral that seemed to work well. I don't know if there are any inherent incompatibilities between your printer and the Amiga (although I don't see why there would be). I can only suggest that you might try looking for other drivers, and experiment with settings affecting printing (especially if there is any kind of setting on the printer itself).
So, Amiga community, does anybody have an answer? Perhaps experience with a similar setup? If anybody can help, I will gladly pass your message on, and publish it here for everybody's benefit.
Michael Webb
Editor-in-Chief
I need help installing Toaster v1.x software on an A2000 with Kickstart/Workbench v2.x. The auto installer won't run on this level properly. Newtek says to copy the files by hand. What goes where etc.? Are there any gotchas? Please e-mail a reply if possible.
Tim Mallon
Once again, we're at a quandary. Nobody at The Amiga Monitor really has the experience with the Toaster to deal with a question like this, so again, if anybody has any answers, I will gladly forward them and publish them here. Incidentally, we have already verified that the installer cited here is not the Commodore Installer.
Michael Webb
Editor-in-Chief
Hi Michael
I forgot to ask you a question that nobody seems to know the answer. Why upgrade to 7.0 ROM's for the A2091 SCSI board, I now have 6.6 ROM's I think. I have 3.1 System, 2 hard drives and a CD-ROM.
Thanks for your help.
Stan Young
From what I understand, the rev 7.0 ROM's make the 2091 more compatible with the 3.x OS and large hard drives. From experience, It also makes the controller LESS compatible with older, slow hard drives. My original A2000HD's 40-Meg Quantum was still booting up the computer 6 years after its purchase. The day I upgraded to the rev 7.0 ROM's in the 2091, that drive could no longer be the boot drive for what is now a 2500/020. It was causing crashes that rendered the machine unusable. Booting off another drive, however, is no problem and the old 40-Meg drive does still work.
Anthony Becker
Executive Editor
I had a 3640, rev 3.1. I have tried it in two different 3000 desktops, wouldn't work in either although I know it works in a 4000. Followed the 3640-to-3000 FAQ to the letter, upgraded all chips, including KS 3.1. Both worked fine with all upgrades until I plugged in the 3640.
After unplugging the 3640 (hey, it wouldn't even give me warning flashes) I found that I could only boot from a floppy. Accessed the 1-gig drive and a Zip drive by booting from the 3.1 Install floppy, selected "create new drive type", it found the type OK but when I clicked "OK" it says that the "Install floppy is write protected".
Therefore it is writing the info to the floppy, which it shouldn't do. It is my backup Install, so I went ahead and unprotected it and reinserted it. OK, boot from the "Install" floppy again, HD's are seen but "????" and such, OK, so I format them from WB, FFS no Dir Cache. Next reboot, they are seen, so I go ahead and reinstall WB 3.1.
Reboot from new Workbench partition, but when I click on things it gives me CRC errors, which sometimes (but rarely) read correctly on "Retry". Everything is back to the way it was before the 3640, terminations only on each end of the SCSI bus, Term Power is present, int 1-gig on ID 0, Zip drive on ID 5 w/term enabled.
I see there is a slightly newer 3640-to-3000 FAQ that mentions how on some 3000's the SCSI bus stops working with a 3640 - but no mention of fixing it, other than replacement with a Zorro card.
There must be a simple fix to this. I have tried using SetBatt 1.2 to check and correct all the settings in battery-backed RAM for the SCSI, have it all set to async, nonfast, all the defaults. No change. Nothing I do changes it.
Help!
Steve Greenfield
Polymorph Digital Photography
Well, Steve, looks like you have the same problem I had after upgrading my 2091 SCSI controller to the rev 7.0 ROM's. It is possible that your boot hard drive is too slow and is adversely affecting the system in this new configuration. I was booting from the original Quantum Prodrive 40 that came with my 2000HD in 1990. Once I moved my Workbench to a faster and later model drive the system worked with no problems at all. I even still use the old Quantum for storage of downloads from Aminet with no problems.
Anthony Becker
Executive Editor
Editor's Note: Here's a couple of questions we haven't been able to answer, or at least not answer well. Therefore, I toss them up in the air for everybody to see. Have any answers? Ideas? Suggestions? Feel free to send them in, and I can forward them and publish them here.
Hi! I have an Amiga A2000 that I want to add another floppy to. Unfortunately I do not have any manuals and am a bit novice. Would you be so kind as to take me on the journey of installing the second drive and any other pitfalls I might encounter.
Go well,
Bruce Wolfe
As far as I know, installing an external drive is quite easy: you must only plug it into the external floppy port (or daisy-chain from another external drive). However, having never used a "Big Box" Amiga, I know little about internal floppy drive installations (which I assume you mean) in such a system.
Michael Webb
Editor-in-Chief
I copped a used Picasso II and noticed the book only mentioned the segmented memory jumpers. What the hell are the other 2 for? One says sync & the other is a 3-prong jumper, in between 2 chips, one labeled michel.... What is this one for?
And the deal with this ade thing? How can a regular user benefit? How much must be installed to use the programs? The instructions seem a might heady and overwhelming.... What up wit dat?
Thanx.....
MrWolf
I am frequently getting an error message and my Amiga A600HD has to be rebooted. E.g. "Software Error has occurred Error 8000 000B Task 00006EA".
How can I determine what this error is? I.e. is there a list of task Number + Error codes somewhere?
Many Thanks
Steve Winnick
There was a program mentioned in an older issue of Amiga Computing (back when they [ahem] saw fit to send it to me...) called The Guru, written by Emiel Lensink. From the description, it seems to be capable of deciphering the error numbers of which you speak. This program should be available on Aminet, in the "dev/debug" directory. You're likely to find other, similar programs there as well that might also help.
Michael Webb
Editor-in-Chief
I have an Amiga 2000 in Los Angeles and have gotten no answers to the question "How do I go online?" from the people, at Creative Computers, where low these many years ago I bought it. Having found you and the associated Amiga site has get me really pumped. But I am not very good with computer technology. How do I get the right browser to go online? And where in L.A. can I find live support?
Old and original Amiga fan,
Papa bud
"How to get an Amiga online" has been an ongoing question since before "Internet" replaced "Information Superhighway" as an annoying buzzword. Fortunately, it has become much easier in recent times, and the general quality and utility of software is much greater. Still, though, the issue can present many difficulties to Amiga users just starting to explore the digital world beyond their own desktops.
Before there was an Internet (at least the Internet as we know it today, since it was actually first developed decades ago), of course, there were Online Services. And just because the Internet is such a big deal now, and there is a true multitude of small ISP's (Internet Service Providers), OSP (Online Service Providers) shouldn't be counted out. The face of online computing has changed greatly, but some things remain the same. Genie (once GEnie), an old and once grand service, still exists, and offers one of the best Amiga-oriented areas anywhere online (the StarShip Amiga Roundtable). Any decent terminal program can get you logged onto Genie. CompuServe, one of the (if not the) oldest services around, is very popular today. While you need Macintosh or Windows software to fully access it, like Genie, it can be accessed with a simple terminal program, and also like Genie, contains one of the best online Amiga resources in the world (the four Amiga Forums). Other services, like Prodigy, America Online, and the Microsoft Network, all require proprietary software to access, and not surprisingly, there is no Amiga version. Probably all of the online services provide Internet access now, some more seamlessly than others.
The rage today, though, is Internet Service Providers, and I assume that's mainly what you were getting at. Therefore, I will describe the procedure for getting an Amiga online via an ISP (and CompuServe is included in this category as well, as it allows an ISP-style PPP connection).
First off, use sites such as the Amiga Web Directory (www.cucug.org/amiga.html), amiCrawler (www.amicrawler.com), and Aminet (wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet, as well as numerous mirror sites) as information and file resources. You can look for, and find references to, probably all of things I will mention here, there.
The first thing you need to do is to find something to serve as an ISP. Many provide software packages on signup, and practically invariably, they are for Windows or Macintosh. Don't worry about that. What you need to worry about is if they require you to use a proprietary dialer, in which case that ISP may be out of the question from an Amiga user's standpoint. They may tell you that you can't use an Amiga, but don't let that stop you. Dig further. Find out if you can access their system via a standard protocol (the keyword here is "PPP connection") and any dialer. If that works out, you've taken that crucial first step. Make sure you ask them for all pertinent information about their networking system, as you'll need to enter that into Amiga software later (keywords here are things like "Name Server (DNS) IP Address", "Network Mask", and "Domain", to name a few).
If you have something to connect to, the next thing you need is something to connect with. The first requirement, of course, is a modem. Most external modems will work with an Amiga, no questions asked. In this day and age, I would strongly recommend 14400 baud or faster.
You are probably going to need at least Amiga OS 2.x in order to use the Internet, and I would personally recommend OS 3.x, as most of the Amiga web browsers need it in order to function properly (plus, it's a very nice OS, but that's beside the point).
The next step is to obtain and set up on the Amiga the software that will call, and then talk to, the network. The keyword here is "TCP stack." Amiga users have several options here, but I know of two that novice users would probably do best to use. One is Miami, and the other is Termite TCP. Both are modern, graphical programs, and both generally make Internet connection on an Amiga a relative breeze. The biggest differences are probably that Miami requires MUI (Magic User Interface, something many Amiga Internet programs use), and that it, in my experience, seemed to figure out a little more about the network on its own. You really can't go wrong with either (well, usually, anyway). In either case, once you obtain a TCP stack, you need to set up your modem to work with it, and then enter your ISP's information into the program (specifics on doing so vary among the different programs available).
Once that works, you are, as they say, "cooking with gas." From then, it's just a matter of finding programs to work with the TCP stack. Termite TCP includes a few such "clients" to get you started. If it's a web browser you want, though, you'll have to go get it. Modern Amiga web browsers include VoyagerNG (www.vapor.com), AWeb (non-MUI) (www.amitrix.com/aweb.html), and IBrowse (www.omnipresence.com). All three are updated periodically, and are becoming more powerful all the time. With a functioning TCP stack, they should work practically automatically.
I really wouldn't know anything about finding live support in L.A. As far as the Amiga is concerned, you're probably out of luck, unless there is a local Amiga users' group. For Internet issues in general, there may very well be such support.
That more or less sums up the basics and fundamental aspects of getting online with an Amiga. It may seem complicated, but it is really quite logical, and much easier than it used to be. Remember that much of the software I mentioned or alluded to here can be found on Aminet, or with some kind of reference on the Amiga Web Directory or amiCrawler. With that in mind, I wish you well.
Michael Webb
Editor-in-Chief
Amiga Web Directory