TheSerpent
New member
I've been meaning to get the A500 out of storage for a while now and felt inspired do do some digging earlier on. I never used to give it a second thought but, since the last outing resulted in my original board doing a green-screen, I've always been a little put off by my previously faithful hardware showing its' age.
Anyway out came the necessary gear, connected it to my old crt telly (which has never had an Amiga on it before), got white screen - grrrr. Maybe its the scart lead, so swap it for another one - same result.
Caps lock only flashed once and the floppy drive is pinging away so maybe the tv is having trouble with the display - let's see if we can force a change in the display. Workbench disk starts to boot but then stops after a few seconds, screen is still white.
Not feeling driven to get a screwdriver out yet so let's try the whole rig on the flatscreen tv. Also, let's just get that A501 out of the trapdoor on the off chance. Hooray! Got myself a ghostly, pale hand holding a blue WB1.3 disk! Although the picture is poor with noticeable movement lines and anyhow, there's no room at the inn where the flat tv is concerned, so back to the crt it is.
However back at the old tech zone, running only 512K and the now known-good scart cable, we are at a white screen again! So we've got a display problem here too. I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and get the modulator out..
Slap on the old A520 and go for the composite port - I'm not a complete masochist. Hooray! We've got a picture at last! Its a bit grainy but better than the lcd telly. Workbench boots fine and I found an AmiRAM 512K upgrade with the modulator so, although it doesn't have a clock on board, at least I have my 1 meg back. Time to try out my only serious upgrade.
Plug the GVP hard disk on and hit it's switch - nothing. Great, can't anything just work?! Peering through the fan grill I notice that the blades are trying to turn but just wobbling back and forth, so something might be stuck in there. Off comes the case but the fan turns freely when given a poke. Hmm, ok, power it on with the case off and see what happens. The fan whirs and the old Connor disk spins up fine - wuh?? OK, maybe it just wanted the attention..
Put the case back on, apply juice and the fan does the wobble thing again. So back inside we go and begin by unplugging the fan - it isn't going to get serious use so it'll be fine for a while. But now nothing happens. Is it the game switch? Unplug that, same thing - nothing. Well, the only thing I'm doing each time is putting the screws back in!
Hold on, what's this?! I'll be a monkey's close relative, one of the rear case screws has chafed through the ground cable that's part of the hard disk's power plug!! The current is passing through the chassis, not the cable! Move the cable, apply a bit of tape - hooray! One functioning hard disk!
These Amigas are getting to be hard work! Anyway, here's the old girl doing her stuff at last
Anyway out came the necessary gear, connected it to my old crt telly (which has never had an Amiga on it before), got white screen - grrrr. Maybe its the scart lead, so swap it for another one - same result.
Caps lock only flashed once and the floppy drive is pinging away so maybe the tv is having trouble with the display - let's see if we can force a change in the display. Workbench disk starts to boot but then stops after a few seconds, screen is still white.
Not feeling driven to get a screwdriver out yet so let's try the whole rig on the flatscreen tv. Also, let's just get that A501 out of the trapdoor on the off chance. Hooray! Got myself a ghostly, pale hand holding a blue WB1.3 disk! Although the picture is poor with noticeable movement lines and anyhow, there's no room at the inn where the flat tv is concerned, so back to the crt it is.
However back at the old tech zone, running only 512K and the now known-good scart cable, we are at a white screen again! So we've got a display problem here too. I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and get the modulator out..
Slap on the old A520 and go for the composite port - I'm not a complete masochist. Hooray! We've got a picture at last! Its a bit grainy but better than the lcd telly. Workbench boots fine and I found an AmiRAM 512K upgrade with the modulator so, although it doesn't have a clock on board, at least I have my 1 meg back. Time to try out my only serious upgrade.
Plug the GVP hard disk on and hit it's switch - nothing. Great, can't anything just work?! Peering through the fan grill I notice that the blades are trying to turn but just wobbling back and forth, so something might be stuck in there. Off comes the case but the fan turns freely when given a poke. Hmm, ok, power it on with the case off and see what happens. The fan whirs and the old Connor disk spins up fine - wuh?? OK, maybe it just wanted the attention..
Put the case back on, apply juice and the fan does the wobble thing again. So back inside we go and begin by unplugging the fan - it isn't going to get serious use so it'll be fine for a while. But now nothing happens. Is it the game switch? Unplug that, same thing - nothing. Well, the only thing I'm doing each time is putting the screws back in!
Hold on, what's this?! I'll be a monkey's close relative, one of the rear case screws has chafed through the ground cable that's part of the hard disk's power plug!! The current is passing through the chassis, not the cable! Move the cable, apply a bit of tape - hooray! One functioning hard disk!
These Amigas are getting to be hard work! Anyway, here's the old girl doing her stuff at last
