"New" A500 keyboard problem

[ManxAztec]

Hello everyone,

   Longtime reader, first time poster.  ;-)

   I recently bought an A500 on eBay.  Everything is in perfect, pristine condition, BUT...the keyboard won't work!  :cry:   Here are the symptoms:
   (1) When the computer is powered, the cap-lock light is on, and stays on even if I press caps lock.
   (2)  No keys work except for the Control-Amiga-Amiga sequence.  I believe this is due to separate circuitry that catches this sequence and reboots the computer.

   My question is: what do you think might be wrong with it?  Is it worth me trying to repair or should I send it back for a full refund?

Thanks,
Michael

[Amiduffer]

That depends. Did the ad explicitly mention the keyboard problem? Did the ad offer a return policy if there is something wrong? Or did the ad have a AS-IS clause? It is 15 year old technology. :-)

I've heard of that keyboard problem before, but I'm not sure of the solution. A search of the site should bring up other discussions of this. Good luck. And Welcome to Amiga.org

[Zac67]

The keyboard controller's probably still working (the three finger salute wouldn't work otherwise), but maybe one of the CIAs (U7) is dead.
Swap them and see what happens. (If the keyboard begins to work that way, be prepared for the parallel port to play funny.)
Of course you've checked the connector for oxydation, have you?

[yock1960]

Does it boot otherwise? If it does, I had a kind of opposite problem, keyboard worked but nothing else (apparently) did. It turned out to be a bad Agnus chip. Take a look here:

http://www.amicue.org/TechStuff/TroubleShootingChart.html

this kind of puts everything it could be on one page.

It seems I ran across this Googling on the usenet groups; don't remember if that person solved his problem.

I would certainly start by swapping the cia's to see if anything changes. Heck, I even took chips out completely one at a time to try and diagnose my problem.

Good Luck!

[Tomas]

Or maybe the keyboard cable is inserted wrong way or not fully inserted.