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Supporting Amiga and compatibles since 1997

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Questions and Answers

Here are a few problems that you could experience with your Amiga and how to solve it.

Workbench

How do I quit from the Shell?

How do I create a RAD disk?

How do I create a script file?

Can I get AmigaBasic working on my A1200?

How do I create my own ram disk icons?

How do I create a script in AmigaDOS that tells me when my Amiga was last booted?

Can I create another Ram disk by creating an AmigaDOS script?

How do I play QuickTime (QT) files?

When I install some software to my hard drive a box appears telling me to insert volume WORK: in any drive. What can I do?

When I boot Workbench a message appears stating that it cannot WORK: T. What can I do to get rid of this?

The basic Workbench setup looks a bit dull. Is there anywhere that I can find some add-ons to make it look a bit prettier?

I have a problem installing a keymap on my Amiga. What do I do?

How do I display pictures in the background on Workbench 3?

I can display a picture in the background but two copies are shown and the colours are wrong.

How do I view text documents from Workbench?

When I click on "Install," a requester appears saying, "can't open your tool Installer." Why?

Why doesn't the program work after I configured the icon?

Why doesn't the icon change after I have created an image for it?

I have mounted a RAD disk but have found that it uses Chip RAM. Is there any way I can get it to use Fast RAM instead?

When I am using any of the preference programs in Workbench, I select "use" but instead, the software saves it. What is wrong with it?

How do I increase the number of colours that are displayed in Workbench?

How do I dearchive .arj files?

Is there any way that I can write protect my hard drive?

Is there anyway that I can alter the size of requester so that it is fixed when I open a directory?

When I try to open a project a requester appears saying "Unable to open your tool 'C:EvenMore'." What can I do?

What datatype do I need in order to view 24bit IFF images?

What software can I use to format and partition my Amiga hard drive?

I known that a CD cannot be written too but is there any way that the CD icon can be snapshotted?

How do I decompress Zip files on my Amiga?

How do I unarchive a file with .tar extension?

I have a number of JPEG files saved in Photoshop that cannot be viewed using JPEG viewers on the Amiga. How do I view them?

I have a file on my hard drive that refuses to delete. I have tried deleting the icon using Workbench and when I try to delete it from the Shell it states the file does not exist. What can I do?

How do I install the rest of Workbench to get it boot into the GUI?

How do I set my Amiga to use Daylight Savings Time?

I have attempted to delete a directory. Although the contents were deleted, I was told the directory was not empty. Is there anyway I can delete this folder?

How do I install the upgrade to use the latest version of FFS?

Applications

How do I save Octamed modules as MIDI for use on the PC?

On PPaint I can load a picture larger than the screen and autoscroll around it, but when I save it the picture becomes clipped. What can I do?

I have received a .WAV through e-mail but when I clicked on it, it played for the first 2 seconds.What can I do to solve this problem?

How do I install Deluxe Paint to hard drive? There is no Install program

How can I load my disks into my hard drive?

How do I set YAM to play a sound when personal mail has arrived?

Is it possible to get IBrowse to play midi files that play in the background of some websites?

I have an Amiga with 2Mb Chip RAM and some Fast RAM. When using the text effects in PPaint but a message appears stating there is not enough memory available. What can I do?

I recently installed PFS2 on a number of partitions. When I tried to save the new configuration I was presented with "save failed, not enough space for configuration data." What does this mean?

How do I set up a Web Browser to read AmigaGuides?

Whenever I run DiskSalv it validates the disk and then becomes invalidated when the program quits. How can I cure this?

I seem to get out of memory messages when using PPaint 7 despite having enough Ram to load the image. Why does this happen?

How do I use KingCon with a graphics card?

I've installed a new hard drive but when I reboot the error "Allocated Memory Doesn't Match Memory Mask" appears. What can I do?

General problems

How do I split large files?

The graphics on my favourite game appear corrupt when I load it from hard drive even though it had an installer.

Can I run UNIX on my Amiga?

Can I use my Amiga as an X11 terminal?

Can I run another Kickstart on my Amiga?

How do I get the Double-NTSC modes to work?

What is the keyboard shortcuts for a text gadget?

Can I use an American Amiga in the UK or vise-versa?

I have just bought an old Amiga. What exactly can I do with it?

Are there any programs that automatically update my system clock via the Internet?

My software requires a minimum stack size of 50000 or more to run. How do I alter it?

I need a program that performs a find and replace over a number of text files.

How do you use a modem between two Amigas?

Hardware

I have an A600. Can I plug in a standard PC CD-ROM drive?

The CD audio on my CD drive sounds quieter than the computer effects. Is there anything I can do to solve this problem?

Why does the signal from the RGB port make the display look better than using an ordinary TV?

I'm having problems with my CD32 and SX-1.

When I switch on my Amiga the hard drive works, but after resetting it the hard drive is no longer recognised. What's going on?

What type of modems will work on my Amiga?

When I switch on my machine cold, it boots fine. However, when I do a warm reboot or even switch off and then back on I get the purple "Insert a disk screen."

I have an Escom A1200. I've heard that I can get the drive to read high density disks. Is this true?

Can I use an Iomega Zip or SyQuest EZ drive on my Amiga?

When I switch on my Amiga the screen goes yellow. What can I do?

When my Amiga crashes the hard drive will go crazy attempting to boot and the hard drive light will sometimes stay on for up to 20 minutes. What can I do to stop this?

My hard drive doesn't boot when I switch it on.

Horizontal lines appear on my monitor when I use the higher scan rates. What can I do?

How do I fix broken pins on the PCMCIA (PC) slot?

What type of memory can I use in my accelerator?

How do I record Amiga graphics to video?

What can the fast SCSI-II controller on my Blizzard 1230/50 be used for?

Many applications demand more chip ram than my A500 has. Is there anything that I can do?

Can I use a Bubble jet printer on my old A600?

Is there a problem with IBM hard drives? I have swapped mine several times and they all crash after an hour

Are the Zappo CD Drives in fact standard IDE drives in disguise? If so, can I plug them into the IDE port on my Amiga?

I have recently bought a standard 3.5 IDE hard drive made by IBM. however, I cannot get it work with my Amiga. What am I doing wrong?

When I boot my Amiga, the clock has reset to September 1992. What can I do?

Is there any way I can alter a Microvitec monitor so that it can also display a television signal?

What is the DOSDriver mountfile for reading and writing PC Zip disks?

When I try to run a application that uses the FPU on my 68060 accelerator a software failure appears. How can I cure this?

My Blizzard 1260 seems to be running slowly since I installed a new version of the Phase 5 software. What can I do?

Can I connect an Apollo 630 accelerator and a 2.5 hard drive at the same time to my A600?

I recently bought an A1200 68040 accelerator. When I try to boot it the machine gurus after activating the 68040 with an error of 8000 000B. How can I cure this?

Is there a way to extend the Auto Shut Off time of the Zip drive?

I have a SuperVGA monitor that won't keep its focus. If I focus it when I first turn it on, it slowly goes out of focus as it warms up. If I try to keep it in focus as it warms up, I can keep it in focus, but some of the other adjustments peak out (like horizontal and vertical size) What is wrong with it?

My accelerator seems to react slowly. What can I do?

Problems with PPC-based Amigas and the serial port

Read/Write errors on disk drives.

I use a SVGA monitor with my Amiga. Over the last few months it has been exhibiting some strange faults such as flickering and only showing 2 colours. What can I do?

I have a 2x SCSI CD-ROM in a custom case that I bought from an Amiga supplier. Can I upgrade the drive by replacing it with a faster unit such as a 20x or do I have to buy abandon this and buy a new drive?

Whatever I do my Amiga seems to run out of memory. Is there anything I can do to cure this?

Is there any way I can improve the output quality of the Commodore 1084 monitor?

I have heard that some A1200's have problems with PowerPC cards. How do I know if my Amiga will have problems and how can it be fixed?

Can I use an A500 keyboard with a CD32?

My machine keeps crashing after installing my accelerator.

I have bought a new accelerator, but the MMU does not work.

I am having problems with the memory on my Apollo board, only half of it seems to be available.

Hardware- software Issues

Can I make a bootable Zip disk on my Amiga?

How do I install a CD driver?

I've formatted my Zip drive and now two drive icons appear. How can I cure this?

Can I use my A500 floppy disk drive in the A1200?

I have installed a registered copy of my CD driver software but the ATAPI Plug'nPlay 3.0 Demo screen still appears every 10 minutes. Is there anything I can do?

I recently bought a 4.3Gb hard drive for my Amiga. However, I can not format it to the full 4Gb, is there anything I can do to allow me to do this?

I have connected a hard drive but HDToolBox fails to recognise it. Are there any other utilities that I can use to get the drive recognised?

PowerPC

Do I need to get a faster 680x0 processor to use the Phase 5 PPC boards?

Where do I buy a 68040/060 processor?

I have an A1200. Do I need to get a tower to use a PPC board?

When using the PPC cards, would running PPC software freeze Workbench and other non-PPC applications?

When I switch on my A1200, fitted with a PowerUP card I have to hold both mouse buttons down and then click on boot for the Amiga to load. What is the problem?

Emulation Related

When I transfer graphics from the PC to the Amiga, the image seems to change shape. What can I do?

How do I read and write PC disks?

When I transfer a text file from PC to the Amiga, or viseversa the line endings are messed up. What can I do?

How do I make a mountlist to access my PC formatted hard drive?

How do I access my CD-ROM drive from my PC emulator?

How do make a PC boot disk?

Mounting PC hardfiles on the Amiga desktop

How do I transfer files from Windows 95/NT machine to my Amiga without losing the long filenames?

Is it possible to put my PC-HD in my Amiga, without having to format it so I can copy some files over from my Amiga

How do I use ShapeShifter hard files with Fusion?

Shapeshifter doesn't with my Phase 5 68060 board. The problem is caused by PrepareEmul, the early-startup patcher. What can I do?

I can get ShapeShifter to recognise my CD-ROM and when I boot I get the Disk not formatted requester. What should I do?

How do I create and extract .ADF files on my Amiga?

I have copied software from a MAC CD into the Shapeshifter hardfile using the crossmount utility. However, when I try to load the applications I have copied, it just says something like "Teach Text cannot load files of this size". It seems to think that everything is a text file. What can I do?

I have a few C64 games that do not have an extension. I have tried renaming them to .d64 and .t64 file formats with little success. What can I do?

When using WinUAE I cannot access the root of my hard drive or CD ROM. How do I access it?

I want to swap from using a hardfile to using a partition with Shapeshifter. How do I make this new partition the bootable and transfer everything over?

I have set up PC2Amiga to read the PC hard drive using my Amiga over a serial cable. However, when I try to copy files of any size it reports "cannot transfer packet".

When I try to access the Workbench drawer on a CD using WinUAE, the machine freezes. What's the problem?