A3000 Won't power up

[Pghulme]

Hello
ive got an a3000 that is baffling me

works fine, have installed ks3.1 and an a3640 and all works great last night. However turn it on tonight and doesn't boot up, stays at a dim power light. (Normally power light is dim for a moment then brighter before hdd light starts flickering)

so trying to get it working I've stripped it down and taken everything out and eventually it comes to life, so I put it all back together and it's working great. pick the machine up and put it on my desk and it's done the same thing. Just a dim power light and a black screen!!

any ideas?

 

[Deleted member 14264]

@Pghulme
Is the metal cover shorting on something ?

 

[matt3k]

Well I wish I could spread sunshine on your issue but sadly I have been here countless times...

I bet the 3000D you own has battery damage and/or sat in storage for many years. I bet you may even see green corrosion on the paula or surrounding chips especially the diodes. You may even see a black socket on the power connection to the motherboard. These are all tell-tails of a 3000D that have been poorly treated...

The best thing about a 3000 is that if you take care of them by replacing the battery long before any damage occurs and replace the PALS with GALS, the damn things will run forever. If they weren't maintained and had battery damage, they will fail. I have 2 3000D's that were well maintained and they still run perfect. I have had about 10 other 3000D's over the years that had battery damage and they all failed, even if I tried to neutralize the damage before they failed.

The reason I went out of the way to explain myself, is that I don't want other Amiga users dealing with this... I have a 3000D buyers guide on this site that explains it much better.

If you turn on the 3000D and turn on and off the caps locks key about six times the caps lock will stop responding (if it still responds ignore the following) then:
1. If your lucky only the PALS need to be replaced, they are very cheap and super easy to replace and sometimes will fix this problem.
2. If the GALS do not correct the issue you have trace or similar damage on the motherboard that will have to be repaired. I suggest you find someone who has experience repairing 3000's.

I have been done this road many times so don't pull your hair out, try number one and then quickly find someone to fix it.


Matt

Hello
ive got an a3000 that is baffling me

works fine, have installed ks3.1 and an a3640 and all works great last night. However turn it on tonight and doesn't boot up, stays at a dim power light. (Normally power light is dim for a moment then brighter before hdd light starts flickering)

so trying to get it working I've stripped it down and taken everything out and eventually it comes to life, so I put it all back together and it's working great. pick the machine up and put it on my desk and it's done the same thing. Just a dim power light and a black screen!!

any ideas?

 

[Pghulme]

@eslapien - cover isn't shorting as its working fine with it on for some time

@matt3k - thanks for reply, things I've found so far.
The battery is still in place however it's either not the original or hasn't leaked as the battery area is very clean and I see no corrosion anywhere!
if power is on then key caps responds several times!
where do I buy gals and pals from?

am going to strip it down to bare board tonight and check board and traces to make sure there's nothing damaged

it just baffles me that it works perfect for some time until I moved the machine

 

[Deleted member 14264]

@Pghulme
The last time I saw a problem like that was with an Amiga 3000 T.

The thingy with the security key had disintegrated and one of the small metal beads had lodged itself right under one of the Zorro III slots causing a short.

Sometimes conductive junk can lodge itself in the most unexpected places and cause a resistive contact which causes problems.

Also, you say "its working fine with (the cover) on for some time". Does it work with the cover off all the time ? If so then there is a short caused by the cover - probably a resistive one, just not a complete short circuit.

 

[Pghulme]

H
it worked with cover on and off on my carpet for a few hours after rebuilding it
then just moved it to the desk and it stopped

my suspicions are:
a3640 - gonna try without this
jumpers that select int ext, are pretty worn and falling apart, have orders some jumpers
a short under the board, going to take board out and also check plastic shielding
a burnt trace, possible but doesn't explain why would then wouldn't work
ROM's, currently using custom 3.9, have worked, but could they be too slow or poor? Ihave genuine 3.1 to try
daughterboard- last night I finally got it working when I was putting sideward pressure on the bridge board, so I think this is my area of attention, even if not the daughter board itself something near there as when machine is picked could explain movement in this area.

 

[matt3k]

I would agree that the 040 may be the culprit. Normally if a trace is bad the caplocks will stop replying as the cache gets full.

I would think that the 040 is bad...

One tip, if the 030 on the motherboard is dead, you will receive a yellow panic screen, just like when the daughter board is removed.

Nice job with the work!

Matt

 

[Pghulme]

So I've pretty much spent the last 4 hours with the machine, stripped it down to its bare bits and back again (twice)
machine worked mostly however I found that during intensive SCSI hdd reads it's fezzes then won't start again!!

Ive replaced the roms and the CPU in the a3640 but same problems, I've checked the board and there is no battery damage, some caps have already been replaced and there is no burnt traces. So my main focus is now on the a3640. I'll try tomorrow without it, but can anyone suggest the correct jumper settings for the actual a3650 itself? Anything I should check?

 

[Pghulme]

SOLVED:

OK, so ive managed to get my A3000 to work just fine now, turns out it is the a3640. The a3640 and a3000 are widely documented on the internet, with mixed ideas if it does or doesn't work. and one place I found said the a3640 wasn't mixed by commodore because of heat issue, however I belive its more a case because the chance of it working was never 100%!!!

I came across this thread here: https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?57978

which pretty much details similar issues I had with machine locking up on disk access. I have now removed the a3640 and am using the onboard 030/25 and its all working fine.

I have tried 3 different CPU's on the a3640 so I assume its just that some a3000 can tolerate the a3640 and some simply cant? any advice people can offer in getting the a3640 working stable in the a3000 would be greatly appreciated.

 

[matt3k]

The best and cheapest thing to try to get the 3640 working is find other dmac 02 and ramsey 04, they will be readily available and cheap.

You don't have to have the latest dmac 04 and ramsey 07 combo for the 3640, but older dmac/ ramseys with better tolerances. The newest dmac and ramsey will fix the problem, but dmac 04's are hard to track down and I have seen them sell as much as a used 3000D...

One other humble suggestion is to track down a Warp Engine 3040, that is the best solution for the 3000. You may want to check out my 3000 buyers guide for more (https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?59870-Amiga-3000-buyers-guide-myth-buster-and-Refit)

Good luck!

SOLVED:

OK, so ive managed to get my A3000 to work just fine now, turns out it is the a3640. The a3640 and a3000 are widely documented on the internet, with mixed ideas if it does or doesn't work. and one place I found said the a3640 wasn't mixed by commodore because of heat issue, however I belive its more a case because the chance of it working was never 100%!!!

I came across this thread here: https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?57978

which pretty much details similar issues I had with machine locking up on disk access. I have now removed the a3640 and am using the onboard 030/25 and its all working fine.

I have tried 3 different CPU's on the a3640 so I assume its just that some a3000 can tolerate the a3640 and some simply cant? any advice people can offer in getting the a3640 working stable in the a3000 would be greatly appreciated.