Amiga Troubleshooting Advice

I have given out a fair amount of Amiga troubleshooting in my time. Here is a little Technet I am developing from my experiences. I will try to keep adding to this as I come across my own problems.

Q: I copied some files to my hard drive and I keep getting an error.

A: Things to check:

• Is the hard drive full? You will either have to put another larger hard drive in, delete some files off your current hard drive, or not install the wanted program.
• Are you referring to the hard drive correctly? (DH0:, HD0:, etc.) Typos can cause you a large amount of grief. Simply type the path more carefully.
• If you are unable to open a drawer icon, is there a directory name associated with the drawer icon? If not, open a CLI and type "makedir NEW_DIRECTORY_NAME".
• Is the hard drive otherwise functioning normally? If not, the problems could be hardware associated.

Q: When I boot up, I keep getting "please insert volume IMAGEFX:". I deleted that program off my system, why is it still asking for that drive?

A: The problem is that something on your system is looking for that drive name. It could be any number of things. I use SNOOPDOS to watch my system up to getting the error to see what it was doing. This can provide valuable insights. Things to check:

• Was one of your hard drives/partitioned named "ImageFX"? If so, either edit your S:startup-sequence and S:user-startup to remove any references to that drive name.
• Check your ENVARC: (usually located on SYS:Prefs/env-archive) for a folder called AmigaGuide. If there is a file called "Path" in there, that file may be trying to tell your Amiga where to find the ImageFX help files. Just delete this file.

Q: I bought my Amiga 2000 when it first came out and I'm wanting to know if I might be able to upgrade to AmigaDOS 3.1.

A: Not only can you, but you should. The 3.1 ROMs are necessary for 3.1 or 3.5 OS. Not to mention, it makes accessing the internet easier. If you are going to stay with the platform, you should not cut back on the OS.

If you are not comfortable with updating the ROM, I recommend that you buy a new ROM from an Amiga reseller. That way you can ask the reseller if your motherboard can be upgraded to 3.1. Also, some older motherboards may require a pin to be bent out or such. The instructions will come with the ROM. If you buy the ROMs used, they may not have the installation instructions.

Q: I boot up and everything flashes ok... Keyboard ok... Mouse ok.... then when the OS 3.1 comes up and shows my 2 local drives, the mouse pointer changes to a Watchwait icon. I can't open any of the drives. If I go out side the workbench, I can get the pointer back, but its no use because as soon as I go back to open any drive folders it goes back to the Watchwait icon. I think it may be HD failure or OS problems, but I'm not sure.

A: The floppy cable was not fully connected to the machine.

General Tips

• Use "Installer" scripts whenever possible.
  Installing via other methods may work, but this will sometimes produce erroneous results. Read the AMIGAGUIDE, if it says you can just put the program where you want, then you are ok.
  
  
• Generate an "Install Logfile" and watch the install.
  This helps for deleting all the files associated with unwanted program as well as troubleshooting problems.
  
  
• Make sure you have current INSTALLER version.
  The current (pre-3.5) INSTALLER verison is 43.3. Previous versions will choke on some long filenames used with newer programs.
  
  
• Avoid Hacks.
  Some programs manipulate undocumented side-effects or Operating System (OS) lookholes. These programs may work fine indefinitely, but then again they may crash multiple other programs. Hacks are not labeled "hack". To identify these types of programs ask people you consider knowledgable or try to read between the line on the documentation. Hacks are good and fun, but if you know which programs you run are hacks you can troubleshoot by disabling or removing these programs to reduce the number of variables you are dealing with.
  
  
• Remove add on cards.
  The right way to track down a problem is to remove all your add on cards and add them back on at a time until the problem resurfaces. If the problem pursists on a bare machine, you have ruled out that the add-on cards are the culprits.