Anyone ever though...why do I bother?

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Winona2k

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Im in a bad mood. Just in a few months time I've had an enormous amount of bad luck with this hobby. A few examples:

Bought a 1200. Never received it.
After that I bought a "working" A3000 that proved to be dead on arrival. Ive spent the few hours I have for myself every night for a week and no luck, damn thing is still dead.
Then I receive a 1500 with a doa HDD, SCSI cable and torn keyboard due to poor packing. Spent quite some time trying to figure out if it was the HDD controller or the HDD that had failed. More lost hours, though after a HDD replacement I got it to boot properly.
Then I try to work out how my new 4-Device IDE Interface (A4000/A4000T) from amigakit is supposed to work. All I get is a white screen. After quite a while I notice that there is an problem with the soldering. 1 pin dosent connect properly. RAAAAAHHH!!!!!

I just want stuff to work. I hate spending hour after hour doing trial & error and rarely succeding in achieving anything. Sometimes I get the feeling I just want to send my whole collection over a cliff and just get on with living instead...
Might be the wrong place to ask, but am I the only one feeling that the amount of hours spent on maintaining my commodores is unpropotionally compared to fun moments. (actually succeding in repairing something, or finding that rare title).
 
Winona2k said:
Im in a bad mood. Just in a few months time I've had an enormous amount of bad luck with this hobby.
Click to expand...

That is why you're here. you buy from people who take pride in what they sell. people are also very helpful.

the 3000 have had battery damage? quite a job to fix that.
 
Retro gear can get like that. I've been through it a few times, with computers and before that [film] cameras.

You have to decide whether you really want to spend that time on those aspects of amigas or not, and don't be afraid to walk away if you think it's wasting time.

It's easy to get caught up with other people's enthusiasm, and mix that up with your own dreams. Sometimes it goes well, other times you just sink time and money for no gain.

Be clear on what you are capable of, and what you want from playing with old hardware.

Always question whether an emulator is better - by all means try the old computers out, but do you need to keep them?

Put a value on your own time, and don't start too many projects at once.

Always bear in mind that this gear is old and increasingly likely to fail.

And remember that somebody out there probably can fix it if you can afford them.
 
@ratfink

+1, couldn't have said it better myself :)
 
Been in somewhat of a low down mood my self

Its mostly work based as if it wasn't for other peoples c**k ups id be in work by now (one was an agency said they had university work and enough jobs for each that had to go on this course, turns out they didnt and forgotten us, the next was a decent security job, but the person I had to see kept having time off so it went tits up, job at B&M (yeah I know) became a case of "Sorry we want to hire you but cant, when they knew I was doing twice the amount of work than some of the paid staff on the work trail).
Having to continue looking for work in a market where there is either no jobs or im over qualified.
Even cleaning jobs dont want me
The job centrers website dont help

Problem is I like hard work and people that I work with know this so I got a few solid reference's
I have also gained a load of qualifications in my 6 bloody years out of work,

Anyway.
How is your day?
 
the nice thing about busted stuff is being really really full of your self when you manage to fix it..

"ACHIVEMENT UNLOCKED. FIXED BUSTED OLD THING.. (500 Smug points)"

The bad thing is feeling really crappy when things decide to stop working for no reason.

The trick is just to take your time and be carefull about what your doing, even if you cant fix it today maybe in 3 months time you will have leveld up your repair skills after gaining some exp points working on other things.

how i wish i hadnt thrown away a bunch of stuff years ago with the attitude of "i cant fix that" because today being at lvl 32 repair, with my soldering iron of destiny with accuracy boost and heat controll gems enchanted in to it, then it would be easy to fix now..

"yes i think of it like a role play game"
 
i think everyone has bad days.

the way i look at it is,these arnt really getting any younger sooner or later they will break down anyway.whatever i pay for them i consider rent.

you just had a run of bad luck thats all,if you cant fix it yourself there are others here who more than likely can.

if i have a machine i cant fix at the moment i walk away from it and come back another day when i can.
even if it seems impossible to fix i can normally do it after a little research.
 
Honestly the only computers I've ever had this feeling with are modern ones. Having to tinker and troubleshoot is just part of the deal with vintage equipment, but when my laptop starts suffering inexplicable progressive software failure and I have to reinstall the OS, it makes me wonder why I even bother and why I don't just start using my Amiga for everything instead...
 
Working

Working

Everything I've purchased from this bay works. When I've purchased stuff from the other bay things have been abit different. I hate the phrase this item was working last time I used it or can't test item !!!! Why ???? It comes with a plug and tv lead !!!!!!!!
 
Definitely .. if it is Ebay, pay accordingly I would say, especially those "as is" can't test it, worked when we last used it 20 years ago, how hard is it to hook it back up? There always seems to be something missing though which prevents them from hooking it up, imagine that :D

And even then I would say pay accordingly, who knows what shape it is really in "under the hood" .. most of us seem to open our miggies up and actually use our equipment, if there is a problem with the device we usually encounter it and wouldn't re-sell it here unless we specifically say what's wrong with it .. or if we don't know what exactly the problem we mention that also .. and price accordingly :)
 
there are exceptions to this though.

say for instance if its really cheap or known to have a battery,i wouldnt want them to power it up for testing.not when its been in the loft for 20 years.

i do buy stuff like this sometimes for parts,its when they want more than its worth, in that case i walk away.:)
 
ratfink said:
And remember that somebody out there probably can fix it if you talk to them nicely.
Click to expand...

EFT (sometimes). Plying retro hackers with beer, curry or pizza tends to work. Anything in the 'junk' food group stands a chance of working.

Ask Zetr0 :lol:
 
ratfink said:
Retro gear can get like that. I've been through it a few times, with computers and before that [film] cameras.

You have to decide whether you really want to spend that time on those aspects of amigas or not, and don't be afraid to walk away if you think it's wasting time.

It's easy to get caught up with other people's enthusiasm, and mix that up with your own dreams. Sometimes it goes well, other times you just sink time and money for no gain.

Be clear on what you are capable of, and what you want from playing with old hardware.

Always question whether an emulator is better - by all means try the old computers out, but do you need to keep them?

Put a value on your own time, and don't start too many projects at once.

Always bear in mind that this gear is old and increasingly likely to fail.

And remember that somebody out there probably can fix it if you can afford them.
Click to expand...

Quoted for Truth. This. +eleventy.

I thought I had something to add to this thread, but it's all been said. I've been there myself enough times and I empathise with everyone who's been there. Just put it all aside for a while, do something else for a bit, and come back when you've had a chance to relax.

:thumbsup:
 
Merlin said:
EFT (sometimes). Plying retro hackers with beer, curry or pizza tends to work. Anything in the 'junk' food group stands a chance of working.
Click to expand...

I once repaired some electronical gadgets for my boss. They belonged to members of her family and not to the business, so when she asked how much I'd charge to fix them, I told her that the only currency suitable for such work had Cadburys written on it. The pile of chocolate that arrived was so heavy it cost £10 to post it :woot:
 
I don't think I'd ever post about this stuff myself regardless of the demise I find myself in

You are the only one that can make the call about getting rid of the whole headache and who knows, because you are looking at it from this perspective perhaps it is the answer. If you are one of these people who months later expresses gratitude for the opinions to keep your gear because now you've had a change of heart and worked through the problems and now all good then perhaps you should spend more time getting to know yourself ;-)

I myself would never regret throwing anything out, I'd like to think I know myself better than that, so far so good. :-)
 
just a note about the "untested" items from the other bay.
provided that they are a bulk seller of items, like they have multiple lots of 12 sony dvd players, marked as untested, and they also sell a whole junk load of other items.
in my expirience they really are just not testing them..

took my chances on 1 lot of "untested" electronics from 1 such seller. and then have continued to buy stuff which are "untested" from them since...
never had an issue..

that may just be that 1 person lol. But if you check there listings and they seem to sell a lot of stuff that you must assume gets droped off at there house, and they buy them for a few £.. then list them on ebay. chances are that they really dont test them.
obviously its up to use then to decide if the item(s) in question is prone to breaking, and if it is how, and what would it take on avarage to fix IF it is broken, and finally decide how to bid accordingly.

having just typed that out it all seems incredibly obvious and i feel like some one will say "well duh, you dont say!"
but im having a little glass of french brandy before bed so im not deleting it.. (couldnt affoard my whisky this week, and napoleon brandy is even more expensive. so yep french brandy it is)
 
I killed an Amiga 500 when testing out a multimeter, slipped and shorted 12v on the RGB port with another pin :picard. Sold it as parts for $15.

I had a working Amstrad 386 that decided to blow a filter cap in the power supply. I sold the system as faulty for $5, the mouse for $5 and the keyboard for $59.99. There are some dedicated keyboard collectors out there.

An MFM hard drive sparked and smoked when I plugged it in without making sure it was properly cleaned. Those rarely work anyway.

Just yesterday, I got out my N64, it worked fine :D. I plugged in a CD64 backup unit, I couldn't get the CD64 working :( and now my N64 powers on but doesn't output video, so maybe my CD64 killed it :Doh:.

Now before trying to fix a minor fault or test an accessory on a working sytem, I am more likely to decide that I'll probably just end up making it worse. Best to sell it before it dies completely.
 
Hello, i am repairing all amigas and had always this problem, spending hour to find the wrong or broken thing, spending hour to repair it, test, found another bad thing.... ALL my actual life is like this... BUT, when you received a dead/broke amiga mobo and bring her to life after few hours it's pure happyness !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hi guys and thank you for the replies. Too many to comment on everything said. But many valid points have been made. I think my main problem with the amiga hardware hobby is the lack of time. Beeing a family man "steals" most of my spare time. The few hours I have left rarely covers the time needed to properly go through a busted machine. Not to mention haveing to pack and unpack it at every single occation since I dont have a dedicated area for my stuff. Unfourtunately, Im also the kind that likes to see results immediately, or at the very least seeing some progeress. Going back at it over and over for months is more likely to drive me insane than anything else. Though I admit it beeing very rewarding when I actualy manage to fix something. Those moments are just a bit to scare.

Id love to improve my knowledge, but truth is its just too hard. Endless googeling "What Ifs And What Nots" is starting to drive me insane. Id love to sit down with someone that knows his stuff and just go through it all for fun and learn more that way. But the guessowrk I have to do with today is not the way to go I suppose. So...giving how things are right now. I think Ill pack everything that isnt working and just focus on the parts of my collection that actually work.

Thank you for your excellent post Ratfink. Its funny how ID WANT to be able to fix old gear, but like you say, is it wortwhile? I could just go to work for a few hours and use the money made to buy a working item instead of spending evening after evening tinkering. Still...I DO love hardware. But it would seem Im better of handeling modern systems rather than old stuff. Oh and DBloke. Sorry to hear. There is always someone who is worse of. Clearly my problem is kinda trivial compared to yours.

ratfink said:
Retro gear can get like that. I've been through it a few times, with computers and before that [film] cameras.

You have to decide whether you really want to spend that time on those aspects of amigas or not, and don't be afraid to walk away if you think it's wasting time.

It's easy to get caught up with other people's enthusiasm, and mix that up with your own dreams. Sometimes it goes well, other times you just sink time and money for no gain.

Be clear on what you are capable of, and what you want from playing with old hardware.

Always question whether an emulator is better - by all means try the old computers out, but do you need to keep them?

Put a value on your own time, and don't start too many projects at once.

Always bear in mind that this gear is old and increasingly likely to fail.

And remember that somebody out there probably can fix it if you can afford them.
Click to expand...
 
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