A3000 rescue and rebuild

Another week and another Amiga project (i know i have tons of stuff to do)

Anyway - i have bought an Amiga A3000 NTSC 110v (early version)

Specs

1.4 kickrom (1.3 & 2.0 selectable) (3.1 now)
8mb zip ram
2mb chip ram
68030 @ 25mhz
NTSC 110v
Rom tower
4.2gb scsi HDD
2x floppy (both dead or dying)

The varta battery was still fitted and the amiga was listed as spares / not working - always a gamble but hey ho..

Well the battery had turned most things green in its local area but for some reason the motherboard was untouched by the horrible acid and so a quick cut and desolder of the terminals was needed and then much cleaning.

The Amiga just booted in to a total loop - boot flicker then reboot and repeat, the power LED was going crazy...

So every socketed chip was cleaned and refitted ,one that was bad was the Paula as this is near the battery and as i Agnus and a CIA (i think it was..)

Still no joy constant reboots - then an idea hit me , didn't i read once of an A2000 doing the same and it was a dead Paula?... So whip out the Paula and turn the 3k on ...no reboots and a constant power LED - no boot of course. So in to my spares box and bingo an A500 Paula - try that and yep it works.
While i was at it i changed a CIA too as it was badly affected by battery acid.

The floppy drives have about an inch of dust in them and both dont work - one smells burnt and the other sounds like an industrial nibbler.

So then fit an AmigaKit battery, HDD clean the motherboard - fit the keyboard and mouse and have a play with her.

The Amiga is stable and working well. it even runs doom lol

This Amiga was used for publishing an Amiga magazine back in the day i was told...Just Amiga Monthly (JAM). The seller obtained this machine from Jeff Walker, editor of JAM.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz525.htm

...now what do i do with it?

mike.

A3000 is beautiful machine (I would say the best classic Amiga) and deserves care like this. Good job ;o)

finish fixing it and put it to use

Now where have I seen this A3000 before

Great work as ever Mike How are you powering it? Step up transformer?

hi all

yep Taj , it had just arrived when you saw it but it didnt work then...

Great Job! Nice clean motherboard.

What to do with it? Get a NIC, Video Card, Audio Card, and a Warp Engine/Cyberstorm.

Will need a Superbuster Rev 11 and OS 3.1.

Then she can be your daily beater...

Sorry, I spend other peoples money pretty easily...

The 3K is a real treat to own and use, I use one almost every day. My kids use my other one very regularly.

i may go the rtg route but i have a 4000 too..

i used to have a 3000 with all those things

Congrats for the machine, Mike. It is truly a beauty and a pleasure to use.

For now just be sure the corrosion is fully neutralized and maybe max the memory.

Very very nice machine And its the only Amiga model I have never owned.. That and the A3000T.

Beautiful A3000!

Can it be converted to PAL and 220V? I take the latter requires a new PSU.

Nice A3000, an nice to see another Amiga in working order after being declared too soon as an spare donor.

mjnurney said:

The Amiga just booted in to a total loop - boot flicker then reboot and repeat, the power LED was going crazy...

Click to expand...

That's exactly what mine was doing when I first got it! In my case it was replacing the sockets for Agnus, Paula and Denise that brought it back to life!

The A3000 is an absolute joy to own, I really do love mine. I pimped mine out with an A3640 and a ZIP-to-SIMM adapter to give it 16MB FastRAM.