I've ruined another Amiga...

[golgotha]

I just ruined an Amiga 1200 by forgetting the plastic piece that sits between the motherboard and the metal base and powering it up. I've done this twice before with two Amiga 2000s. Not sure when I'm going to learn, but getting tired of me making this mistake. I didn't smell anything burning, no smoke. It just booted up in a strange way and crashed to a guru. Subsequent powerups does nothing (not even the boot screen).

Anyone make a similar mistake and managed to fix things? Really not sure where to start but if there's some way to salvage my Amigas, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[KBQ]

Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but are you alright? Something might be going on with you if you keep forgetting stuff with big consequences.

 

[golgotha]

Yeah, I do a lot of salvage operations with Commodore gear, mostly successful. In this particular case, I was excited because I ordered an Indivision AGA and it came in today. Unfortunately, I needed to short two connections on the back of the motherboard to fix vertical lines from the Indivision - this means 100% tear-down. The short was successful and everything working perfectly until I put it all back in the case. Later realized that the plastic separator wasn't between the motherboard and metal base. Really hard to troubleshoot - it could be anything really.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Oh dear. Those poor miggys

Have you tried to see if they work after putting the insulation layer back or are they totally dead by that point ?

 

[golgotha]

No, motherboard on the bench by itself doesn't post anymore. Other than a multimeter, I really have no way to troubleshoot. I'm very sad and feeling extremely guilty about it for being in such a hurry. Maybe I'll put it for sale in the hardware section as a non-functioning r2B a1200 motherboard. Hopefully, someone with the right gear can troubleshoot and fix.

 

[demolition]

A lot of bad stuff can happen to a board with this kind of mistake. Inspect the entire board for any visible damage and if you can't find any, then you probably have one or more dead ICs that need to be replaced. In a 500/2000 it would be relatively simple since most of them are in sockets, but in a 1200 that takes some special equipment.

 

[trixster]

Ask one of the many talented people on here (or on the Amiga FB group) to see if they can inspect and repair it.

 

[Bryce]

When you power an A1200 PCB with the board shorted to the metal plate what happens is that several points will be shorted to ground and as much current as possible will flow through the circuit. What actually fails will depend on a few factors: What point touched the shield, how powerful is the PSU you were using, what components are between the PSU and point of contact. This means that the repair could be as simple as a single resistor, but could be as bad a fried PCB traces or even burnt out chips. Without the correct knowledge and equipment this isn't something you will be able to tackle yourself. Send the boards to someone who can diagnose them and hopefully one or more of them can be saved. Then come up with a process that stops you from doing this again. How about gluing the plastic to the metal shield on all of your Amigas so that the shield and plastic can't be seperated?

Bryce.

 

[tbtorro]

https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?66002

I don't take repairs anymore, but in this case I'll make an exception for the challenge. I can look at this for you for free, if you are willing to pay for parts cost and postage ($20). Just promise you won't do it anymore, there'll be no mercy next time.

 

[demolition]

I suggest you take that deal - I have seen tbtorro's work and can vouch for him and the quality of his work. If it is beyond saving, then you have only lost a bit on the postage cost.

 

[tbtorro]

I suggest you take that deal - I have seen tbtorro's work and can vouch for him and the quality of his work. If it is beyond saving, then you have only lost a bit on the postage cost.

And if I can't figure it out, I can always harass demolition for advice.. He is quite a bit better with diagnosis than I.

 

[trixster]

The Amiga community is still brilliant! Bravo!

 

[deladrevoc]

The Amiga community is still brilliant! Bravo!

If only the rest of the human race pulled together in the same way!

 

[golgotha]

Thanks, I've inspected the board pretty well, and there's nothing out of place and nothing smelly. I don't think we're talking about burned traces here.

- - - Updated - - -

First, I want to say that the community here is truly amazing! Thanks everyone for your support and advice.

I'm going to a Commodore meetup this week and plan to take the board with me. There might be some folks there that can help. If that doesn't work, I'll be pinging you @tbtorro. Thanks for much for the offer!

 

[rootboy]

I'd certainly take up tbtorro on his offer, your 1200 will be in good hands.

 

[tbtorro]

Thanks, I've inspected the board pretty well, and there's nothing out of place and nothing smelly. I don't think we're talking about burned traces here.

- - - Updated - - -

First, I want to say that the community here is truly amazing! Thanks everyone for your support and advice.

I'm going to a Commodore meetup this week and plan to take the board with me. There might be some folks there that can help. If that doesn't work, I'll be pinging you @tbtorro. Thanks for much for the offer!

Good luck, if someone diagnoses it that would be a great help (I'd need less time to use on this), just please don't let others to make any soldering on it, in that case I won't be able to accept it. (I don't accept boards that others tried to repair before - please notice the distinction between "repair" and "diagnosis")

 

[system11]

So much truth in that last statement - I repair arcade PCBs and my heart sinks every time I'm presented with a broken game someone has worked on before.