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MegaDisc 28 (1992-05)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2).zip
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Kaos_Kruncher
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Text File
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1992-05-26
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12KB
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261 lines
KK KK AAA OOOO SSSSS 11 444 M M H
KK KK AA AA OO OO SS 11 44 4 MM MM H
KKKK AA AA OO OO SSSSSS 11 4444444 M M M HHH ZZZZ
KK KK AAAAAAA OO OO SS 11 44 M M H H Z
KK KK AA AA OOOO SSSSS 1111 44 M M H H Z
ZZZZ
48 Hours Without Ami
by Paul Statham
Ed: I faxed this article to Kaotic Concepts asking if it was a fair
comment, and inviting a response by them - they say that there is a
second version on the way, and may well give us a full response in the
next issue.
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I only wanted what was best......
A common excuse, but not enough to be put through the torment of not
having Ami there. She was really working quite well, not the most modern
of her kind but she had Kickstart 1.3 Rom, the Fatter Agnus and an
expansion board populated to another 2 Meg of fast ram.
She happily ran DPaintIV, DataRetrieve, Maxiplan and a host of other
little programs. Her Workbench had been trimmed, blitzed, compressed
and even ARP'ed. She managed her noisy little drive and one other,
a printer, monitor, and the connection to a stereo. She told me the
time every fifteen minutes so I wouldn't forget to watch telly
occasionally and generally kept charge of my disorganised life.
So what happened......
I saw this ad offering an accelerator, 14Mhz for under $100. Kaotic
Koncepts in Melbourne advertised an Australian Designed & Manufactured
accelerator, that doubled clock speed to 14Mhz. Simple, no solder
installation, 100% software and hardware compatibility and an ability to
switch between 7Mhz and 14Mhz while running software.
I rang up and checked a couple of worries about the fatter agnus & whether
the switching was physical or software then satisfied that it would be the
thing for me I ordered.
THE SAGA BEGINS>>>>>>>>
My first call to Kaotic Koncepts was on Wednesday, the switchboard
couldn't answer all my questions and since the technician was on the phone
offered to have him ring back. On Thursday I rang again and got my
answers, placed an order and asked for it to be sent up by overnight
courier (I could have it for the weekend).
The technician informed me that there had been a delay in production and
the chip wouldn't be ready until Wednesday next week, I finally opted for
standard post since I was going to have to wait anyway.
Wednesday came and went and I blissfully assumed the little monster was
happily wending its way up from Melbourne to meet with Ami...
Monday's mail arrived and it didn't. I rang.
Switchboard said there had been a delay with the manufacture, they were
the sole distributor but not manufacturer and it would be sent shortly, I
should have it before the next weekend.
Tuesday, March 27 arrived and nothing appeared in the mail. It was now
three weeks later and I was more than irritated. I sent a very terse fax
to Kaotic Koncepts and demanded to know what was happening and how much
further delay could I expect. Then went to lunch.....
Someone from Kaotic rang while I was at lunch and probably relieved that I
was, left a message to say it had been dispatched yesterday. Thursday's
mail came and you guessed it... not there. However my MasterCard Account
arrived and showed I had been charged the $98.50 for the accelerator and
postage. Since I had asked them to send it to me at my work address
(saves having to take those horrible little
cards up to the
post office and collect things the postie won't
leave)
I gave it
some time to come through the system.
It Arrived.....
Monday, April 2, a month after ordering the accelerator I had it in my
hands and rushed home after work to put the thing in and see the speed
difference...
I assembled.....
No soldering, straightforward instructions, and a list of trouble-
shooting hints. A bit of a fiddle fitting it to the memory expansion board
since my Progressive Peripherals EXP8000+ fits in between the 68000 and the
mother board and then covers most of the internal space and
NOTHING
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I thought......
Checked all the connections re-read the intructions, tried it without the
memory board and
NOTHING AGAIN - STILL.
Reassemble......
Ami back to her standard 68000 chip and EXP8000 memory board and all
worked fine.
It was time for help.... but it would have to wait a day or two...
Eventually I used my influence (Megadisc subscribers have influence) I rang
Tim Strachan and got the name of a nearby technician, finished painting the
kitchen, and took Ami over for a service.
RESULT>>>>>>>>
Chris Ralph, who Tim assured me understood accelerators, got the KAOS
KRUNCHER going on the basic A500 with 1Meg, meanwhile explaining in
layman's terms what the accelerator actually did.
Whilst the clock speed was now 14Mhz on the 68000 the main part of the
memory and and screen were still taking the same amount of time to complete
their tasks, effectively making the increase a 30% improvement.
SysInfo (MD26) proved this with a comparision of the A500 speed of 1.31.
Still it worked and for $100 I wasn't too upset (I admit I originally
thought everything would work at twice the speed).
Then.......
The memory board went back in and everything was reassembled, the hand
came up and ......
First the drive went mad, quite literally, working when there was no disk
available, the disk light came on and off when it felt like it, it refused
to read anything. A bit of checking and the CIA chip KAOS was jumpered
into appeared to have died.
A quick new chip and reassemble. The drive was behaving although the
light still came and went at will. It still refused to read the disks..
Suspicions that the memory board might not be compatible crept in so the
board was left connected with the fast memory jumpered off. Up and
running. Starting the machine in 14Mhz mode gave the disk drive a hard
time trying to step at double the rate. But once you started in 7Mhz it
was quite happy. The supplied test software soon sorted out which way to
switch for 7 or 14Mhz and confirmed the speed at which it was running.
Then we ran workbench and tried to run SysInfo, this time from the icons.
After opening a couple of drawers the last clicked drawer showed its
alternate icon but did nothing, seconds later the pointer froze in place
and the keyboard locked up. No Guru, No Crash, just frozen in time. Try
again, again, again.....
Suspicions that the memory board might in fact be faulty..(Argh!!)
Remove and start again. no problems. Ring Kaotic Koncepts after trying
MiniMegs (the MAST 2 Meg expansion) and running into problems switching
from 7 to 14Mhz (it resets). It also meant my memory expansion was
probably alright (relief)....
Kaotic admitted that they had noticed some problems with some expansion
boards and I could either return the unit for replacement (new unit due in
about three weeks) or refund.
After a discussion on what I wanted to do with the machine it was decided
to send back the KAOS KRUNCHER for refund and try and track down the rare
and endangered 68010, apparently the prototype for the 68020. The overall
effect would be the same and the cost would be cheaper.
I left Ami for the night on someone else's workbench and went home to wait
the phone call once the operation was completed.
THAT NIGHT>>>>>>>>>
For those of you who have never spent the night without access to your
computer, you've been lucky.
The sheer frustration of not being able to do something you normally do is
incredible. Ideas flashed through my head of things I could achieve, if I
had my computer. I hunted around for something to occupy my time. Dinner
was a good idea, but what can you do while it's cooking? Tidy up the
lounge, that took 10 minutes, a crossword puzzle? TV? not likely (have
you seen the rubbish on these days). Dinner over and some papers to sort
through... Damn I couln't update my finances, check my diary (the sudden
realisation that it was exactly the same time last year when I had problems
with Ami while on holiday couldn't be proved, it's all on some disk in
there...)
Everything I wanted to do, most of the things I needed to do were beyond
me without my computer.
I might have to go to bed early....
Addiction is a terrible thing, but finally the night was over and the call
came through that the 68010 had been found, installed and everything worked
(although that light still had a mind of its own).
By the time I got there Ami had gone into shock and was doing all sorts of
crazy things between the drive and the screen. Each of the major chips
Paula, Denise, Gary was removed, replaced and still continued to elude to
as why she wouldn't co-operate. A second dead CIA Chip was suspected,
replaced and that theory abandoned...
Finally Ami got left for the second night. It seemed that connecting the
accelerator had seriously upset Ami and she would need some coaxing back to
operational status.
Late that night Chris rang to say the problem was solved. In conecting
the Accelerator the sockets to the chips had been bent far enough to give
only a temporary connection and therefore an intermittent and changing
problem.
The next day Ami was back and operating perfectly with a new 68010 CPU.
And Speed??? SysInfo says 1.4 that's a 40% increase with a comment of
excellent! The difference is not immediately noticeable, but some of the
disk reads are faster, Maxiplan recalculates faster and DPaintIV seems to
be improved. However, Scenery, a PD scene generator which required 30
seconds to calculate before the new chip in lower height mode (ie 800ft)
took 21 seconds and in 8000ft took 26 seconds and seems to take less time
actually drawing the scene.
CONCLUSION:>>>>>>>>
The Kaos Kruncher does work, however, as should be expected first release
hardware cannot be expected to work with every combination of computer
hardware possible. With the number of third party hardware/expansion
suppliers available there is bound to be some possibility that your
specific arrangement may not work optimally or at all (as in my case).
The instructions contained in the package were straightforward and simple
enough to follow.
The switch did not show which position was which & the instructions
indicated that you need to get the acclerator running to find out.
The supplied software, other than indicating which speed the processor was
operating at and building a picture on screen of an A500 racing towards you
gave no real graphic display of a speed increase that was immeadiately
noticeable. The picture may have been displayed faster under 14Mhz but I
couldn't be sure of that.
Kaotic Koncepts, caught between the manufacturer and the customer took the
only reasonable attitude of replace or refund, and I suspect the initial
delay between advertising and acquisition was outside their control.
PS: It would be good to hear from someone who got their KRUNCHER
Operational
and are happy with it.
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