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hi all i have an amiga that was fine before it went into the loft, now when i power on nothing from it at all, the psu makes a kinda quiet pinging/bleeping sound which slows when you turn the plug off, the amiga was kept dry up there and allowed to warm up for a day or so before being used,
whats my first port of call to check
many thanks everybody :)
ps check out my games for sale :roll:
Open it up and remove the battery a.s.a.p.
Just genteelly cut it or wiggle it out.
It's probably leaking.
Clean the area with spirit vinegar, let it do it's work for about 15 min and then clean it again with 90% or more alcohol (before doing the alcohol, clean any remaining vinegar with paper towel or tissue).
Use Q-tips for cleaning and then take a hairdryer and make sure it's dry.
After a few hours you should able to power it on and give it one more go in the hope that nothing is destroyed.
But I would advise to post photos.
oh dear, just opened her up, the chip socket adjacent the batt is all green and corroded away, and an area of the motherboard circit track seems to have dissolved :( also green on a few resistors in that area :(
i dont think it looks salvagable, a bugger as the case is mint and the protective film over the commodore logo has never been removed either ive taken some pics but havnt got a fotki or photobucket, could i email them to you see what you think?
You can attach photos to your posts here quite simply without an external account. Just adjust the size prior to uploading.
ah okay, sorry im a newb on here, just uploading now then :)
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had to add it to my facebook, was easiest :), what do you think? am i better off grabbing a a500 and adding the expansion cart, would that make it the same minus battery? i cant seem to find a rev 8a.1 board for sale
Don't throw it away, it has an agnus wich might be interesting to upgrade any future amiga you might have.
If I were you I would clean it anyhow and make a better picture of it, maybe some more hardware skilled people can give hints wich tracks are gone and wich not.
The A500 has different chipram capabilities, while the A500+ can take the most.
Ps: If you do not have much time, remove the battery first, cut it without putting pressure on the tracks.
@Quin
its possible for the board to be repaired, however you must first do the following-
1. Remove the battery with a small pair of wire-cutters -
Be gentle as not cut or lift any tracks, this should be easily removed but a little caution goes a long way.
2. Use 2:1 lemon juice/spirit vinegar and be liberal in the area.
As others have mention you should leave this for about 5-10 minutes, this neutralizes the alkaline deposits from the battery (it also neutralizes the hydroxide and peroxide concentrations too.)
3. Clean the area.
Okay, ninja into your local Poundland and buy a an electric toothbrush and some car-screen wash =)
Now have at the motherboard / socket, first with just the lemon juice/vinegar solution and then with the car-screen-wash - be liberal..
Now ensure
you check the bottom (underneath) of the motherboard.
You have cleaned all the alkaline on the motherboard
Okay. that's the easy bit done -
Now you will struggle with the socket - by the looks of it you are going to have to remove the socket (a little more on that in a bit). You will need to also clean the GARY chip - you will most likely have to use some very fine abrasive paper/eraser to clean off the pins of the chip (be gentle here as to much will expose copper).
Now that bits a little technical, but needed, the next step is a little harder. from the pictures you are going to need the remove and replace the socket - this requires some good tools to do so.
Normally I would offer to help fix it but I am really busy lately, but I am sure there are some peeps on here that can help.
ahha awesom job, would the GARY chip possibly be all green inside too and the resistors?? :( i shall take it apart again this evening and have a play, i have some of the solder remover wire stuff which should help me remove the socket, im sure i can get a new one from maplin or similar?
will i need to get a replacement battery or can i leave it out so this doesnt happen again?
sorry not too clued up on the amiga, thanks for everybodies help so far :)
I wouldn't insert a new battery, but like Zetr0 said, you need to clean it first and then start repairs, just hope you can salvage it.
The Gary chip will probably be ok, if not just find a replacement.
I am fighting now with A500+ I have got from zaxon. Green cancer reached Agnus and even can see it on CPU external connector ... no hope there ...
Yours can still live :) .
tooth brush time
Just take your time, It might take a few gose/days to clean up the board
battry is only used for the real time clock which is not essential
okay time isnt a problem i can take my time over a few nights :) just playing on my c64 tonight :) anybody got use for a quick data drive? was brand new when i got it, never managed to work the thing :s
ah take a picture then, I am using the ultimite II micro-sd 1541 drive replacement.:) It offers more flexibility and is easy to run d64 files directly
right, got going with the lemon juice, the stuff is like magic! underside of the board is a ok, was minor greening to a couple of pins, top side it does appear ive lost some track, and some of the track looks black? is this likely corroded too :s looks like i will need a new gary socket though not much left of that, i may perhaps before buying one just solder the chip straight onto the board
i also noticed in 2 places on te underide of the board that a couple of the chip had been gettng hot pins, perhaps 2 places thats all so i hope it's ookay, will get new pictures shortly :)
@quin
so far so good =)
take some pics of the board now you have it cleaned up.
Now, I would advise you not to solder in the Gary-chip because -
1. Heat (especially from an unregulated solder iron) will likely damage the Gary chip.
2. There exists upgrades that have a GARY adapter plug-in
for the sake of a few pennies - its best to replace it with a socket OR socket strips.
I might be able to help with the socket stuff so hit-me up on PM and I shall post you some.
right had a final clean up earlie and tested the 2 suspect looking bits of track but there a okay :)
powered her up and i get slight pause, followed by green light :P..... but blank/black screen
removing gary i get green and orange led with him in i get green, now the socket wasnt brill, and im unsure if hes making 100% contact but i teased out allpins and still nothing
is gary dead? or could it be something else?
got the old socket off but still have solder in the holes which im not sure how the hell to get out :( have cut my new socket in half longways to ease resoldering, but it seems also the socket is soldered underneath aswell as ontop, how do i go about redoing that ? :s thanks
Solder from just underside, the holes have metallized vias.
ah okay, i have some pin remains in some of the holes so ive gota fgure out how to clear those too first :(
Just be careful here, If the pin doesnt come out easily, dont tug at it as you will likely lift track. A desolder pump is your friend but I have also found that by melting the solder and spraying compressed air it should help clear it any residual solder. Make sure you put a cloth underneath the board to capture the solder as it spits out the bottom of the boardQuote:
Originally Posted by quin
May not be the best technique but I find it helps with stubborn removal. :thumbsup:
okily dokily ill grab some canned compressed air as i dont own a compressor :)
thanks muchly for the tips
Whoops yeah thats what I meant :Doh:
managed to aquire a can of air, what a rip off in maplin £14.99! got half a can from a mate for free :) have 1 row of holes completely clear and clean, i bought some socket strips @ maplin while i was there but think im still oing to use the replacement socket i have instead :)
will carry on tuesday evening and update
Post some pics Quin, we love hardware pr0n on Amibay :D
lol, okay shall pop some piccies up this evening :) hope the beast works after all this, i was thinking about soldering some fly leads on to the old battery terminals and placing a 4xAA battery holder in the trap door and pop some rechargables in so real time clock could still be used.....
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so heres a pic of the board now with 1 row of holes almost clear, the new socket, which has been cut lengthways to make like easier, and also the board in the trapdoor, i think i have some of these old simms kicking around, could i use them to upgrade this board?
Dear Quin,
A500+ seems to be improving with your work :)
Very nice you found a large socket....i had to put large chips unsocketted on the board because i could not find the wright size socket anywhere.
Pleas do tell, where did you find this?
Grtz, PymerOne.
well i got the socket from ebay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEAFB:IT
i also got socket strips as spare from maplin :)
okay been at it for a few hours, got the rest all cleared out, were 3 stubborn ones that just took ages to melt and clear !!!! but work has payed off as the new socket is in place, i will solder it on tommorow and fire her up :)
FINGERS CROSSED!
Good luck Quin :thumbsup:
IT LIIIIVVES!!!!! just got the soldering done, cleaned up gary pins with an emery board and pushed it home,
fired it up on the floor and grey screen... PANIC then i thought ooo better plug in the floppy drive and hey presto screen comes up with v2 roms etc etc
soldering came up nicely considering i havnt soldered anything for about 10 years! will upoad pics shortly, thanks everybody for your help :)
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hmmmm, not all good news, inserting a floppy the drive comes to life - screen goes purple - then goes back to the start screen and the floppy carries on running, asif it cant read the disc??? sounds pretty ruff too :s anybody got a spare floppy i can use? or know which wires i need to change to use a generic one as i have 2 spare pc ones
thanks
need to know what model PC floppy drives you have bud :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by quin
okay, i think 2 are ancient, going to pop this one apart quickly and give the head a clean etc see if that helps too
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got the error screen twice so gently lifted and re-seated all socketed chips which has got rid of it it seems :) still wont boot anything though :) xxxx
Hmm...
When using 1.3 ROM a FFS disk will not read, only OFS disks will work. But this is not the case.
I think you can check Paula (she is the responsible for floppy operation) for bad contact/rusted pins.
If that is OK, then the floppy is dirty or out of alignment. There are several old floppy drives that can be converted to Amiga standard. The hack is pretty easy to do (thanks Hernan/ElPiloto) but then you cannot use external drives on the machine.
In fact, most drives can be converted if they have a DS0/DS1 switch/jumper/SMD resistor for selection.
The only catch is locating a drive that have the eject button at the right spot.
tried a few discs which used to play beofre the amiga was stored, removed all socketed chips already which have lovely shiney pins so hopefully there all okay, does gary have anything to do with the floppy operation? ill get some nail varnish remover to clean up the head in the drive and generally have a clean around and see what happens :)
can i get a compatable external drive and will it boot from that instead? if so i may do that as an option
You can take the external drive out of it's case and connect it internally, won't fit with the case shut though.
Have you tried a floppy drive cleaner? Fixed my a500.
just ordered a floppy drive cleaner so shall give it a go :)
just actually had the drive apart and it was filthy, i cleaned the heads with nail varnish remover and all surrounding areas with cotton buds and air, still didnt work though and when it sins sometimes its quiet other times it squeals :s so think the drive must be faulty :(
question :
when turning it on should both the led's on the front be on? this is also the case even with the floppy drive dissconnected
thanks
no, one only turns on when it's loading off the floppy.
I think you should still give the drive cleaner a go then it's new drive time. A1200/a600 ones work but you'll have to cut the case a bit which is crap. Or if you can put up with it, get a longer floppy cable and run it outside the case.
hmm well im getting a steady glow from the orange aswell at boot, but then the drive is gently murmering away from the start too :s
hi just for anybody following.... the amiga has now decided it doesnt want to power on again, i wonder if the gary chip is also at fault after all, does anybody have one spare?
thanks
Wow mate... :(
At this point, maybe buying another working 500+ and swapping everything over is a better idea.
ill more likely just get rid, i have got very little amiga stuff anyway, mostly copied floppies and full games without boxes, just would have been good to get it running again, i stll got that red screen error once more too any idea what threw that up?
Hi Quin
Im guessing whatever is wrong cant be that bad as it managed to boot before :) Zetro on this forum may be able to give you a few pointers, it could be a track has gone and needs to be re-wired?
If you could get a clear shot of the damage and post it, others may be able to point you in the right direction :thumbsup:
Dont give up on it dude, even if you think its a lost cause the parts can be sold on and you can get yourself another Amiga and relive the magic again :thumbsup:
Taj
right had the amiga apart again, still wouldnt power up, so i dissconnected the floppy drive, it then turned on, pluggged back in the floppy and it wouldnt turn on, after a bit of faffing it did work but id defo say the drive has died so shall grab a replacement soon
hi okay the drives i have are
EPSON SMD-1300
and
ALPS ELECTRIC CO., LTD. DF354H071C
hope you can help
Are they from amigas?
no there old pc ones, just wondering if anybody knos the mods i need to do to get them to run
Would this cable help:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=354
Maybe someone here can verify if it will or it wont?
ahha nice that may help, i have some of those standard cables here so if somebody knew which pins need crossing im sure i could do it for free :)
I (think) on a compatible drive you just need to swap pin 2 and pin 34 on the floppy drive (or use the AmigaKit cable).
Have a look here:
http://freewebs.com/computolio/amiga...atibility.html
And here:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=24924
Im at work so have only skimmed through but it might have some more info :thumbsup: