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[curtis]

Okay, I've got an A500 with a Rev 6A mobo and noticed the 4 positions for RAM chips to upgrade the chip RAM to 1 Mb.

However, reading on the web, things seem a bit muddy to me. IF I do this upgrade, does that completely eliminate the trapdoor RAM upgrade? If so, what is the advantage to this upgrade?

Also, got the TrueIDE adapters in and will be testing that out with the IBM Microdrives when I get the 500 off the workbench.

Curtis

[mongo]

Originally Posted by curtis

Okay, I've got an A500 with a Rev 6A mobo and noticed the 4 positions for RAM chips to upgrade the chip RAM to 1 Mb.

However, reading on the web, things seem a bit muddy to me. IF I do this upgrade, does that completely eliminate the trapdoor RAM upgrade?

Yes.

If so, what is the advantage to this upgrade?

You don't need to get a trapdoor RAM upgrade.

It is possible with a bit of hacking to use both the 1 Mb on the motherboard and the trapdoor RAM upgrade, but it was a long time ago since I did the hack on my Rev 6A and I don't remember enough about it to tell you how to do it.

[Jope]

If you already have something in the trapdoor slot, then forget about the empty chip positions on the motherboard. 1MB chip is as easy as cutting and soldering two jumpers.

[Buzzfuzz]

Originally Posted by Jope

If you already have something in the trapdoor slot, then forget about the empty chip positions on the motherboard. 1MB chip is as easy as cutting and soldering two jumpers.

I thought this involves a Gary hack.
If it is so easy, than I would like to know the tricks in detail

[Jope]

Come on, do a little googling. ;-)

JP2: look at the pads, the middlemost one and one of the edgemost ones are connected by a trace. Cut this trace and connect the other pad to the middle one instead with a blob of solder.
JP7A: cut the trace

[Tajmaster]

Check out this thread:

http://amibay.com/showthread.php?t=4722

for a great guide buy one of the wizards on Amibay

[curtis]

From what I've seen in this thread, I think I'll just put my 500 back together and keep the trapdoor in place. Doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.

[Jope]

Not worth the trouble? 5mins of cutting and soldering and you have 1MB chip RAM.. No reason not to. :-)

[Metalguy66]

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthre...t=38607&page=3

You could try this if youve really got some guts..

[Zac67]

Originally Posted by Jope

Not worth the trouble? 5mins of cutting and soldering and you have 1MB chip RAM.. No reason not to. :-)

In order to get 1 MB chip it doesn't matter at all whether you use trapdoor RAM or fill the empty spots.
However, you'll need an ECS Agnus - a few rev6s have been reported to have come with older Agnus revs. In that case Amy will crash as soon as the first .5 meg is exhausted.

[curtis]

Went ahead and did the 2 jumper mod for the 1Mb chip RAM and installed the chips. Worked perfectly.

Just for s&g's, tried putting a trapdoor upgrade in at the same time. Ami DEFINITELY did not like that!

As far as the more elaborate procedure mentioned above. I'll pass as I've got a GVP sidecar with memory maxed out in it.

Appreciate the comments from everybody.

Curtis

[Metalguy66]

Yeah but there are games and apps that run better with 2megs of chipram.. Some games like "Hired Guns" by Psygnosis actually have additional audiovisual effects if 2megs of chipram is present..

There are also some pretty killer music .MODs that are larger than one meg..

Fastram is great for running multiple apps, but where the AMIGA custom hardware is concerned, you can't get enough chipram.

That said... if all you are doing is running ECS games and Demos, 99% will run with 1meg of Chipram..

[Zac67]

True. But before doing more than the easy/cheap mods on a 500 I'd seriously consider getting a 1200 (2 MB chip, AGA, cheap HDD, '020, cheaper upgrades, ...).