Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!oliveb!amdahl!kevin
From: kevin@uts.amdahl.com (Kevin Clague)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Help! What's wrong with my Ronin Hurricane?
Message-ID: <24odY54ZYK1010owcU2@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 10 May 89 14:10:31 GMT
References: <10948@netnews.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: kevin@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kevin Clague)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Lines: 100

In article <10948@netnews.upenn.edu> ranjit@grad2.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (Ranjit Bhatnagar) writes:
>I got a nice shiny amiga 1000 (Rev 6 motherboard and Rev 3
>daughterboard) and a Ronin Hurricane 1000 (20 MHz '020/'881)
>to plug in it.  Unfortunately, they dont work together.  The
>nice (but somewhat snooty) folks at Ronin (they say "row-neen")
>don't have much to say except "send us the hurricane board and
>at least 50 bucks and we'll see how much more it'll cost you."

I had a similar experience with John from Ronin.

>
>So I thought I'd describe the symptoms, not only because perhaps
>someone will have an idea, but because they're weird enough that
>you may get a laugh out of them.

I doubt it.

>
>The system: Amiga 1000, Rev 6 motherboard, Rev 3 daughterboard.
>	    Comspec SOTS 2 Meg expansion
>	    Ronin Hurricane 1000 (20 MHz)

I had a 1000, ASDG MiniRack and Ronin board.

>
>With the Hurricane installed, the symptoms depend on whether the
>memory expansion is also plugged in.
>
>With memory removed:

Mine always worked without the SOTS attached.

>With 2 meg sots memory (comspec) installed:
>	with or without shield, system is likely to go into
>	cold-boot loop as described above.  It can read kickstart
>	but not continue to the INSERT WORKBENCH prompt.

Mine NEVER worked with the SOTS attached.  I grounded the PALS and
installed new PALs from CSA.

>
>That pretty much covers the symptoms.  What bothers me is that
>the symptoms are not only weird, but VERY repeatable!  For instance the
>
>I'll reiterate that the very same software with the same kickstart disk
>(1.3 from the enhancer packge) works absolutely perfectly (well, for
>dpaint II that's a relative term) when I plug in the 68000 in place
>of the Hurricane board, so it's very unlikely that I have a bad
>kickstart disk, amiga, or memory expansion.  I have checked the grounding
>of the pals, as well as that of most of the rest of the motherboard,
>and it seems very solid.  Even if you have no idea what's going on,
>perhaps this gave you some laughs on a cloudy day.

In my case it does not make me laugh.  It makes me angry again.
Flashback to a couple of years ago in my life:

  I've had an ASDG MiniRack with two megs for a year and a half and it
has always worked great.  I buy a Ronin board.  I plug it in and
it NEVER boots.  I ground the PALs and replace them with CSA PALs.
It NEVER boots.  Ronin says "It must be the ASDG.  Get rid of it."

  I really wanted a 68020/881, so I took it to Ronin in San Fransisco.
They keep it for two weeks and the answer is "We don't know why it
doesn't work."  Good engineering eh?  They tried two different MiniRacks
with 2 Megs and couldn't get either one to work.

  They also lost my keyboard and my MiniRack power cord, and wanted me
to pay for it!  They also damaged the MiniRacks.  See why I get angry?
(This should be in comp.sys.amiga no?)

  BTW Leo has a 1000, MiniRack with 2Meg board and a Ronin and it works
fine.  Just lucky I'd guess.  He must live right!

  Try getting the CSA PALs and installing them in your daughterboard,
                      ^^^ .tech justification
or do what I did:  Buy a 2000 and a 2620.  I got mine yesterday and
it works flawlessly!

  I will never do business with Ronin again, but I try to look at both
sides.  The 1000 was not really built for expansion, and they are a
VERY small business.  John is a good guy, but the customer always
seems to come last (bad attitude for any business.)

>
>	-ranjit (aargh!)
>
>"Trespassers w"   ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu	mailrus!eecae!netnews!eniac!...
>        Near the sides of tall buildings, how dare they kiss goodbye?
>  Those buildings that saw the airplanes that kiss the air in their fantasy.

Anymore NON-technical responses like this should be moved to
comp.sys.amiga.tech.
-- 
UUCP:  kevin@uts.amdahl.com
  or:  {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,seismo,oliveb}!amdahl!kevin
DDD:   408-737-5481
USPS:  Amdahl Corp.  M/S 249,  1250 E. Arques Av,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086

[  Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed  ]
[  herein are my own.  They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]