Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)  (Read 3193 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

  • Guest
That's it guys, I've really had it with the Amiga 3000.

A few months ago, I sold a perfectly working A3000T to a guy from Toronto and only a few weeks after that it blew up because the disintegrating safety lock release brass pins and shorted one of the ZIII slots. No way to know what got damaged.

Now, my own A3000 craps out on me for no reason at all after I opened it up for testing ROMs (that were all working just fine).

My system worked perfectly fine prior to opening it up. It worked perfectly fine when I removed my ROMs and tested the ROMs I had found.

It just sat there for a week or two and now I get to reassemble it, no jumper changed whatsoever, no hardware change at all...BLACK SCREEN.

Not even a signal coming from the flicker fixer.

Now this is just a perfect hole in one. No error message, no color code to indicate what could be wrong.

This truly deserves a baseball bat... the people who designed such junk deserve to be hanged!
 

  • Guest
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2007, 10:35:14 AM »
I just tried plugging and unplugging the keyboard to see if it makes any difference... now the power light won't even turn on...
 

Offline Acill

Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2007, 10:44:54 AM »
It's a shame to hear an A3000 not working, but you have to remember how old these systems are now getting. they were never intended to be used as long as we have been using them for. In most cases it is simple amaizing just how much use we have into these systems!

I would clean every contact, all the chips legs, take a look and all the caps to make sure none have opened up, and then put it back together in stock form with no accelerator. See if that does it and good luck.
Proud Retired Navy Chief!

A4000T - CSPPC - Mediator
Powerbook G4 15", 17"
Powermac G5 2GHZ
AmigaOne X5000
Need Amiga recap or other services in the US? Visit my website at http://www.acill.com and take a look or on facebook at http://facebook.com/acillclassics
 

Offline keropi

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2004
  • Posts: 2466
    • Show only replies by keropi
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2007, 10:45:52 AM »
damn! try to reseat everything!
I too have noticed, that after inactivity time, my amigas develop random probs... I guess it is because of old electronics, caps drying-up, etc...
I sure hope Jens completes his clone-A project and delivers a replacement classic mobo of some sorts...  :-)
 

Offline Chain

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2005
  • Posts: 1324
    • Show only replies by Chain
    • http://chain.3dgrafika.cz/aktivity
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2007, 10:55:54 AM »
Can you measure with some AV meter if PSU isnt dead?
too lazy to use shift key properly...
 

Offline Zac67

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2004
  • Posts: 2890
    • Show only replies by Zac67
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2007, 11:28:53 AM »
Must be frustrating, but I wouldn't call it 'flimsy' when a system has been running for 15 years - I want to see today's PCs in 2022...
Check Acill's suggestions, my guess is on the caps.
 

Offline countzero

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2005
  • Posts: 1938
    • Show only replies by countzero
    • http://blog.coze.org
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2007, 11:54:24 AM »
I can not aggree with anything you say. My main machine is an A3000 equipped with a warp engine@40MHz, and it's kicking like crazy horse since the day I got it (one and a half year ago, from a member of this board actually). I dare not play with the configuration very much, because of the basic rule, if it's working, don't mess with it ! I will only open it again to install a Cybervision64 when I get one. And maybe to change the caps. I'm not sure about the caps though, somewhat risky business ...

bottomline, a3000s rule. Amigas with the smd caps give much mroe problems than old through hole component boards.
I believe in mt. Fuji
 

Offline A1260

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jul 2007
  • Posts: 693
    • Show only replies by A1260
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2007, 12:04:41 PM »
@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....
 

Offline Tomas

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 2828
    • Show only replies by Tomas
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2007, 01:47:35 PM »
@eslapion
I have noticed similar things with old computers... Being switched off for a while can be enough.. One example was my c64 which worked perfectly.. I put in the closet stored at normal room temp, but when i wanted to use it later, it only showed a black screen.  :-(
I currently have 3 a500, which i switch on from time to time in the hope of delaying this deterioration.

Have you checked the battery by the way? Leaking batteries is one of the main reasons for Amigas dying these days.

Quote
This truly deserves a baseball bat... the people who designed such junk deserve to be hanged!

Are you kidding me?  :-o I thought it was more of a mircale that it had lasted this long without any replacemnts/repairs? The amiga 3000 is actually over 17 years now. How long did you expect it to last without any serious repairs? Just look at the xbox and playstation, you are lucky if it last more than 3 years.
I think it is sad that you blame this on the engineers who gave us this amazing piece of hardware.

edit: And like the previous poster said.. It might even be possible you killed some components yourself due to static electricity..
 

Offline amiga92570

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2006
  • Posts: 1005
    • Show only replies by amiga92570
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #9 on: October 03, 2007, 01:55:53 PM »
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. I have had a few customers that would come to me and say for example "I was using the bally astrocade --on the carpet in front of TV-- and plugged the joystick in and I heard a pop, and now it don't work". Ev en the old manuals tell you not to use on carpet flooring for heat and static reasons. Just a little common sense goes a long way. Back to the point, Static is not that much of a problem if you use basic precautions. I would say more people destroy stuff poking around were they probably shouldn't be poking than with static. Of course, The old batteries were probably a major reason for failure even if they are removed, since most people do not clean the existing residue off the board properly and it slowly eats the board.
Amiga92570
==========================
(1) 4000T/040 (2)3000t CS 060/233ppc Picasso IV video, (2)D-box 1200 blizzard 060/200ppc Mediator fastATA, (1)amiga 1200 Power tower, (1)amiga 1200 EZ tower with mediator,1200/030/50mhz, (3) amiga 500 with CSA Mega Midget Racer and Trump card AT, (2) amiga 600 one with M-tec 030, (3) CD32 one sx32, two sx32-pro, More accessories and parts than I want to admit to
 

Offline RW222

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Oct 2007
  • Posts: 155
    • Show only replies by RW222
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #10 on: October 03, 2007, 02:21:29 PM »
Anyone who thinks 15 years isn't good enough, must not have had a PC recently with the "bad caps" issue.

"Back in the day" troubles were had with chips unseating, on various 8bit and 16bit machines and we'd just pick the machine up and twist it, or slam it on the desk. (Presuming it didn't have a HDD in it)
RW222: A1200 (early commodore) A1220 Turbo+4MB, A500x2.
 

Offline tokyoracer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2006
  • Posts: 1590
    • Show only replies by tokyoracer
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #11 on: October 03, 2007, 03:56:10 PM »
My Dad's A1200 has always been working and very rarely gets used. Although it doesn't have any upgrades really so must be that the more you add to your machine, the more unreliable it is. So I was told...
 

  • Guest
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #12 on: October 03, 2007, 06:14:46 PM »
Quote

RW222 wrote:
Anyone who thinks 15 years isn't good enough, must not have had a PC recently with the "bad caps" issue.

"Back in the day" troubles were had with chips unseating, on various 8bit and 16bit machines and we'd just pick the machine up and twist it, or slam it on the desk. (Presuming it didn't have a HDD in it)


Well, actually, I have a bunch of old C64s that all work just fine that were treated like that.

I did reseat all chips and my workshop has special carpet and grounding to prevent build-up of static electricity.

At least with PCs, when something's wrong you get a special series of beeps at startup or an error message from the BIOS.

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.

No way to know whats wrong.
 

  • Guest
Re: Is the Amiga 3000 really so flimsy? (next step the baseball bat!)
« Reply #13 on: October 03, 2007, 06:16:02 PM »
Quote

tokyoracer wrote:
My Dad's A1200 has always been working and very rarely gets used. Although it doesn't have any upgrades really so must be that the more you add to your machine, the more unreliable it is. So I was told...


I am trying it with the very strict minimum: Power supply, MoBo and daughtercard...
 

Offline Zac67

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2004
  • Posts: 2890
    • Show only replies by Zac67
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)?