A1200 woes :(

woodycool

woodycool

Amiga enthusiast!
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Posts
1,671
Country
Northampton, UK
Region
Northamptonshire, UK
Hi all,

I know it's been a while since I've posted in these parts, so a big hello to you all. I hope you are all doing well.

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase ..... I plugged in my A1200 earlier today and it's decidly f****d :mad:


I'm having the following problems with it:
  • internal IDE port does not recognise any hard drive connected to the board, have tried with numerous known working 44-pin cables and numerous hard drives and CF read/CF card combos. At least two different hard drives (known working ones) caused severe graphics corruption when plugged in
  • mouse port/second controller port does not register movement .... mouse buttons work (I can hold LMB & RMB to get Early Startup Control) but movement of mouse does not make arrow move .... same mouse is fine on my other Amigas
  • the PCMCIA pins seem to be bent (but I suspect they always were bent on this particular machine, as I 'acquired' this A1200 for free and have never plugged in a device in to the PCMCIA slot)
I'm not so bothered about the PCMCIA thing (as long as it's not causing a problem) but having no IDE and no mouse is a massive issue.
The machine is a Commodore A1200 (not an Amiga Technologies or ESCOM machine) but unsure of mobo revision. It has 3.0 ROMs.
Over than the above, all seems to work fine.

Any ideas on how to fix? or should I just say f**k it and replace it with a different A1200 mobo?

Cheers
woody (y)
 
Caps?

Caps?

Dodgy caps maybe? Might be worth taking a close look at them. One of my 1200s (my original one I bought new in 1992) likes to warm up a bit before it works. During this time I get read errors and my mouse is unresponsive. But, once it been on for a few minutes all is fine. My guess is that it is the caps in my case so it's a good job I bought one of Cosmos's cap kits. Perhaps that might work for you?
 
tbh, I wouldn't know where to start with the thing :unsure:
Would it be more economical to repair? or should I invest in a new motherboard?
 
Whichever you do make sure the old board goes to someone that knows how to revive it.

Welcome back woody (y)
 
@woody

The mouse problem is caused by a dead or dying U34 IC (74LS166 off the top of my head, but please check the specification sheet to be sure). Obviously you will need to change this.

The IDE is controlled by Gayle, as is the PCMCIA, if there is an underlying fault with a crushed pin - then its possible it will effect IDE operation - inspect the port, repair/reposition the pin if you can, remove it if you cannot.

I would also take some time to inspect the capacitors in the area around the IDE port, if you have the ability to take some hi-res quality photo's please stick 'em on this post as there are man that can help you.

The biggest cost to you on this project my friend is time... the rest will be under the price of a pint at the pub.
 
Zetr0 said:
The mouse problem is caused by a dead or dying U34 IC (74LS166 off the top of my head, but please check the specification sheet to be sure). Obviously you will need to change this.
Click to expand...

That is very handy to know Zetr0, if I ever summon the courage to replace the caps on my board and it is still giving me problems, that is the next place I will look. And good luck with your board woody (y)
 
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