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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: darkcoder on August 12, 2006, 03:49:35 PM

Title: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: darkcoder on August 12, 2006, 03:49:35 PM
Hello!

 yesterday I switched on my beloved A500 (my very first Amiga,
bought in 1988) and... she didn't wake up!! :-(
Last time I switched she on was almost 1 year ago,and worked
perfectly. During that time she has been in a safe place, no hurts, no dust. Maybe too much heat in june??

Anyway, situation is: when switch on, the caps lock light blinks, and I can hear the drive motor turning on. But the power led does not turn on, blank screen and no more sounds from the drive (no clicks). Pressing the caps lock turns on/off the caps lock led. That's it.

How do you suggest proceeding to try a repairing?

regards
Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: Argus on August 12, 2006, 03:56:29 PM
If it has been in storage a while, try opening it up and reseating all of the custom chips, rom, etc.  You may have a bit of oxidation on a pin causing no boot.  As always, take antistatic precautions when you open the machine up.
Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: motorollin on August 12, 2006, 03:58:55 PM
What happens if you put a disk in the drive? Does it sound like it is booting? Have you opened the case to check the power LED is connected properly?

--
moto
Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: countzero on August 12, 2006, 04:04:39 PM
is it an A500+ ? or does it have a ram expansion with battery ? The battery might have leaked and giving you problems ...
Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: darkcoder on August 25, 2006, 05:08:55 PM
thanks all for suggestion. the battery is ok, I removed the memory expansion (a fresh one bought last year from Vesalia) and same results.
I tryied to switch it on with a disk inside, apart from the brief noise of the motor being switched on, it does not try to boot from disk.
I will try to open and reseat chips. It's something I never done before. Some suggestion on which chip to start with?
Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: marcfrick2112 on August 29, 2006, 06:06:25 AM
Hi, well try to re-seat ALL of the chips, but I guess start with the 68000, then the ROMs, then the CIA chips, those were most problematic for me with my A500(s) I say the ROMs and then the CIA's, first. If you feel confident enough, have a chip extractor, and take precauctions against static electricity, you may want to remove each chip, one by one and re-insert them. Make sure you put them back in facing the right way. Good luck. I loved the A500, but they could be troublesome beasts, hardware-wise....for me anyway..

Title: Re: Help! Needs A500 repair tips
Post by: Dandy on August 30, 2006, 06:11:21 AM
Quote

darkcoder wrote:
Hello!

 yesterday I switched on my beloved A500 (my very first Amiga,
bought in 1988) and... she didn't wake up!! :-(
Last time I switched she on was almost 1 year ago,and worked
perfectly. During that time she has been in a safe place, no hurts, no dust. Maybe too much heat in june??

Anyway, situation is: when switch on, the caps lock light blinks, and I can hear the drive motor turning on. But the power led does not turn on, blank screen and no more sounds from the drive (no clicks). Pressing the caps lock turns on/off the caps lock led. That's it.

How do you suggest proceeding to try a repairing?

regards

Hhhhmmmmmm, to me that sounds as if one of the voltages from the power supply was missing.
You know - normally there are 4 voltages from the PSU: 12V, -12V, 5V, -5V.
If one of those is missing because of an bad PSU it might lead to an non-booting computer...

So I would start with checking the Voltages.