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Author Topic: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)  (Read 3191 times)

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Offline Zac67

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #14 on: October 03, 2007, 06:30:55 PM »
Quote

eslapion wrote:

With this thing I get nothing at all. Some times the power led turns on then becomes dim then it turns off but most of the time it doesn't even turn on now.


Sound very much like the PSU. Have you checked voltage output (under load)?
 

Offline CLS2086

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #15 on: October 03, 2007, 06:33:09 PM »
Hi,
I thought about a CPU card problem and a half dead PSU.
You can send the mobo and CPu card to AmigaCenter for a diagnostic and maybe a repair.
Keep the Faith !
VG 5000/A1000/500/500+/600/2000/CDTV/1200PPC-GREX/1200PPC -ATEO-BV/4060D/CD32/Aone/Peg 1/Peg2 G4/ various funny machines too  :-) http://www.mo5.com/collection/index.php?pseudo=CLS2086
I also repair drives of our old beloved Amiga
 

Offline Invisix

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #16 on: October 03, 2007, 09:20:19 PM »
Perhaps you mis-seated the ROMS, if that is the case, they are toast, and you have no choice but to purchase new ROMS.
Amiga 1200T: D-Box 1200 Tower, PC-Key 1200, Blizzard 1260
  • 50Mhz, 32mb Fast Ram, 3gig HDD, 52x CD-ROM Drive, ToastScan Scan Doubler, Mediator PCI 1200 SX, FastATA 1200 MK-III, PCMCIA Adapter, PCMCIA Network Card MKIII, Amiga OS 3.5[/b]
 

Offline TjLaZer

Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #17 on: October 03, 2007, 11:18:13 PM »
Since you were messing with ROMs, I would check there are no pins crunched up, etc.  Also make sure battery is not leaking or any traces ruined from past leakages!  And SCSI termination!  I have had "dead" A3000 symptoms, ie turn on and no power or lights with just a missing terminator!  Yes it's true.

Also IMHO the A3000 is the BEST built Amiga.  Just because yours is having a problem ~17 years after it was released does not mean it is a POS!  I would like to see what your new PC or Mac does in 2024.   :crazy:
Going Bananas over AMIGAs since 1987...

Looking for Fusion Fourty PNG ROMs V3.4?

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Offline Azryl

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #18 on: October 03, 2007, 11:53:21 PM »
Check the main crystal on the motherboard... I had my A3000 stop working one day for no reason

checked the crystal, it had worked itself up and nearly out of its holder/socket... press firmly back in and A3000 working like a charm ever since :)

Az
Completely useless? I can always be used as a bad example  :lol:
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #19 on: October 04, 2007, 01:44:21 AM »
Before you bat it into right field, give it to one of us.  I would happily pay for shipping.
 

Offline Tomas

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #20 on: October 04, 2007, 02:37:13 AM »
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At least with PCs, when something's wrong you get a special series of beeps at startup or an error message from the BIOS.

That is not always the case at all.. It all depends on where the fault lies. I myself have had experience with defect pcs/motherboards that did not even beep.
The Amiga also in 90% of the case show a error code through the startup colours or the flashing pattern of the led, but like i said that is not always the case.

One example would be a power supply problem, which this sounds most likely to be.
 

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #21 on: October 04, 2007, 04:36:29 AM »
Well, so far, I can tell you its not the ROMs. I have two pairs and they work just fine on another board.

Is it the power supply? Possible. I'll have to swap the PSUs between the two machines to know for sure.

5V and 12V are within tolerances (5.16 and 12.25) so the PSU seems to be ok.

I have 3 other A3000 PSUs but they've been desoldered from their power switch and only the insides remains so using them for tests is not easy.
 

Offline Mark

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #22 on: October 04, 2007, 05:33:29 PM »
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amiga92570 wrote:
You know with a few simple precautions static is not a big problem. I have to say in my 30+ years of working with and repairing electronics and computer equipment I have never had a failure due to static discharge.


It is exactly THAT attitude which is causing unnecessary damage to Amiga equipment.  ESD damage is not an all-or-nothing event where either you get an immediate failure (i.e. Catastrophic Failure) or you get off scot-free with no damage.  ESD damage can show up as a reduced lifespan leading to early failure (i.e. Latent Defect).  It can show up as intermittent problems or problems that only occur after the equipment has warmed up.

Even worse, ESD damage is cumulative.  The more you mishandle the equipment, the more severe or varied the symptoms become.

That's not to say that catastrophic failure doesn't occur -- it does alright but it probably isn't the most common failure mode.

You claim you've never had a failure from ESD.  I strongly suspect you have no way of knowing that.  ESD damage causes      microscopic pits on the surface of IC chips.  When people in the industry look for ESD damage they have to chemically dissolve the IC package and carefully examine the chip under a microscope, usually a scanning electron microscope.  Have you ever done that?
 

Offline Chubbyrain

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #23 on: October 04, 2007, 05:43:55 PM »
I just want to say that the A3000 is the Rolls-Royce of Amigas when it comes to build quality. I actually just did the battery hack on mine last night. One of the screws holding the MB down even had to be drilled out as it was not going to budge!(not disturbed in 15 years will do that I'm sure). After all that abuse, the thing still works like a peach (and keeps the time/date now).

Sorry to hear yours isn't working. I'd also suggest checking to make sure there isn't a short somewhere (count your screws!) and then checking the power output.
International Beer Taster
 

Offline Tenacious

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #24 on: October 04, 2007, 09:59:04 PM »
@ Mark

Well written!  It agrees with my training, too.  Everyone tells themselves that "..just this once I wont bother with a wrist strap..".  Then, when the machine fails unexpectedly in the future, they say it simply wore out.  Good reminder.

@ eslapion

It's not clear.  Did you put the original roms back in and it still won't come up?  It seems I was told by several venders (years ago when we had vendors to choose from) that A3000s had more than 1 pin-out configuration (motherboard revisions) for the rom sockets.  My first 3000 even had a rom tower that was very strange.

Also, whenever I open my A3000, I usually have to re-seat the Zorro daughter board several times before it will reboot.  When I finally get it booting again, I very carefully replace the top cover.
 

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #25 on: October 05, 2007, 01:53:25 AM »
Quote

Tenacious wrote:
@ eslapion

It's not clear.  Did you put the original roms back in and it still won't come up?  It seems I was told by several venders (years ago when we had vendors to choose from) that A3000s had more than 1 pin-out configuration (motherboard revisions) for the rom sockets.  My first 3000 even had a rom tower that was very strange.

Also, whenever I open my A3000, I usually have to re-seat the Zorro daughter board several times before it will reboot.  When I finally get it booting again, I very carefully replace the top cover.


I don't understand why you stick on this problematic ROMs idea.

The ROMs were removed from the board so I could test other pairs that came from dead MoBos. As it turns out, all these pairs were good.

I simply put back the original ROMs on the MoBo and now its dead. Just for the fun of it, I took these original ROMs and tested them on another machine and, sure enough, they are perfectly good.

I completely dissassembled this machine to install the Mercury accelerator last summer. I did have problems with the daughterboard and replaced it and the power supply.

Next step, I will test the daughtercard on the other board but all voltages seem fine with the PSU.

The different pinout config you refer to are U182/183 vs U180/181 ROM sockets. All my ROMs are for U180/U181 only.
 

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #26 on: October 05, 2007, 03:51:37 AM »
I just got a new MoBo for free... lucky me.

Supposedly tested and working... I power it up... GREEN SCREEN of death... I switch the ROMs, same thing.

Can anyone tell what this is?

And, BTW, I tried swapping the daughterboards between the 2 boards. No improvements.

 

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #27 on: October 05, 2007, 04:49:13 AM »
Quote

A1260 wrote:
@eslapion

have you heard about static electricity and people?

read here and you will know why your a3000 and the one you sold is dead by now...
http://www.electricitycentral.com/articles/staticsparks.htm

this is old hw and is extra sensitive, if you don't protect the hw and your self, you will have an amiga that is as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike....


Im sorry man but I have to say you are completely wrong...

I will post another message, read on!
 

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #28 on: October 05, 2007, 04:59:35 AM »
Quote

Azryl wrote:
Check the main crystal on the motherboard... I had my A3000 stop working one day for no reason

checked the crystal, it had worked itself up and nearly out of its holder/socket... press firmly back in and A3000 working like a charm ever since :)

Az


Well, I have to say that was part of the problem, the crystal was partly out of its socket but there's even better.

I don't know if its in this thread or another that I read that A3000 computers have a tendency to have problems with their VGA ports.

Just for the sake of trying everything, I plugged in my old 1080 to the 23 pin RGB port and what do you know... a nice floppy insertion animation comes to the screen. And the power LED flickers just like it did when I tried it with my default VGA setup.

There is no static electricity damage, there is no problems with the ROMs and not with the PSU either. That's all basic stuff I checked first. Static guard is one of the most intensively used chemicals in my shop on top of the protective carpet and the grounding wristband.

This board is just fine.

As for the donated board, I have no clue why I get a green screen but I don't think I will fix this soon.

And just so you know, I already tried swapping Agnus and both 8520 CIAs so these are not at fault. Neither is the PSU, neither are the ROMs or the daughtercard.
 

Offline Chain

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Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #29 from previous page: October 05, 2007, 07:13:18 AM »
suggestions:

Reseat CHIP RAM chips
Check scandoubler switch on the back (must be on if you want vga out)
too lazy to use shift key properly...