A2000 composite video out

[amigajules]

Hello,

I'm brand new to the forums and the Amiga. I recently acquired an A2000 with video toaster, GVP 030 board and other goodies.

The manual that comes with it "Using the system software" doesn't discuss the hardware at all.

Does the A2000 display the same video on BOTH its composite & video/monitor connectors? I don't own a compatible monitor and am trying to boot/troubleshoot the machine with an LCD that has composite in.

I've pulled all of the add-on hardware & floppy drive (except for a DCE mini megi chip) and don't seem to have any output on the composite video. I also don't have a mouse yet, just the keyboard.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Matt_H]

Keep the internal floppy connected. The system behaves strangely when it's not present.

[rkauer]

 You could buy an A520.

 It is an external RF modulator who hooks in the RGB port to make composite and RF color signals.

[amigajules]

Thanks for the floppy tip. The drive that came with it wasn't doing much of anything on power up, no spin, no light, just one faint click.

I _think_ I've made some progress. Here's what I've done so far:

Removed the slightly fuzzy battery and soldered some wires to the motherboard for adding a replacement battery (later). Cleaned the board. There didn't seem to be any significant damage to the traces or any nearby components.

Removed, cleaned and reseated every socketed IC.

Took an old PC floppy drive and made the mods suggested on this forum.

Hooked up just the power supply, motherboard, floppy drive & keyboard.

If I power it on with no floppy inserted, the power LED is bright, the floppy drive clicks about once every 2 seconds, the caps lock key "works" (i.e.  switches the caps lock light on and off), no video on the composite output.

If I then insert a disk (don't have a workbench disk - this is just a grub boot disk for PC) the floppy LED lights & blinks twice while clicking (trying to read?) then stops - no further activity from the system.

If I power it on with the grub boot disk inserted, the floppy led lights, clicks & blinks about 5 times, then stops. Caps lock light on the keyboard then blinks. No video out on composite.

Is there any point to hooking up the audio output? Does the amiga use any sound during post to indicate errors?

Does anyone have any thoughts on the next troubleshooting steps?

[amiga_3k]

The Amiga doesn't whistle and sing during startup, so audio is not much of help with trouble shooting.

Have you tried a bare minimum boot? That is, pull out all expansion cards, including the toaster and accelerator leaving the floppy-drive (no floppy in it) the only expansion connected. Then start her up and leave it for a while. Depending on the kickstart installed it can take a while before a bootscreen appears.