Disaster! Need help!

Well I finally got everything that I needed to run the compact flash drive and installed all the tools and got everything installed in my little A600. Everything seemed excellent. Then, I noticed the smell... You know, kinda like rotting fish maybe mixed with the acrid smell of electric burn? Suffice to say I took the case off, removed everything from the motherboard and started looking. Immediately I noticed 4 caps, two of which were under the Viper and the ACA630 that are not only dull, but they look black. The other two dull looking caps are right above the keyboard connector. Suffice to say, I need to get these replaced ASAP. Sadly, Ed doesn't have the tools to do surface mount, and I can't solder at all, so I really need suggestions please. I am disappointed with my luck as this is the kind of thing that happens all the time. Please, any help would be appreciated. It's a Rev 2B board.

m8y, i'm sorry to read your news and if you were in the UK i would offer to help:(
surely there is another bayer in the States that can do this for you?

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Originally Posted by Nathanieltolbert

Well I finally got everything that I needed to run the compact flash drive and installed all the tools and got everything installed in my little A600. Everything seemed excellent. Then, I noticed the smell... You know, kinda like rotting fish maybe mixed with the acrid smell of electric burn? Suffice to say I took the case off, removed everything from the motherboard and started looking. Immediately I noticed 4 caps, two of which were under the Viper and the ACA630 that are not only dull, but they look black. The other two dull looking caps are right above the keyboard connector. Suffice to say, I need to get these replaced ASAP. Sadly, Ed doesn't have the tools to do surface mount, and I can't solder at all, so I really need suggestions please. I am disappointed with my luck as this is the kind of thing that happens all the time. Please, any help would be appreciated. It's a Rev 2B board.

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your local tv repair should be able to replace the caps for you I'd expect if you can't find anyone local :)

I don't know. I'm talking to Ed on the phone right now, and he says he can fix these caps as they are the same as the ones in the audio section. Two of them are labeled U3 47 16V, and the other two (these are noticeable) are labeled n4 22 25V.

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I wouldn't trust my TV with the local repair shop let alone my A600. They butchered the job on my old widescreen CRT Samsung to the point that I had to send it to the manufacturer to get it fixed! No way. I won't let those butchers touch my computer.

Damn that sucks! Hope Ed can replace the caps for you. It sounds like these blew due to over voltage and not because of the normal leaking type failure. Hope that's not the case though.

Just a suggestion, but if all the affected caps are on the motherboard itself it may be cheaper and faster for you to get a new board?

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Originally Posted by AmiNeo

Just a suggestion, but if all the affected caps are on the motherboard itself it may be cheaper and faster for you to get a new board?

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NTSC 600's are rare and hard to find.

Although the A600 is much more common in the US than in Europe, it's still a little difficult to find, that is without paying outrageous prices on E-bay. Ed says he can replace them and he will do it for me for free, so I will try that. If the board dies, then I will look to source a new board for my A600. Ed has fixed every one of my Amiga computers when they had problems before, so I am not horribly worried. As he said on the phone, he has the tools to do surface mount, he just doesn't do it very often because it's time consuming.

Okay cool, I overlooked the fact that it was an NTSC board.

Hope it works out for you, ASAP! Nobody deserves the shock of their baby dying before their eyes! ;)

I didn't think anything about it being NTSC. I guess I thought everyone would assume it was NTSC since I am in the US. Yes, it is NTSC, which I guess makes it a little rare. I know where I can source a board if I'm desperate, but I don' know how much he's going to charge me for it..