Weird issue with Amiga 600

[Dr.Bongo]

The RF signals won't work correctly to NTSC AFAIK. The Amiga's will on composite because it doesn't rely on video standards. Composite is composite.

[magnetic]

If u are in an ntsc screenmode is the composite out still in black and white?

[walterg74]

The RF signals won't work correctly to NTSC AFAIK. The Amiga's will on composite because it doesn't rely on video standards. Composite is composite.

Thats what I thought too except its not?  Every site I looked says of course ntsc/pal information/signal IS contained in composite connections as well ( otherwise for example dvd players would work worldwide and it's not the case).
Trying to find one example (beside my practical experience) where a pal system would be seen in color on an ntsc system (also look at all the posts here from people with amigas that appear in b&w on their US tvs?) :huh:

[walterg74]

If u are in an ntsc screenmode is the composite out still in black and white?

First I don't know how to check that,  but also the comp gives me no option to actually "select" an ntsc screen mode (even when booting with the mouse buttons held I get no screen/video options). Also, connected on composite (the amigas) i never get a black and white signal, it's in color butnit puzzles me because they're  supposed to be PAL computers.

[magnetic]

Both mouse buttons to change ntsc-pal is a feature of 3.0 plus Roms only. U get colour because u use á euro monitor..

[gertsy]

Thats what I thought too except its not?  Every site I looked says of course ntsc/pal information/signal IS contained in composite connections as well ( otherwise for example dvd players would work worldwide and it's not the case).
Trying to find one example (beside my practical experience) where a pal system would be seen in color on an ntsc system (also look at all the posts here from people with amigas that appear in b&w on their US tvs?) :huh:

Composite is the carrier format. The video information that is "composed" (combined) into the signal can be any standard video format PAL or NTSC or SECAM but not all of them.

BTW Hi and welcome back to the Amiga...

[walterg74]

Both mouse buttons to change ntsc-pal is a feature of 3.0 plus Roms only. U get colour because u use á euro monitor..

Ehmm... no, I'm not using a euro monitor. Even though I recently bought a euro tv, that's not the one I'm connecting the computers to. I am connecting to a TV that is NTSC-M/PAL-M/PAL-N ( not to confuse these PAL with the european nes, they are different).

[walterg74]

Composite is the carrier format. The video information that is "composed" (combined) into the signal can be any standard video format PAL or NTSC or SECAM but not all of them.

BTW Hi and welcome back to the Amiga...

Hi gertsy, thanks for the welcome!

Yes, that is what I have been finding, that PAL/NTSC/etc still exists and is encoded in the composite signal (and of course if must have *some* type of encoding for the tv/monitor to understand it ) hence my surprise when I saw the amigas in color (or course it's a pleasant surprise right? I mean I rather have this than for them to be in B&W of course, but I'm trying to inderstand why and what is going on exactly under the hood).

Regarding the amiga yes I am back but I think I have a lot of reading to do... After all as a kid! All we cared about was popping the game disk in and playing! We didn't even care about workbenches, rom versions, kickstarts, and all that nonesense...

[gertsy]

The good news is a purple screen usually means the Amiga has passed all the Power on Self Tests (POST).  As the guys have pointed out somthing on your 600 is making it think it needs to wait for the floppy to boot(My interpretation).  So it could be a faulty floppy as mentioned.  Best thing to do is try it with a known working floppy drive.
Worst case it could be a dodgy CIA or Gayle Chip.  But try the floppy drive and cable first as they are the most likely candidates.

[walterg74]

The good news is a purple screen usually means the Amiga has passed all the Power on Self Tests (POST).  As the guys have pointed out somthing on your 600 is making it think it needs to wait for the floppy to boot(My interpretation).  So it could be a faulty floppy as mentioned.  Best thing to do is try it with a known working floppy drive.
Worst case it could be a dodgy CIA or Gayle Chip.  But try the floppy drive and cable first as they are the most likely candidates.

Yes, I will try that as soon as I get back (currently in Zurich). I will open up my other 600 and try hooking up it's floppy that works fine. (i also want to swap the keyboards, since the one with the faulty floppy is whiter and the other has more yellowing).

I also bought on my previous trip 2 cf cards+adapters loaded with whdload. Are there games that are incompatible with this system? If so, any good solution for creating real floppies from images I can download?

[gertsy]

Yes, I will try that as soon as I get back (currently in Zurich). I will open up my other 600 and try hooking up it's floppy that works fine. (i also want to swap the keyboards, since the one with the faulty floppy is whiter and the other has more yellowing).

I also bought on my previous trip 2 cf cards+adapters loaded with whdload. Are there games that are incompatible with this system? If so, any good solution for creating real floppies from images I can download?

As long as the A600s are HD versions (IE Have the HD Header)  Were there some without Hard Disks?  Not sure as I'm not an A600 guy.  I think there was also a minimum ROM version for the HD to work properly on the A600.  Do some searches to find out more.  I have CF cards in both my A1200 and A4000 and they work beautifully.  A silent A1200 is superb as a A600 will be.

[walterg74]

As long as the A600s are HD versions (IE Have the HD Header)  Were there some without Hard Disks?  Not sure as I'm not an A600 guy.  I think there was also a minimum ROM version for the HD to work properly on the A600.  Do some searches to find out more.  I have CF cards in both my A1200 and A4000 and they work beautifully.  A silent A1200 is superb as a A600 will be.

As far I know the HD version was just a 600 with the hdd already inside. The rom version is true, but acordong to the listing I have the minimum needed one (I think it was 37.33 or something like that, dont remember off the top of my head). So should be good to go and have fun

[Rebel-CD32]

I've seen A600s which develop a problem where they won't boot up after being switched on, but if left for 5-30 minutes they will eventually boot. It's caused by bad capacitors, which nearly all A1200s, A600s and CD32s suffer from these days.

Try turning them on and just leaving them for half an hour, see if anything changes. I'd advise you to change all the capacitors as soon as possible if it seems to be the same problem I've encountered before.

[paul1981]

As far I know the HD version was just a 600 with the hdd already inside. The rom version is true, but acordong to the listing I have the minimum needed one (I think it was 37.33 or something like that, dont remember off the top of my head). So should be good to go and have fun

For A600 hard drive support (scsi.device in ROM) you need Kickstart 37.300 or above.
There is supposed to be a harddrive size limit (bug) with 37.300 though, so 37.350 is recommended. 37.350 is normally expensive though, I suspect getting a Kickstart 3.1 chip would be cheaper (and easier) to obtain.

[walterg74]

For A600 hard drive support (scsi.device in ROM) you need Kickstart 37.300 or above.
There is supposed to be a harddrive size limit (bug) with 37.300 though, so 37.350 is recommended. 37.350 is normally expensive though, I suspect getting a Kickstart 3.1 chip would be cheaper (and easier) to obtain.

Yes, don't remember the number right now but I do know it had the minimum needed to support those CF solutions being sold that are loaded with whdload.

So would you all prefer to upgrade all your Amigas, or keep them original?

[walterg74]

I've seen A600s which develop a problem where they won't boot up after being switched on, but if left for 5-30 minutes they will eventually boot. It's caused by bad capacitors, which nearly all A1200s, A600s and CD32s suffer from these days.

Try turning them on and just leaving them for half an hour, see if anything changes. I'd advise you to change all the capacitors as soon as possible if it seems to be the same problem I've encountered before.

What do you mean with turning "them" on? I only have one computer with this issue. While the time it takes is variable, it's not nearly that long I believe.
In any case, I just bought a replacement drive for the 600 (since it was faulty anyway) and when I get back home next sunday I'll see if that fixes the issue...

So the capacitors go bad even without any sign of leakage?