Amiga 3000T won't boot

[rkauer]

Or fried Agnus.

[mvansickle]

Since I had retrieved my data by moving the drive over to the A2000 I got brave and took apart the A3000T tonight.

Sadly, I seem to be a victim of the leaking battery.  I can see where a drop of acid has fallen from the battery on to the motherboard and disintegrated 2 or 3 traces.  Argh!!!  I wish I had known about the battery problem sooner.  

I don't suppose there is any way to repair this?

[AmiGeezer]

There is a way of cleaning this up (can't remember what to use but someone on here has done it) and then you can re-draw the traces with a trace-pen (sorry I don't know the technical name for it!)

I'm sure someone will fill you in better - for now at least, don't give up!

:-)

Matt

[mvansickle]

You know, I just realized my wife's brother here in town builds his own electronic devices (pcb from scratch, etc) as a business and could probably repair the traces on the board in his sleep!  *slaps forehead*

What is involved in removing the battery so he can do the repair?  Do I just need to cut the metal clips holding it to the motherboard?

[rkauer]

Preferably, dessolding the leads are better than simply cut it.

If you don't want another issue like that, buy a lithium battery pack instead (could be even a cell phone 3.3V one), or other simply modification like this (some people put a coin shapped peecee battery plus a germanium diode to avoid recharging - this type of battery couldn't be recharded).

[mvansickle]

Well the board got worked on for almost 2 hours without success so far.  The vias around the math coprocessor were all damaged but the traces everywhere look OK.  We tried putting wire in the vias and soldering on both sides but no luck so far.  There is damage underneath the ROM vias as well so that's next, but we're done for today.  I'll keep everyone posted, and hopefully there will be a happy ending to this saga.

Thanks everyone for your help so far!

[da9000]

For more info you can look below, although you're doing the right things with the vias, and sadly it's not working

My favorite New Zelander, Castellan has lots of good stuff here:
http://amiga.serveftp.net/hardware_repair.html

This one too
http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/batt.html

And pertinent forum posts:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26702
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=21940
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20331
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13844
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22702
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23271


Lastly: my A3000 is still dead, because of a battery leak, so it's not something easily escapable. I wish you lots of luck, because that's what's needed in this case!

[Tahoe]

Don't forget to connect the keylock when you do testing !!
(talking from experience here, took a while to find the machine actually worked; but I hadn't connected that darn key; which meant black screen and no sign of life)

[mvansickle]

Anybody know a place that still services these?  If we can't get it to work, I'm going to want to ship the motherboard out to an expert.  Recommendations?  Thanks in advance!

[tlgrooms]

Hi, did you ever figure out what was wrong with your 3000T?  I just started having problems with mine today and it is the exact same symptoms.  I have a Picasso IV and Cyberstorm PPC board in mine.  I have disconnected everything from the motherboard except for floppy and still get the black screen  Shows a video signal but no picture, just black.  Tried my Picasso IV and Cyberstorm in a desktop 4000 I own and they work both work fine so I know it has nothing to do with them.  Have nothing on the SCSI and the terminator is on the back of the machine.  I removed my battery long ago so I know that has nothing to do with it.  

I screwed up the boot track on my UW SCSI drive and was trying to get back up and going by booting with 3.1 floppys (all I have and a scsi drive).  Was trying to get 3.1 to recognize my SCSI CDROM so I could get to my 3.5 install CD and reinstall 3.5.  All of a sudden my machine quit showing the insert disc screen and has been black ever since.

Anyone that could help with suggestions, I sure would appreciate it.

[orange]

@tlgrooms

well have you checked the battery?
fixing the corroded traces is easy, the problem is finding them.
cheapest but ugliest solution is to just soldier wires. or use liquid silver and such.

[tlgrooms]

Orange,

Not the battery on mine, I removed it a long time ago before any trouble began.

[orange]

oh, sorry, didnt read the first message completely. still, its worth checking the area once more, to be sure. (if it ever had batt leakage).
i think you would need two terminators if it has external scsi. check that too, or put some drive on scsi. without proper term, it probably wont boot.
have you checked all video outputs?
what about LEDs on power up, does it pass the initial test?

[tlgrooms]

Orange,

Machine was booting fine from floppy until last night.  I hooked up an older SCSI CD-ROM drive that I used to use on the machine to the built in SCSI on the 3000T motherboard.  Booted several times from floppy and was never able to make hdtoolbox see the CD-ROM drive.  Tried changing termination, scsi id's etc and somewhere along the way the machine quit booting.  So, I pulled all the cards and took the scsi cable off the motherboard and still nothing.  Removed the Cyberstorm as well and went all the way to nothing but the built in video connector, same thing.  When I power on, a video signal is detected but the screen stays black and the floppy never starts clicking like its trying to boot, no boot screen.  So, with nothing but the bare motherboard and the floppy hooked up and video plugged to the motherboard, nothing but a black screen.  SCSI on back of machine is terminated with the terminator that comes with the machine.  SCSI Cable inside is completely disconnected from board.  My ethernet, picasso iv, cyberstorm cards are all OK thank goodness as I've put them in my 4000 desktop and they work fine there.  Man I wish I had created an emergency boot floppy and made several backups.  This has been a nightmare and I still can't get the machine to boot.  I own many Amigas but my 3000T has always been my favorite.  Bought it new shortly after they came out.

[mechy]

Think K.I.S.S.. start with the power supply, check the voltages on the +5 and +12 on a drive connector with the machine powered. if they look low on either one could be something to do with the trouble.Check the clock battery,usually cylindrical and near the top of the board inside,has it leaked? look for greenish corrosion on it and nearby components. I'm guessing its time to pop the chips and reseat them,don't bother just pushing on them as some people say,this is almost never a reliable fix, its best to pull them and reseat.I am assuming this does not have a 040 card,but if it does it may need reseated. Chip ram can cause this,some of the socketed chip ram can be making bad contact,again reseat them if you can.

Need some more info.. can you hear the hard drive spin up? any flickering or color change on the screen? is the Flicker fixer switch on 31khz on the back if your using a regular pc vga monitor? is it off if your using a 1084 or some such?

good luck,
  mIke

[orange]

well, I think the problem is with disconnected  scsi cable.
I never owned A3000T, but (IIRC) in all other scsi Amigas, if I disconnect  everything from scsi controller, it wont boot because its not terminated. try once more with HDD (jumpered with term on) connected to that scsi.

also, when powering up, does power LED change brightness?