PSA: You should never do this when you buy an Amiga...

[Jonnycat26]

I'm sure everyone knows not to do this, but it's still a kind of funny/sad story anyhow.

The A1200 was, for me, the computer that 'got away'.   Way back in college, I sold my A500 and almost bought an A1200, but was lured over to the dark side of PC ownership.  While it worked, I missed being an Amiga user, and more importantly, a Commodore owner.  

For the last few years, I've been on the lookout for an A1200 in the local area.   One popped up on craigslist a few months back, and I snatched it up.   The guy selling it picked it up at an estate sale, and claimed it 'more or less worked, but you may have to turn it off and on a few times to get the workbench to come up'.

Not so much...

I knew it would need to be recapped.  I still had to plug it in and turn it on.   Owning an 1200 was a long time coming for me, and just turning it on once wouldn't hurt.   Right?

Except it wouldn't turn on.   I got a very distorted screen.   But still, the seller said turn it on and off a few times.   So I did.   And then came a popping noise, and smoke, and that horrible smell of dying hardware.

Long story short, sent it off to be recapped and was informed that either the LISA or ALICE, or more likely both, were toast.

So...  in summary.   If you're lucky enough to pick up a classic Amiga, recap it asap.  Don't tempt fate!

[Iggy]

I'm sure everyone knows not to do this, but it's still a kind of funny/sad story anyhow.

The A1200 was, for me, the computer that 'got away'.   Way back in college, I sold my A500 and almost bought an A1200, but was lured over to the dark side of PC ownership.  While it worked, I missed being an Amiga user, and more importantly, a Commodore owner.  

For the last few years, I've been on the lookout for an A1200 in the local area.   One popped up on craigslist a few months back, and I snatched it up.   The guy selling it picked it up at an estate sale, and claimed it 'more or less worked, but you may have to turn it off and on a few times to get the workbench to come up'.

Not so much...

I knew it would need to be recapped.  I still had to plug it in and turn it on.   Owning an 1200 was a long time coming for me, and just turning it on once wouldn't hurt.   Right?

Except it wouldn't turn on.   I got a very distorted screen.   But still, the seller said turn it on and off a few times.   So I did.   And then came a popping noise, and smoke, and that horrible smell of dying hardware.

Long story short, sent it off to be recapped and was informed that either the LISA or ALICE, or more likely both, were toast.

So...  in summary.   If you're lucky enough to pick up a classic Amiga, recap it asap.  Don't tempt fate!

Some systems a more sensitive than others.
I bought an A2000 several years ago that has never been recapped.
And my CD32 hasn't either.
No smoke...

[paul1981]

Don't blame yourself for powering it on, as by the sounds of it it was already partially bust before you bought it. Sounds like the machine hadn't been powered on in 20 years. I'd be very weary of that PSU though, as ripple could have blown the caps (or at least contributed).
I've never known an Amiga go 'pop' before. Bad luck.

[QuikSanz]

@Jonnycat26,

Welcome aboard. Try again and at least you'll Have some spare parts. KB's for a 1200 not easy to come by these days.

[slaapliedje]

That basically happened to my Cyberstorm MK1.  Turned on the Amiga one day and that horrible smell of burning electronics came from it...

The A4000 still boots at least, I have an 040 -> 060 adapter and finally got it set up /working again with full RTG/networking. without it crashing!

Still miss the 128mb of fast ram though.  I had bought a Cyberstorm MK2 off of ebay, that also didn't work, so I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the A4000's CPU slot

[Jonnycat26]

I try to comfort myself by thinking that it was probably never going to power on properly, and was DOA despite the seller's claims to the contrary.

So now, I have to figure out if I want to look for another one, or just buy a miST.    Part of the 'fun' for me was going to be to restore a classic, so I'm not sure if the miST is the way to go.

[slaapliedje]

I bought a MiST, I haven't even gotten it set up with an ST yet, to me the original hardware still seems more enjoyable somehow, though it would be awesome fore some of the game console cores.  

What would be awesome is a stanaldalone vampire with the capabilities to run all the same cores that are available for the MiST, with some of the same extensions, so if wanted a Mege Mega STe, I could.  MiST can do a 68020@25 for it, apparently.

[James1095]

Sounds like the power supply failed to me. It's never a good idea to switch something on and off rapidly, if it doesn't work properly on the first go, take the time to find out why.

[Jonnycat26]

Sounds like the power supply failed to me. It's never a good idea to switch something on and off rapidly, if it doesn't work properly on the first go, take the time to find out why.

I wasn't flipping it that rapidly, and was giving it time between on/off cycles.   I was under the impression that it just needed a few 'tries' to boot, because that's what the seller told me.

Buyer beware, I suppose.

[klx300r]

That basically happened to my Cyberstorm MK1.  Turned on the Amiga one day and that horrible smell of burning electronics came from it...

 

hmm sad story but don't think it was from leaking caps, at least my CS-MKIII doesn't have any on board

[James1095]

Most of the time when something burns like that it's due to a fault in the power supply. I'm not familiar with the PSUs used in Amigas but there are failure modes where one or more output voltages can go way up and fry a bunch of stuff. I had a desktop PC about 15 years ago where the power supply failed with a bang and in the process it fried the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card. I think the sound card and network card survived along with the drives.

[slaapliedje]

Yeah, I think more modern motherboards / PSUs both have a feature where if they're getting weird voltage spikes, they just cut the power so they don't end up frying everything.  

Sounds like how one of my friends turned on his old PC and there was a literal pop, and when he showed me the PSU it rattled...

I told him that's what he gets for going with cheap PSUs... I've always thought of them as one of the most valuable things, so you shouldn't go cheap on them, since they have the greatest potential of toasting everything.

I wish I could get another system next to my A4000 so I could test another accelerator board in it to make sure it'll work in mine anymore.  But the A3640 seems to be working fine at the moment, and I figure I'll just wait maybe for the Vampire for the A4000...

[spaceman88]

Back when I worked for Nintendo, at least one of the motherboard versions of the Super Nintendo would blow a fuse if you turned it on and off rapidly. For a year or two I changed a lot (maybe 200-300 hundred) of them.

[James1095]

Yeah, I think more modern motherboards / PSUs both have a feature where if they're getting weird voltage spikes, they just cut the power so they don't end up frying everything.  

Sounds like how one of my friends turned on his old PC and there was a literal pop, and when he showed me the PSU it rattled...

I told him that's what he gets for going with cheap PSUs... I've always thought of them as one of the most valuable things, so you shouldn't go cheap on them, since they have the greatest potential of toasting everything.

I wish I could get another system next to my A4000 so I could test another accelerator board in it to make sure it'll work in mine anymore.  But the A3640 seems to be working fine at the moment, and I figure I'll just wait maybe for the Vampire for the A4000...

Well designed power supplies will (theoretically) shut down if any of the rails are out of spec, but that doesn't mean it's not possible for a catastrophic failure to take something out. I agree, a good power supply is worth the money. You don't need massive wattage though, I see 700W+ power supplies these days while I've measured my Core i7 desktop and it pulls less than 140W from the wall with all the cores maxed out. Add a couple of high end 3D video cards and you might approach 450W.