Burnt out track on my A1200
- Thread starter Ed.D
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Ed.D
Active member
I'm afraid Paula's gone too. That was the first chip I replaced. I swapped out Gayle but I think it may have been ok.
Looks like I also may have blown some of my Mediator Mac chips, not sure yet. I'm powering my board with the mediator. With a Radeon graphics card inserted, sometimes the mediator sees 1, 10 , or 24 devices.
My perseverence is mainly due to the fact that this was the only A1200 I've ever owned from new, when they were launched.
Looks like I also may have blown some of my Mediator Mac chips, not sure yet. I'm powering my board with the mediator. With a Radeon graphics card inserted, sometimes the mediator sees 1, 10 , or 24 devices.
My perseverence is mainly due to the fact that this was the only A1200 I've ever owned from new, when they were launched.
Jesus, a lightning strike would have done less damage 
Besides Gayle, isn't there a GAL at XU9 that has to do with the IDE interface too? PCMCIA works ok?
Besides Gayle, isn't there a GAL at XU9 that has to do with the IDE interface too? PCMCIA works ok?
Ed.D
Active member
Jesus, a lightning strike would have done less damage
Besides Gayle, isn't there a GAL at XU9 that has to do with the IDE interface too? PCMCIA works ok?
I think you're right mate.
I've no idea what a GAL is
but onboard IDE seems to work fine and also the Fast ATA is working now that I've repaired a blown fuse link on the reverse side (never knew it was there, blink and you'll miss it).
Ed.D's gonna be the "leave me blindfolded anywhere on an A1200 motherboard and I'll still find my way out" guy 
Ed.D
Active member
LOL I think I could make a disaster movie out of this one.
Wrote the book, made the film, anyone want to buy a tee shirt?
Hopefully I can add some power LED error scenarios to Geraldines list as well.
I think I could make a disaster movie out of this one.Wrote the book, made the film, anyone want to buy a tee shirt?
Hopefully I can add some power LED error scenarios to Geraldines list as well.
Ed.D
Active member
Ok, here are some photos and notes of what I've been up to.
Replacing various chips, supplied by the good folks here at Amibay and taken from a spare working 2B board (with an audio problem) I got from ebay.
1. Chip RAM.
This was my first suspicion after reading threads about people getting a green screen or no display and the power LED flashing 10 short and 1 long pulse which is what I was seeing.
Thinking that I had only blown the chip RAM initially I removed and resoldered 3 different sets of chips. This caused some quite bad damage to the tracks in between the chips. There were initially 3 tracks damaged, shown by the red lines in the below photo and a couple of pads pulled away, probably due to overheating and my inexperience.
So after replacing all the chips I added some link wires to replace the broken tracks.
I was still getting the flashing power LED and no picture, so started looking at other forum threads and researching what each of the AGA chips does.
I thought the next thing to try would be the CPU as it did have a bit of a burnt smell to it and I seemed to remember hearing the pop in that area of the board.
2. 68020 CPU (MC68EC020FG16)
I have a couple of old clanky SCSI hard drives each of them having a 68020FG25 chip on their PCA's and would be used as donors.
Before I did any more soldering I splashed out on a solder rework station, a W.E.P 898BD, with hot air and iron and a few sundries/tools to work with.
I practiced a bit on some old cards I have here, then moved on to the CPU. Here's the original.
I watched a few Youtube vids on how to remove chips with hot air and how to solder replacements.
I added some Kapton heat resistant tape to the components surrounding the cpu area and used hot air to remove the chip, the settings were 300°C and full air flow (goes up to 8 8) ). The air nozzle is about 8mm diameter.
After a short while the chip became loose with some very gentle lifting with tweezers, absolutely no levering was used. All the pads were then cleaned up with solder wick and Isopropyl Alcohol.
Replacing the chip with the FG25 was difficult because I only have a magnifier wih lights on it, no microscope (yet
) But got there in the end.
To check for dry joints and bridges I used a DSLR and the digital zoom. I also checked by turning a DSLR lens around the opposite way and using it as a loupe. It seemed ok. After setting up and switching on I was still getting no image and flashing power LED.
So, on to the AGA chips.
3. ALICE
Alice amongst other things "allows access to chip RAM" so I thought maybe this was what I heard go pop.
Removed and cleaned.
For ALICE I wanted to be able to try a couple of chips so I decided to add a PLCC socket. The middle support section of these sockets is difficult to solder through the gaps so I removed it then added the socket to the board.
The next photo is from another donor board I'm working on, bought from Cosmic Frog. I was going to use it for parts but managed to make some progress in repairing that board too. Anyway this one shows an example of the ALICE socket in place.
After plugging in a replacement ALICE I still had no image and flashing power LED. I wanted to give up here.
4. BUDGIE
Budgie is the DRAM and bus controller for the A1200. This was as daunting as the CPU to replace.
After replacing BUDGIE I no longer had the flashing power LED and got an image on screen as described earlier in this thread, but the image was problematic with vertical lines and a corrupt mouse pointer.
5. LISA
Another direct replacement without a socket mod in case I want to use an Indivision AGA which plugs onto LISA.
Woohoo!!! *** The image is restored ***, but I'm seeing very slow startup times. This was because I was powering up from my Mediator TX and didn't have an accelerator attached. Adding the accelerator fixed this. Adding my HDD back in was not good, my Fast ATA was not being recognised. Oh no!!!
6. GAYLE
Contains the control logic for PCMCIA and ATA interfaces. So I got it into my head that another chip had blown so set about replacing GAYLE, but to no avail. Hmm I thought. I started looking at the IDE adaptor, cables and stuff and found a small fuse link on the back of my fast ATA had blown. Bu**er me I thought!!! So I emailed Elbox about a replacement and to ask what current rating the fuse link was. They replied, saying I should just use a very small wire to replace the fuse link. I wan't happy with that being an ex-sparky, standard wire is not the same as fuse rated wire. So I just soldered across the hairline break and it fired up again when I powered on.
I'm almost 100% back to a working system. I fear that the initial fault may have blown the mac chips in my Mediator or corrupted the firmware. The early startup screen says the board is "Working". I can do a PCIinfo and it tells me different things. With just one card inserted, a Radeon 9250, I see 1 device or 10 devices or 24 devices. I emailed Elbox again to ask about replacment mac chips but they have not replied as yet.
So I'm almost there. I'd would like to express a huge thank you to the folks who have responded to this thread but especially to Amigafanboi, Magnoboots and CosmicFrog for supplying some of the parts I needed, some of them free of charge and free postage.
I hope this thread helps other folks to trouble shoot chipRAM or related chip issues in the future which give the 10 short, 1 long power LED error.
If I get the mac chips sorted I'll add the info here.
All the best.
EDIT: Forgot to add. It turned out that GAYLE was ok. I tested it out on the board I bought from CosmicFrog.
Replacing various chips, supplied by the good folks here at Amibay and taken from a spare working 2B board (with an audio problem) I got from ebay.
1. Chip RAM.
This was my first suspicion after reading threads about people getting a green screen or no display and the power LED flashing 10 short and 1 long pulse which is what I was seeing.
Thinking that I had only blown the chip RAM initially I removed and resoldered 3 different sets of chips. This caused some quite bad damage to the tracks in between the chips. There were initially 3 tracks damaged, shown by the red lines in the below photo and a couple of pads pulled away, probably due to overheating and my inexperience.
So after replacing all the chips I added some link wires to replace the broken tracks.
I was still getting the flashing power LED and no picture, so started looking at other forum threads and researching what each of the AGA chips does.
I thought the next thing to try would be the CPU as it did have a bit of a burnt smell to it and I seemed to remember hearing the pop in that area of the board.
2. 68020 CPU (MC68EC020FG16)
I have a couple of old clanky SCSI hard drives each of them having a 68020FG25 chip on their PCA's and would be used as donors.
Before I did any more soldering I splashed out on a solder rework station, a W.E.P 898BD, with hot air and iron and a few sundries/tools to work with.
I practiced a bit on some old cards I have here, then moved on to the CPU. Here's the original.
I watched a few Youtube vids on how to remove chips with hot air and how to solder replacements.
I added some Kapton heat resistant tape to the components surrounding the cpu area and used hot air to remove the chip, the settings were 300°C and full air flow (goes up to 8 8) ). The air nozzle is about 8mm diameter.
After a short while the chip became loose with some very gentle lifting with tweezers, absolutely no levering was used. All the pads were then cleaned up with solder wick and Isopropyl Alcohol.
Replacing the chip with the FG25 was difficult because I only have a magnifier wih lights on it, no microscope (yet
) But got there in the end.
To check for dry joints and bridges I used a DSLR and the digital zoom. I also checked by turning a DSLR lens around the opposite way and using it as a loupe. It seemed ok. After setting up and switching on I was still getting no image and flashing power LED.
So, on to the AGA chips.
3. ALICE
Alice amongst other things "allows access to chip RAM" so I thought maybe this was what I heard go pop.
Removed and cleaned.
For ALICE I wanted to be able to try a couple of chips so I decided to add a PLCC socket. The middle support section of these sockets is difficult to solder through the gaps so I removed it then added the socket to the board.
The next photo is from another donor board I'm working on, bought from Cosmic Frog. I was going to use it for parts but managed to make some progress in repairing that board too. Anyway this one shows an example of the ALICE socket in place.
After plugging in a replacement ALICE I still had no image and flashing power LED. I wanted to give up here.
4. BUDGIE
Budgie is the DRAM and bus controller for the A1200. This was as daunting as the CPU to replace.
After replacing BUDGIE I no longer had the flashing power LED and got an image on screen as described earlier in this thread, but the image was problematic with vertical lines and a corrupt mouse pointer.
5. LISA
Another direct replacement without a socket mod in case I want to use an Indivision AGA which plugs onto LISA.
Woohoo!!! *** The image is restored ***, but I'm seeing very slow startup times. This was because I was powering up from my Mediator TX and didn't have an accelerator attached. Adding the accelerator fixed this. Adding my HDD back in was not good, my Fast ATA was not being recognised. Oh no!!!
6. GAYLE
Contains the control logic for PCMCIA and ATA interfaces. So I got it into my head that another chip had blown so set about replacing GAYLE, but to no avail. Hmm I thought. I started looking at the IDE adaptor, cables and stuff and found a small fuse link on the back of my fast ATA had blown. Bu**er me I thought!!! So I emailed Elbox about a replacement and to ask what current rating the fuse link was. They replied, saying I should just use a very small wire to replace the fuse link. I wan't happy with that being an ex-sparky, standard wire is not the same as fuse rated wire. So I just soldered across the hairline break and it fired up again when I powered on.
I'm almost 100% back to a working system. I fear that the initial fault may have blown the mac chips in my Mediator or corrupted the firmware. The early startup screen says the board is "Working". I can do a PCIinfo and it tells me different things. With just one card inserted, a Radeon 9250, I see 1 device or 10 devices or 24 devices. I emailed Elbox again to ask about replacment mac chips but they have not replied as yet.
So I'm almost there. I'd would like to express a huge thank you to the folks who have responded to this thread but especially to Amigafanboi, Magnoboots and CosmicFrog for supplying some of the parts I needed, some of them free of charge and free postage.
I hope this thread helps other folks to trouble shoot chipRAM or related chip issues in the future which give the 10 short, 1 long power LED error.
If I get the mac chips sorted I'll add the info here.
All the best.
EDIT: Forgot to add. It turned out that GAYLE was ok. I tested it out on the board I bought from CosmicFrog.
Last edited:
Yes!
Just excellent, bravo
Just excellent, bravo
i am enjoying the progress reports.
I like to read things like this when they start to go right.
nothing quite as satisfying as fixing your broken stuff and making discoveries along the way, But reading this and seeing your progress is prety damn close, feeling the euphoria for you.
I like to read things like this when they start to go right.
nothing quite as satisfying as fixing your broken stuff and making discoveries along the way, But reading this and seeing your progress is prety damn close, feeling the euphoria for you.
Mods, we need a new tag for some threads, such as this one..
EPIC!!!! ;-)
(Not "Epic Win", because that would imply we'd also need an "Epic Fail", and I don't want this to be all about me) ;-)
Great work, great thread..
desiv
EPIC!!!! ;-)
(Not "Epic Win", because that would imply we'd also need an "Epic Fail", and I don't want this to be all about me) ;-)
Great work, great thread..
desiv
Ed.D
Active member
Thanks guys, it's a good job I love soldering!
