Kickstart chips genuine or not?

[FeedingDragon]

When I purchased an A4000 motherboard years ago, it was advertised as Kickstart 3.1. When I received it, it actually had 3.0 installed, but taped to the inside of the case (in a plastic sheath,) were these Kickstart 3.1 chips. I didn't notice it at the time, but it was suggested to me that they may not be genuine. Can anyone comment on if 3.1 chips were released that looked like these? I'd rather not peel the stickers off. Mainly because they are rather strongly attached. I'm sorry about the quality, it's the best I could do with my cell phone and the tremors in my hands.


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[rootboy]

Hard to say. If you push down a bit in the center of the chip(s) do you feel a depression?

As for using them, I'd say go for it. If you are planning on selling them, I'd say that wouldn't be such a good idea...

 

[FeedingDragon]

Can't feel anything when I push down, but that really isn't saying much. My sense of touch in my fingers is lacking. I have the motherboard up for sale, but currently have it listed as Kickstart 3.0. I'll just leave it that way, I guess. Better safe than sorry. I was just hoping someone could say, "Oh, yes, those were released by <so-and-so>," and I could upgrade the listing to Kickstart 3.1.

 

[rootboy]

Can't feel anything when I push down, but that really isn't saying much. My sense of touch in my fingers is lacking. I have the motherboard up for sale, but currently have it listed as Kickstart 3.0. I'll just leave it that way, I guess. Better safe than sorry. I was just hoping someone could say, "Oh, yes, those were released by <so-and-so>," and I could upgrade the listing to Kickstart 3.1.

You would probably feel the UV "window". It's pretty obvious. And that is a pretty good indicator that they were "homebrew" ROMs. Since you can't feel it, I would say that they are genuine.

 

[ajk]

UV erasable ROMs can be perfectly legitimate - (many?) resellers had a license to produce Kickstarts. I have a 3.1 set for the A500 which has a very ragged "Power Computing" sticker on it. It would still be legitimate if the sticker fell of entirely, but there would be no way to tell it apart from any other EPROM at that point

The sticker on mine does not look quite like that, though, so probably not Power Computing at least.

 

[rootboy]

You're right, I should have said that without the window, it's most likely legit. That said, I don't *think* that any of my ROMs use UV erasable ROMs (but I haven't really looked either). Besides, there's not much stopping someone from printing up a bunch of Amiga Forever stickers and slapping them on their own ROMs.

I'm not overly concerned one way or the other. I buy the software whenever possible, and I don't lose much sleep over playing around with abandonware.

 

[flashx]

Its working just if you bought new it just mean you got a early verionif still box I would keep it must be nice to own a 4000

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[FeedingDragon]

There 'could' be a window like inconsistency under the sticker near the middle. I don't want to pull them just to weigh them either I have some nerve damage, and the sensitivity of my fingers are reduced. I'm just not sure. I'm going to assume they are EPROMs considering I don't recognize the labels. None of my other KS chips have labels, but I know some 3rd party (but fully licensed,) releases did have them. It's just safer this way. Also, if I tell everyone that it comes with KS 3.0 (instead of 3.1,) then nobody can complain that the KS chips are not genuine. All I have to worry about is if someone complains that the KS 3.0 chips came uninstalled.

 

[genny_flick]

I have 2 chips from Village Tronic with original package: they are 2 eproms