Why is it never easy? (Amiga 3000 rant)

[AndyLandy]

So, an on-topic rant for once.

Earlier this evening, I decided that I'd put my Amiga 3000 back together. It's all been repaired and was working, so it would just be a half-hour job to whack it all back into the case and I'd have a working Amiga again.

...famous last words... :computertrash:

Two hours later, the Amiga is once more fully disassembled with the motherboard bare on the table in the mancave. The PSU assembly is precariously balanced across the board so as to power it outside of the case. The hard drive hangs over the back of the board and the system is turned on. It's working. In fact, it's playing MOD files as I write this post.

So what's the problem?

Every time I put it back into the case, it says I have 0 FastRAM. Every single sodding time! Dismantle it again, bash the SIMMfolie and I have 16MB once more. :banghead:

Of course, the whole process has caused its own additional faults. I tore a wire on the A3640 fan connector, so that needed re-soldered. The power LED on the A3000 was loose so was intermittently working, so that needed a quick bash with the iron, too. oh:

So, the A3640 is now fixed up with a working fan. The LED board is no longer intermittent, and you can even poke it and it keeps working, so I've solved the issues of fragility with it. The machine is even stating 16MB FastRAM, so I'm off to put it back in the case, and quite probably tear some more hair out when it tells me again that there's no FastRAM any more! icard
:explode

 

[johnim]

hi andy there aint nothing shorting anywhere is there

 

[lostrego]

Ah, those half an hours that last a whole evening or two...

Only amiga makes it possible...

And If you manage to get it all working you'll find that some "important" screw is missing, some custom floppy cable is dodgy or whatever little but forcing to get stuck annoyance, also been there....

 

[AndyLandy]

hi andy there aint nothing shorting anywhere is there

Reasonably certain that isn't the problem. I know that has been an issue once or twice this evening, but I'm pretty good at spotting that.

I reckon it's actually a mechanical issue, whenever I tighten the screws to hold the motherboard in place, or the CPU card to its mounts, it flexes the motherboard and dislodges the SIMMfolie. My current battleplan is to put the screws in, but not tighten them to the extreme. Keep your fingers crossed for me, folks!

 

[fitzsteve]

I was going to say is the motherboard flexing inside the case due to screws, etc.

Is the case at all bent? This can cause your said issues. Otherwise as you say keep it a little looser inside the case to allow for the bend

 

[johnim]

 

[AndyLandy]

Ah, those half an hours that last a whole evening or two...

Only amiga makes it possible...

Haha! That's brilliant! Thank you for bringing a smile to my otherwise frustrating evening!

And If you manage to get it all working you'll find that some "important" screw is missing, some custom floppy cable is dodgy or whatever little but forcing to get stuck annoyance, also been there....

Oh, isn't that always the way? I think I'm pretty good on remembering all the screws now though, I mean, I've dismantled and re-mantled this wretched thing so many times now!

I was going to say is the motherboard flexing inside the case due to screws, etc.

Is the case at all bent? This can cause your said issues. Otherwise as you say keep it a little looser inside the case to allow for the bend

Well, I've been tenatively piecing it back together, this time a bit looser on the screws and so far, we're good. She's booted, with 16MB FastRAM and all that's still missing is the cover. Keep your fingers crossed just a bit longer, folks!

Oh, and one last thing. I started this around about 9pm this evening. It's now nearly 1am. It's taken me four hours to put the case back on this A3000. And I'm not even properly done yet...

 

[AndyLandy]

And the results are in...

IT WORKS!

The lid is back on, and the old girl is still showing 16MB FastRAM. It was just a case of not tightening the screws too much! Even after bashing some Zorro cards in and out, she's still saying she's got all her FastRAM.

On that note, I think it's time for bed. Night all!

 

[cosmicfrog]

yay

 

[Slayer]

LOL

I understand you completely!


I was looking through my small stack of A3000Ds a few months back just cataloging what was inside and during one of this instances I had a real hard time trying to get it all back together, infact I broke something off, I can't remember what it was but I wasn't that thrilled about it.


Sometimes you loose one simply because you need to vent, I've only managed to control myself at this point when I'm standing in front of my 50" Plasma TV but usually most other things are fair game.


It's stupid yes but even so you feel so much better


Always been one for destroying material things, but only my own Stuff, which is at least good from one aspect

 

[AndyLandy]

LOL

I understand you completely!


I was looking through my small stack of A3000Ds a few months back just cataloging what was inside and during one of this instances I had a real hard time trying to get it all back together, infact I broke something off, I can't remember what it was but I wasn't that thrilled about it.


Sometimes you loose one simply because you need to vent, I've only managed to control myself at this point when I'm standing in front of my 50" Plasma TV but usually most other things are fair game.


It's stupid yes but even so you feel so much better


Always been one for destroying material things, but only my own Stuff, which is at least good from one aspect

Yes, I've given a few bits of kit a vicious whack when I get frustrated with them. It's rare that I do any permanent damage, but it does happen occasionally. Fortunately I've never felt the need to take anything out on my 50" Plasma TV either.

 

[fitzsteve]

IT WORKS!

Awesome

:drinkin::arms:beer:int:

 

[lostrego]

Ah, those half an hours that last a whole evening or two...

Only amiga makes it possible...

Haha! That's brilliant! Thank you for bringing a smile to my otherwise frustrating evening!

And If you manage to get it all working you'll find that some "important" screw is missing, some custom floppy cable is dodgy or whatever little but forcing to get stuck annoyance, also been there....

Oh, isn't that always the way? I think I'm pretty good on remembering all the screws now though, I mean, I've dismantled and re-mantled this wretched thing so many times now!

Yep, with amiga that's the way, and specially with the A3000 is well known for being the least user friendly amiga when speaking about hardware matters.

But I understand your frustration, I've suffered this kind of issues so many times...

Las time was just yesterday, I was doing some minor arrangements to my A4000, only to find that the screws that are used for holding the zorro card backplates have a bit wider diameter than the others used on the whole case (i.e. the standard screw used for holding hard drives etc...) and guess what, I don't have any correct screw for there.

I've a little plastic bag full of screws and none of them is correct! , so I'm forced to go to my parent's home to look for them or salvage some from an old useless PC that I've left there long ago. icard

 

[TjLaZer]

Well you have to realize that with a ZIP to SIMM adaptor, that is bound to happen. If you had ZIP chips in there, you would of not had to that issue. But your wallet would of been lighter.

 

[Draxx]

Well you have to realize that with a ZIP to SIMM adaptor, that is bound to happen. If you had ZIP chips in there, you would of not had to that issue. But your wallet would of been lighter.

When I got my A3000D last year, I actually replaced my ZIP-SIMM adapter with proper brand new ZIP chips - cant remember what it cost me but it wasn't that expensive for a full 16MB

Hearing your problems AndyLandy makes me glad I did! LOL

 

[57Chevy]

Is it Kosher to list prices here?

 

[Draxx]

Is it Kosher to list prices here?

Actually, I didn't even think of that when I posted. It probably isn't, so I'll edit my post.

 

[AndyLandy]

Well you have to realize that with a ZIP to SIMM adaptor, that is bound to happen. If you had ZIP chips in there, you would of not had to that issue. But your wallet would of been lighter.

I don't know if "bound to happen" is entirely fair. I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to use an adapter that fits right, although I accept that might be challenging.

Still, the machine has been moved off the table and put back, and the SIMM adapter is still in-place, so we're still good. Even fired up Lemmings last night, just for a bit of fun. Had to disable the CPU caches though, turns out that Lemmings doesn't play nicely with an '040.