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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: ChuckT on February 09, 2008, 02:31:02 PM
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How long did your old computers last before they died?
I think I had my Commodore 64 for 17 years and it worked and I was setting it up and when I turned it off and turned it back on, it blew.
I think my Amiga 1084 monitor lasted about ten years before I got a new one.
My Amiga drive came out of alignment after that.
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The only computer equipment I have had which failed:
Acorn Electron - bought for Christmas 1985 - the TV modulator came loose about 7 years later. It still ran, just the picture would sometime go - a smack to the side fixed it.
Had about 4 Amiga 1200s (replaced under warranty). First one, the PCMCIA port wouldn't work, and then each of the two replacements had an issue (can't remember them all, but on one, the 'D' key wouldn't work). The last one (which I have had since 1994) still works.
Had two PC motherboards fail in the last year. I think this says something - newest and latest hardware is that which has gone most quickly!
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My original A500 broke down twice in the first 12 months :(
But my A600 lasted 15 years before developing a fault..
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I've only had two computers die on me. One was an A1200 mobo fitted in an Elbox tower which died after I reinserted the Power Flyer while it was in the tower and probably damaged something while the motherboard was bending under the pressure.
The other was my original A2000 which I took to Belize with me. My office had high humidity and no air conditioning and after 6 months the internal PSU caught fire! Nasty. At that time the ECS A1500 was out so I bought one of them and transferred the parts from the A2000.
My original VIC-20 is still alive and kicking, except the power lead broke where it inserts into the VIC and I cut the plug off, made 2 loops out of the wires, put them over the prongs and then shoved a lump of blue-tac in to hold it in place.
My original C64 is alive.
My original C128 was stolen and the A1500 from the Belize story above was sold when I moved to the USA.
I still have 2 functioning A1200T, a regular A1200, a CD32, used A2000 (perfect) and a used A3000 (no battery and an iffy df0). My Buddha IDE card has developed a strange fault where it either locks up the A2000 or A3000 or just doesn't allow the attached drives to be recognised. I picked up a C128 last month and it's in mint condition.
I've lost count of how many PCs I've owned and none of them have died, but I've had 3 hard drive failures over the years and an old Pentium 2 laptop needed the lid stwich to be bridged.
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My AMSTRAD CPC-464 & green screen monitor, bought in 1988, still works like a charm...
I don't believe it, twenty years using computers...
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It's a complete scatter for me. Here's a rundown of my primary systems and their demise (or lack thereof)
My first "computer" was a Bally Astrocade from my uncle. (it had a basic cartridge, too.) It still works great, and I just played some Wizard of Wor (Incredible Wizard, it's called on there, but anyhow...) a few months ago.
My first C64 lasted two or three years before the power supply fried itself and damaged the board to a point it was cheaper to buy a new one.
My C64C then lasted a couple years before it developed some odd random reset quirks, but by then it was old enough I sold it and my whole lot of C64 stuff to buy an Amiga 500.
My Amiga 500 was perfect. Never a glitch over the 3-4 years I had it. Sold it to buy an A1200.
My first A1200 was perfect for about a year before it developed the "A1200 AGA graphics fringe" bug (overheating Alice, but no one knew that at the time). I got it replaced under warranty just before C= went under. Second A1200 developed same issue a year later. Picked up a used A4000.
My A4000 was my primary system for about 4-5 years, until I retired it. It has stayed put for retro purposes. About two years ago, the CyberStorm MKII I put in it back when I was using it as my primary, finally gave up. It's not really dead, as eventually I'll send it to AmigaCenter for repairs. Currently, it occupies a shelf, though.
I built an Athlon T-bird 1ghz which overtook the A4000 as my primary machine. It ran until about 4 years ago when the motherboard fried. I sold the CPU to an Amiga.org member. Gave the RAM to a friend and folded the rest into my current workstation.
I built a P4c 3ghz that has been in use for about 4 years now. Still going strong.
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Let's see...
My C64 blew a chip about six months after I got it (fixed) then the p/s went south (sold it to someone with a C64C that was going bad, so he had a p/s but no computer).
My A500's CIAs blew about a year in, as did the r/f modulator. Fixed, kept on chugging until my A1200, which kept on chugging until my PC (486/100) which I blew up (badly constructed on my part, no real problem with the PC itself :-( ). The dx2/80 I replaced it with kept going for quite a while; I've had a number of other PCs that I had for 2-3 years that (AFAIK) are still running, just in the hands of other folks (sold/traded/given away when I upgraded).
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I was bought a Sinclair 81 and it survived until we got a 128+2 at which time I opened it up and binned the bottom half, tipexed the top half and turned it into a till... it did not survive! :-D
I still have the top part (the tipexed keyboard) but no motherboard :(
by the time the 128+2 was replaced I had grown out of that and the 128 still lives.
I now have a real till (Sharp XE-A202) so it wont happen again. :insane:
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Ilwrath wrote:
My first A1200 was perfect for about a year before it developed the "A1200 AGA graphics fringe" bug (overheating Alice, but no one knew that at the time). I got it replaced under warranty just before C= went under. Second A1200 developed same issue a year later. Picked up a used A4000.
I've never heard of this problem before, is it a common problem with a1200's?, does it affect a4000's?
In another thread I think alexh said heatsinks should not be put on plastic packaged IC's, but should I put heatsinks on all my alice chips anyway?
Are there any other known issues which I do not know about, is there a list somewhere?
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My first computer that "died" was the monitor of Schneider PC (remember that?) back in 1990. After one year of purchase. Then I bought my A500.
I have now my A1200 since 1994 and it's working great and the Commodore monitor 1084S too, since 1991. :-D
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Never an Amiga die on my hands.
Cannot say the same to peecees. The last defunct was on October/2007. And I not blame myself! It was one with Asus motherboard, with flash/capacitor and a voltage regulator blewed out.
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My Amigas don't die, they sometimes become ill (not often) and I make them better. It's a symbiotic thing, grin. I've lost a few mice, keyboards, and hard-drives.
My wife's PC craps out regularly, the whole OS needs to be reloaded. Her previous computer, an e-machine e-one (looks like the original i-mac) would not stay repaired either. The floppy and CD drives were special designs and would last about a year.
I have an Osborne 1 and few Hp-85s that need some work.
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[A1200 "fringing"...]I've never heard of this problem before, is it a common problem with a1200's?, does it affect a4000's?
It's fairly common with at least one or two of the earliest revisions of A1200. I've personally owned 2 over the years that have had it in some varying degree of severity. Some develop it worse than others. (The worst one I've seen was the A1200 I purchased new shortly after they came out -- the one Commodore replaced.) It's much more likely to occur in productivity screen modes. Also, I've found it more likely to show up in accelerated machines. (Also lending validity to the explanation I've heard that it is caused by Alice overheating.)
As far as I know, it's isolated to the A1200. I've never seen an A4000 do it.
In another thread I think alexh said heatsinks should not be put on plastic packaged IC's, but should I put heatsinks on all my alice chips anyway?
Hmm... I'm not really sure. I might question how much a heatsink would help a plastic-packaged IC, but I doubt it would hurt it. A quick search on Google only turned up articles about the problems of heatsinks on plastic-packaged ICs in a BGA application. (Apparently, the temperature difference across the chip package can cause solder-ball problems -- that was news to me.) Anyhow, that would seem unlikely to be an issue for the more conventional PLCC-style A1200 chips.
Are there any other known issues which I do not know about, is there a list somewhere?
There are always a few "gotchas" for any Amiga model. Other than Warren Block's site for the A3000 and A4000, I don't know of any other such resources.
I've pondered making a "Known Amiga Hardware Usage" catalog, myself... Essentially just a system to provide an easily searchable assembly of users notes on the old hardware.
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If the fringing problem only occurs on a couple of a1200 revisions, that might suggest an electrical or positional problem. so if we can see what changes were made to later boards we might be able to prevent the problem on earlier boards.
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I have my Vic20 from 1981 until 1990 and then gave it to my brother who sold it 3 years later. My C64, I have from 1984 until 1988 and then gave it to my brother when I replaced it with a 64C, which I had until 1995 when I sold it to someone who had one that just died.
My Amiga 2000, I have from 1988 until 1993 when I sold it to another student to buy one of the first USA released Amiga 4000/030. I sold it in 1996 to a video editor when I needed to make rent. I really miss her.
I've since gotten a better job and re-acquired an A1200 and an A4000/040. (I'm working on re-habing the A4000 but the A1200 is rock solid.
Basically, I've never had a Commodore product that I bought new die on me - ever.
Well, My brother did end up having the C64 I gave hime die when he let clothes fall on top of it and it over-heated.
I still have my old Excelerator Plus disk drive and just hooked it up to my PC to rip my old collection of C64 disks. So far about 99% have no errors. Which is simply amazing to me.
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My Mac 8500 AV died after 6 years. Everything else is alive and kicking, including my A1200 bought in 92, and my TK90X (read ZX Spectrum...) bought in 87.
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The VIC chip in my C=64 went wonky sometime between 2000 and 2004. Had that bad boy since 1984ish. It still worked alright, but the graphics were cheesed. I picked up a spare C=64 to cannibalize, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. So, my brand new C=64 lasted at least 16 years as a fully functioning goodness.
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Up until the last few months, the only failed hardware I've encountered was an old 1802D monitor (worked about a month). I'm generally very careful with computer equipment, my original C64, C128, A500, etc all work and look like new. There's even an ancient 8088 in the garage... with a still-working (amazingly) Seagate.
In the last months however, I've had three issues:
1 -- fuXored an A1200 motherboard (my fault), easily fixed though and works fine now
2 -- Blew the Apollo 1260 card I just acquired (still not certain whether the PSU failed, or if I inadvertantly had something to do with it)... man did that suck. PG is amazing though, replaced six chips total (including some TINY ICs, which the soldering is absolutely perfect) and it now lives. Hopefully I'll get some time to play with that again soon..
3 -- Failing network card causing random BSODs on the PC... that one took a little time to figure out, since the card worked flawlessly aside from causing the BSODs.
I'm beyond careful now, and don't automatically assume that I'm "above" breaking something. I'd always wondered to myself "how the hell does someone ruin a piece of computer hardware?" until I (oh {bleep}!) did it myself... LOL.
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My TI-99/4a still works fine! That machine is rapidly approaching 30 years old. Never had any other vintage machines die on me, though I've had some lost over the years, and I've bought some duds on ebay. But of my Commodore 64/128 and Amiga systems, I've never had a computer die. Some 1541s, yeah, but never a computer. I expect them to stay functional for quite a long time still.
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Great thread!
Let's see... well my Amstrad CPC 464 and green screen monitor still work fine, both werre purchased in 1984!
All my old Sega and Nintendo consoles work fine
My Amiga 600 works fine too despite being dropped a few years ago
My Amiga 1200 is gutted for spares/repairs (the mouse port is missing after a tower conversion)
Last time I checked my Commodore 1084S monitor was working great
C64 II is fine though the tape drive likes to chew
The only dead hardware I own is an A500 which was dead when I got given it!
PC's on the other hand well my family's computers have been not so reliable. The first PC they had a Pentium II - 300MHz with 64meg RAM and Win 98 was a nightmare with things going wrong with it nearly every few months and the one after the Duron 750 went through a phase of switching itself off. Funnily enough though every PC I have owned has been fine and the eMac I am selling on eBay at the moment has never gave any problems.
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1 A1200: 16 years or so, 1 A600 about 17 years and that's about it. Mind you they are not totally dead.
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Amiga never had one go
Commodore never had one go
486 DX 4/100 that was rubbish it went back to the shop more times it came out.
I have had more troubles over the total years with PC`s than any Amiga type computer or any Commodore type computer.
Now that tells you some thing don't it.
So its like this:-
Amiga never OS3.9
Commodore never basic 7.0 C128, Basic 2.0 C64, Basic 3.5 C16, Plus4 Basic 3.5
ZX Spectruum any model never
Oric Atmos 48k never
ZX81 never 1k and 16K (well ok ram pack woble)
486 DX4/100 problems Windows 3.11 unstable and mobo
AMD 266 problems Windows 98SE unstable
Pentium 166 problems Windows 98SE unstable and mobo
Pentium 200 Problems Windows 98SE unstable and ram
Pentium 4 problems Windows XP Pro mobo and ram
Now if you think about it, Microsoft should have a product that IS stable and not the {bleep} that they seem to love to pump out.
Mike.
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I had a Commodore C16 when they first came out, within a few weeks I had to get a replacement as when text was scrolling up the screen odd letters and charactors would appear in what ever the listing was and scroll up too, and the machine wasnt very stable. Then once I received the replacement it worked fine until just a week or so after the warranty ran out and the datacorder stopped working :/ After that I think it was just thrown out....not exactly eco friendly lol
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Hmmm. We've got a C= PET - Worked last time it was fired up.
A500, A1200T, 2x A1200 - All fine
TI99/4A - Fine
(PC list /snip/ )
And a recently crispy toasty fried 1.8Ghz tower complete with the "Burning Processor" smell :crazy: OK, That was due to the heatsink getting caught on the case as we tried to take the mobo out, but you get the picture.
Oh, and the HDD from that PC's gone into a new Dual Core brand spanking new PC ... XP Repair install on the drive ... 53 Files not found from the install CD during the repair ... grrrr ...
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Ilwrath wrote:
I built an Athlon T-bird 1ghz which overtook the A4000 as my primary machine. It ran until about 4 years ago when the motherboard fried. I sold the CPU to an Amiga.org member. Gave the RAM to a friend and folded the rest into my current workstation.
Curiously enough the second motherboard the Athlon ended up in has also died in the mean time :-D.
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My first Commodore 64 died in 3 days. It was new.
Amiga 1200 (original Commodore version) lasted 5 years until its IDE interface died.
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ChuckT wrote:
How long did your old computers last before they died?
I think I had my Commodore 64 for 17 years and it worked and I was setting it up and when I turned it off and turned it back on, it blew.
I think my Amiga 1084 monitor lasted about ten years before I got a new one.
My Amiga drive came out of alignment after that.
Hum - well - AFAIK all my old computers are still alive.
I have an old CBM 620 with monitor, 7-needle CBM printer and CBM 3040 5 1/4" double floppy drive (which died - LED just flashing).
Furthermore I have two Amiga 500 with Viper 520 accelerators. I started to replace the 3.0 ROMs on the Vipers with 3.1 ROMs, but didn't finish that due to lack of time.
But the 500s should still work - and the Vipers (once finished) should work as well.
Then there is my towered A1200 with 030/40 accelerator card, which is still in working condition as well.
Finally there is my towered Amiga 4000 PPC, which is my main maschine and runs flawlessly most of the time (sometimes I have to clean the contacts between CSPPC and MoBo).
Not to mention several (3) installations of AmigaForever on my x86-PCs...
So - aside from the dead CBM 3040 Dual Floppy Drive, all my old HW is basically still up and running...
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The computers that have died on me was the ZX Spectrum's from the 48k rubber keyboard to the +2 i think i have had in total about 15 or maybe more. either the z80 blows up or the UAL chip does.
Other that that all my other comps and computers still work perfect to this very day. Although i refuse to own an xbox 360 cuz of how they get the red lights.
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My original C64 still runs (bought in 1982), as does my C128 from 1985.
My 1200s are all still running, but my A4000 has an audio cap gone wrong, resulting in crackly sound, not to mention the battery had leaked and has been replaced.
The A500s my brother and I have still work, but again one of those had a small problem with disks (partly down to the drive just getting dusty), as well as a small amount of battery leakage on the ram expansion (those pesky barrel batteries again).
Again hardware that failed on me was very modern (in this case an MSI Neo-FISR2 478 mobo bought a few years ago and died within a year), and the Xbox360 we bought had a DOA HD (which results in the RROD). Replacement machine the following day still works (now just over a year and a half old). Our first PS2 also died just before its warranty expired.
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Tenacious wrote:
My Amigas don't die, they sometimes become ill (not often) and I make them better. It's a symbiotic thing, grin. I've lost a few mice, keyboards, and hard-drives.
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Same here!
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Hi,
Actually I have never had a Commodore Brand computer die
on me, but many of them ended up in the trash. My only pc
that died on me was an Otrana, it was a small portable back
in 1981 that had a Z80 processor and a 8088 that ran in
DOS emulation mode, the Z80 ran CPM.
Computers that ended up in trash when I moved from Panama
City, Florida to Pennsylvania.
Commodore 64 and all its programs (over 1000).
Commodore Amiga 1000 (Wife didn't know any better and trashed it.
Commodore 128 had only about 100 hours use, than I bought my Amiga 1000.
Three Compags from 450mhz to 800mhz.
Four 586 and pentium PC's.
One Atari.
See what happens when you forget about computers that you
have in the garage and tell wife that all computers in the
garage should be trashed. I forgot about the Commodores out
there on the shelf.
Computers waiting repair:
Amiga 500 needs new disk drive, but still works.
Computers now using:
Amiga 4000, 8 gig HD, 18 meg mem, GVP IV 24 card, Piccasso II,
ethernet card, GVP scsi card.
Amiga 1200 1.2 gig hd, Blizzard 604e, 200 mhz, 40 mhz 68040.
4 gig memory.
Amiga 3000 Still Stock
Amiga 500 Needs disk drive.
CD-32 SX-1 expansion, 250 meg HD, 2 meg memory.
Gateway AMD 3500 processor
Gateway E6400 Dual Core Processor.
Homebuilt Pc QuadCore 6600 processor, 2 Nvidia 8600 GPU hooked
up in SLI, 2 gig mem, 250 gig ide HD, 500 gig
sata drive, 250 gig sata drive.
Ubuntu linux main OS on 250 gig sata Hd
Windows XP Gaming 250 gig IDE drive
Windows Vista on 500 gig sata HD, needs to be
re-activated, (8th time). VISTA is SICK.
Will never buy another microsoft OS.
Quadcore also running UAE with Amikit, using it now.
Well thats my lineup.
smerf
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My A500 died in a cloud of blue smoke when a power supply went bad back in 1994ish. Completely dead. Nothing.
Mysteriously, a few days later, it started working again for no explainable reason. It still works today. :-?
My Amstrad CPC 464 still works like a champ, along with my A1200 and my Atari 2600 (although I have two others that don't).
I've also got two dead ZX Spectrums that both gave up a few years ago. I've been meaning to replace them, but Speccy emulation works so well.