My A4000 Restoration

Clarkey

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Posts
119
Country
England
Region
Suffolk
Hi just thought I would share a few pictures and ask a couple of questions related to my A4000 restoration. I have wanted a 4000 for over 20 years to I am taking my time with it to get it just how I want.

As I found her when I got her home after collecting, I was lucky as although the seller lived a long way from me he had a relative just a few miles down the road from me, I was really pleased with the price and feel it was fair for both of us.

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Gruby and yellow.

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I had asked for pictures of the battery area before buying and it looked to have some mild greening but as the machine was booting I decided to take a punt. I quickly completley dismantled her to access the damage.

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Battery snipped off, plenty of green I will post pictures later but luckily a good treatment with lemon juice and then de-ionised water has removed all of it.

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The platics (inlcuding keyboard were so yellowed I decided to paint with Tamiya TS spreay.

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The fan noise was hideous so I upgraded fan to a silent one and modified the grill.

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I added some more venting for better airflow.

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Added a compact flash HD with Classicworkbench Full until I get a RTG card

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Upgraded to 3.1 roms

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All cleaned ready for rebuild.

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Added a big ram plus

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I will take and add photos of the finished paint and motherboard work tomorrow, next to add is a A3640 3.2 CPU card and a Xsurf 100. Then a RTG card.

I have a couple of questions.

I currently run the Amiga through a Sony Trintron CRT 15khz display which is perfect for games and demos. I would like to run workbench through an RTG card on a seperate LCD or VGA crt screen to increase the resolution, can I do this but still run the games through the CRT ie take vga out from the RTG card and continue to use the onboard video for the CRT TV?

Next question regarding libs,I Currently using classicworkbench v28 with 3.1 disks. What libraries and or tweaks do I need to add to get the most out of the hardware. I assume I will need to the 040 libraries but what ones?

Is there anything else I should be adding software wise to improve things I'm used to the windows world of drivers and I feel I should be setting workbench up to be more tailored to the hardware.

Lastly I have read about updating the GALs on the A4000 motherboard as per below, is this worth doing if so where can I source some?

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=68992

Thanks in advance for any help with my questions.
 
Nice work there mate :)

On the CRT question, yes you can run the two screens independently and it will just switch depending on the output, better solution is grab an RTG with flicker fixer integrated such as Picasso 4 or something cheaper like a Picasso 2 which has pass through port and then an Indivision AGA, that way you can hook it up to a nice old 17" CRT monitor and run everything through one screen and it will just auto switch :D
 
Ah thanks that clears it up a bit. I will keep an eye out for a PicassoIV then as I like the idea of it being on one card.

If anyone else can help with any of the other questions that would be much appreciated.

Cheers
 
As promissed some after shots, im pleased with how the paint came out, it looks as though the drive bay is a different shade here but its just how the photo has come out.

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Keyboard came out ok, I just need to retrobrite the logo now when we get some sun.

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After lemon juice and de-ionised water treatment.

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Xsurf installed

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And big ram plus

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Just need some advice with workbench set up questions but i will repost these in technical help area.

Cheers
 
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Nice work you have done there :)

Regarding Workbench, if you are using 3.1 or 3.0 you will need to get 68040.library - Just google for it ;)

If you choose OS3.9 the library is included :)

I recently got an A4000 myself and upgraded to an A3640 and am also waiting for a Picasso II which I just bought from someone on Amibay today. Next on my list is a Bigram and maybe an X Surf.

Mine is horribly yellow, I was going to retr0brite it but after seeing yours I may consider spraying it . Also looking for an original A4000 keyboard as the one i'm using is a badly yellowed keyboard from my A2000.
 
Very nice paint. I want to spray my A4000D also. Keyboard is sprayed too? I guess white matte spray right?
 
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Thanks, I can recommend the big ram plus, I am still in the process of getting the xsurf running. I mainly wanted it to browse network shares on my home network. Its handy to get online as well although its not very usable at my current screen resolution.

In regards to the paint I used, Tamiya TS-27 Matt White gives a perfect finish, Tamiya paints are incredibly thin so you don't lose any of the detail in the surface of the plastic.

Cheers

Nice work you have done there :)

Regarding Workbench, if you are using 3.1 or 3.0 you will need to get 68040.library - Just google for it ;)

If you choose OS3.9 the library is included :)

I recently got an A4000 myself and upgraded to an A3640 and am also waiting for a Picasso II which I just bought from someone on Amibay today. Next on my list is a Bigram and maybe an X Surf.

Mine is horribly yellow, I was going to retr0brite it but after seeing yours I may consider spraying it . Also looking for an original A4000 keyboard as the one i'm using is a badly yellowed keyboard from my A2000.

- - - Updated - - -

Installed my new Rapid Road USB today

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Now to crack on and get workbench running how I want.
 
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Your Amiga is slowly but gradually expanding, that's really good. It's going to be a beast in a blink of an eye ;) I like the job a lot. Drop me a line if you'd like any help in configuring AmigaOS/Workbench. I'll gladly help ;)
 
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Thanks mate, gradually getting there, now I finnaly have enough bits in place to really get things set up i'm digging into the software sie of things and enjoying plenty of good .mod files :)

Hope all is well with you.

Your Amiga is slowly but gradualy expanding, that's really good. It's going to be a beast in a blink of an eye ;) I like the job a lot. Drop me a line if you'd like any help in configuring AmigaOS/Workbench. I'll gladly help ;)
 
I'm fine, thanks :) You'll have a lot to catch up if it comes to *.mods :D
http://pt1210.kikencorp.com

Checks these packs ;)
http://amp.dascene.net

Thanks will check them out, the boards are going away for a recap so I will be without the machine for a short time.

Has anyone found a good source for either new correct length ide leads or preferably replacement round ones?

Cheers
 
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