Diagnosing your Amiga with DIAGROM and Kickstart Emulator

Use this chapter to install and run DiagROM 1.3 on the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator. DiagROM is a diagnostic ROM by John “Chucky/The Gang” Hertell that helps you test and troubleshoot classic Amiga hardware.

This software is provided by a third party and is not affiliated with SidecarTridge, but the developer asks that if you find it useful, please consider a donation to a charity of your choice. See diagrom.com for details.

DIAGROM

Table of contents
  1. What you need
  2. Download DiagROM 1.3
  3. Copy DiagROM to the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator
  4. Boot and run diagnostics

What you need

  • A SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator installed and working on your Amiga.
  • A computer with USB to access the ROMEMUL volume (see Getting Started).
  • The DiagROM 1.3 Amiga ROM image downloaded from diagrom.com.

DiagROM 1.x is listed as compatible with the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator in the Compatibility table.

Download DiagROM 1.3

  1. Open diagrom.com and follow the download instructions for the Amiga version.
  2. Select the DiagROM file inside the DiagROM 1.3 zip file. This file matches the A500/A2000 512KB layout required by the emulator.
  3. Rename the file to DiagROM.rom for easier identification.

You don’t need byte swapping or conversion; the DiagROM file is ready to use as-is with the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator.

Copy DiagROM to the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator

  1. Connect the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator to your computer using the USB-C cable.
  2. Open the ROMEMUL volume.
  3. Copy the DiagROM.rom 1.3 ROM image file to the root of ROMEMUL.
  4. Edit DEFAULT.TXT and set the DiagROM.rom file name as the default ROM.
  5. Edit RESCUE.TXT and set the DiagROM.rom file name as the rescue ROM (optional).
  6. Eject the ROMEMUL volume safely.

Always eject the ROMEMUL volume after copying files so the emulator reindexes the ROM list.

Boot and run diagnostics

  1. Disconnect the SidecarTridge Kickstart emulator from your computer and connect it to your Amiga.
  2. Power on the Amiga.
  3. DiagROM should boot directly and present the diagnostics screen.
  4. Use the on-screen tests to check RAM, CPU, and custom chips.

If DiagROM does not boot, confirm the ROM image is 512KB, re-copy it to ROMEMUL, and ensure it is selected as the default ROM.

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