Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Red_Eye on August 12, 2003, 04:18:44 AM
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Hiya, I'm new to the forum so Hello :)
yeah...
I'm hanging out for the postman to bring my Amiga 4000...
Wondering what I should do first... :)
Any ideas?
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Check the battery :-D
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Check sanity
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T_Bone wrote:
Check the battery :-D [/quote]
battery???
mmm.... can't find it. It plugs into the wall but is there a battery inside?
What size battery should I buy?
Thanks :)
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Red_Eye revealed:[/quote]It plugs into the wall but is there a battery inside?[/quote];-) The A4000 has a real-time clock battery that allows it to keep track of time even when the main power is off. It is located on the motherboard, under the expansion cards. It is begining to corrode, replace it.
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(http://www.seal-amiga.co.uk/reports/images/140901_battery.jpg)
These things will kill your motherboard if they leak. Many that have been left in attics and basements have leaked acid, damaging the board.
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Welcome to Amiga.org Red_Eye.
I have moved this to the Hardware Forum where it will get more exposure.
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If the batery has leaked it is better to remove it and not have it than to leave it to damage your board. Look for white powder around the battery .when you have done that it depends on what you want from it and what specifacation it is. :-)
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Ok that thing with battery first ! I agree
Nice to see somebody buying the worlds best computer :-)
Let us know what extras you got with it.
Graphic-Card, SCSI-Controller etc.
btw Welcome to Aorg
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enjoy it while you can...
cause the moneyworld
does not allow quality to stay alive.
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An A4000, nice.
Congratulations.
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Red_Eye wrote:
Hiya, I'm new to the forum so Hello :)
yeah...
I'm hanging out for the postman to bring my Amiga 4000...
Wondering what I should do first... :)
Any ideas?
Haha, let me get the motherboard so that I can fix my 4000 :-D
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strobe wrote:
Check sanity
Ok, I know the rules about not feeding the trolls, but still. I got to ask.
Why are you here? You obviously have NO interest in ANYTHING Amiga, so it's a bit weird to come back here to post on a more or less daily basis, isn't it?
Personally, I would love to have an A4000. But my A500, A1200(possibly two working, I've found out that my error detection algoritm last year was a BIT quick and dirty before buying new motherboard) and the Access will have to suffice. Thinking of mounting the extra A1200 in a picture frame and hang it on the wall (running demos, of course :-) )
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Wondering what I should do first
Open the box ? :-)
Seriously, I don't understand, you don't know how an Amiga works ? So you ask what to do ?
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@Elwood:
I think it was more a question of "what can I do with it that's fun and bad for me" (he did use smileys ;-) ) than a "how do I turn it on" ;-)
I would immediately order a Mediator and look into the CPU question (the CPU question is the one that goes "is this fast enough for me?" ;-) )
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Hi!
Depends on what you want to do with your new
A4000, I'd say.
One of your first stops for software might be:
http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de
It is a Shareware/Freeware network where
you can find a lot of interesting software for
AmigaOS.
Was a system installation included on the harddrive
of the A4000 ? If yes, you might check what
OS version is installed, and if a TCP/IP Stack is
installed (if not you might wish to get one, so you
can access the internet from your Amiga). If
you also have Non-Amigas you might wish to integrate your Amiga into a Samba-Network with
the other computers (assuming your Amiga has
the hardware for this - a Network card or such).
What sort of Hardware was included with the system ? Especially: Was a Graphics Board
and/or PowerPC-Board included ? If it is
"yes" to both there might be a wider range
of software available :)
Steffen Haeuser
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You mean http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/ (http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/) I think....
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If there is battery acid leaking on the board ,I think that you can use baking soda and a little water to scrub the white powdery stuff off with a toothbrush this should neutralize the acid,just make sure its clean and dry before plugging it back in. Electronic supply places will have something else to do this but it will cost $.and you'll probably never need it again at least not for a few years,baking sodas cheap and I don't think it'll harm your miggy.Oh ya,don't forget to blow all the dust out,and don't forget to look in the floppy drive and make sure that there's no fluff bunnies in there,if there is you'll have to take it apart to clean it out before you use it,as it could damage your disks. Good Luck Have Fun. oh one more thing protect your eyes when scubbing that stuff with the toothbrush, battery acid in the eyes is no fun. :-)
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@Red_Eye
Instead of buying expensive netralizing agents, you might be better of finding a replacement battery. I don't know where you are in the world, but you can usually find metal-hydride replacements for the nickle-cadmium you find in most big-box Amigas at a decent electronics supply house. There are even some Amiga vendors who stock them, but they tend to have a steep mark-up.
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I think its a given, that you'll replace a leaky battery. what I said was that if Acid is on the board. you have to clean it off or it will eat the layers on the PCB. KILLING your Amiga. Replace the Battery but make sure that any white powdery substsance is completly removed. Baking soda neutralizes Acid. :-)
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For what type of battey see my reply to the post
A4000 battery (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3634)
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[color=FF0000]Do NOT use baking soda on any circuit board!!![/color][/b] :-o
Isopropyl Alcohol safely neutralizes leaked battery acid on the circuit board. Use 100% alcohol with a toothbrush and brush all affected areas. Then use 50/50 alcohol/water mixture to rinse the board.
If any components are affected, they must be replaced. If you do not know how to replace components on a circuit board, let a qualified technician do it for you.
Hmm...haven't I stressed this with someone else's battery-leaking problem?
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Ok, I stand corrected .The baking soda idea came from someone I thought knowledgeable on the subject, as they have used it on numerous occations to salvage old boards . Seemed to work for them,but now that you mention it, Alcohol sounds like the correct solution. Sorry about the incorrect info. Though I don't think that baking soda would hurt anything its quite inert and as long as its all rinsed off clean what harm could it do? But you are correct and I'll go with the alcohol in the future.The main point I think that we're trying to make though is that the acid must be cleaned off 100% , or good bye miggy. Again sorry for any incorrect info. :-)
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Don't use baking soda to nutralize battery acid, period.
IIRC "Battery Acid" is actually a base, and baking soda will do nothing.
clark
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Will bacardi work?
100% alcohol it seems is pretty hard to get hold of - the woman in the off-license just looked at me like i was some kind of wino...
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@Lando
You're kidding, right? Isopropanol should be available at gas station and similar. It's not for drinking.
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IMHO all this thread is absolutely unuseful for this new user!
My A4000 battery, was replaced under warranty (factory dafect), 3 months after i buyed my A4000/030.
Now are near 10 years, that the replaced battery (Varta) works without problems.
He is a new user . . .don't scare him :-)
Ciao
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@Framiga
What would be better - a thread that might seem scary but could save your Amiga's life, or a funny thread that might kill it? :-)
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by carls on 2003/8/15 1:20:52
@Framiga
What would be better - a thread that might seem scary but could save your Amiga's life, or a funny thread that might kill it?
we all don't know, the electronic aknowlegment that this guy has!
By the way, he hasn't post again after the first post!
Ciao
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Hahaha,
Yeah,
I was talking about software etc... but will check the battery.
Took it to a computer shop but the guy was dumbfounded, so I need to find an amiga expert in Auckland, New Zealand to change the battery.
She boots up well :)
My boyfriend and I have always wanted an A4000 so I'm really excited about it :)
Thanks for all the interesting posts...
-red
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Framiga wrote:
by carls on 2003/8/15 1:20:52
@Framiga
What would be better - a thread that might seem scary but could save your Amiga's life, or a funny thread that might kill it?
we all don't know, the electronic aknowlegment that this guy has!
By the way, he hasn't post again after the first post!
Ciao
-sorry I haven't posted... was sick for a while. I usually post from work where internet access is free :)
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HEY another question :
It didn't come with a monitor so I bought a TFT 17inch flat screen, slim screen things...
BUT the amiga monitor cable has more pins than the TFT screen one does.
Can I buy an adaptor, or um... do I throw the monitor away?
Thanks HEAPS
Red.
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Hi Red,
Yes, you can buy an adaptor, but you don`t really want to, it'd be too limiting.
What you need to play games etc. is a scandoubler - I've got an Eyetech one which plugs into the Amiga's video port, and gives out a signal that the TFT monitor can understand. Check old threads on A.org for discussions about Scandoublers and Flicker Fixers (the latter lets you run more screenmodes which you won`t need).
If you want to do anything serious with your Amiga, though, you need a graphics card.... and for this you either need an Amiga specific graphics card - which will plug straight into the Amiga and talk to your monitor nicely - or else get a PCI backplane. This replaces the Amiga-specific connectors in the Amiga with standard PC-compatible PCI connectors. That doesn`t mean you can run _any_ PC card, but there are a few. I have PCI in my A4000 and it has a standard PC Voodoo 3 in it, runs Workbench on my Iiyama 4636AS 18.1" TFT very nicely. Places like Eyetech (www.eyetech.co.uk) have a lot of stuff, don`t know about in NZ.
Hope that helps!
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spirantho wrote:
Hi Red,
Places like Eyetech (www.eyetech.co.uk) have a lot of stuff, don`t know about in NZ.
Hope that helps!
Thanks...
Another question... What would I need to plug my amiga into my LAN at home? Just a network card? or a Stack as well?
Ta,
Red/
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You'll need a stack as well, unless you get AmigaOS 3.9 (not sure about 3.5, but it is probably in that too).
You will need Kickstart 3.1 for AmigaOS 3.9 which is on CD, so you will obviously need these to upgrade to this OS.
But don't worry, there is another cheaper way...
It's been a while, but if you want to use older AmigaOS 3.0/3.1, Miami should do the trick. It is on www.aminet.net/comm/tcp. You will need to get all the Miami32b archives appropriate to your setup, probably just main and 020. There are also some other tools there.
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Yes, OK but . . .have you checked the battery? :-D
Ciao
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Framiga wrote:
Yes, OK but . . .have you checked the battery? :-D
Ciao
Um... not exactly. The "expert" I took it to didn't know anything about Amigas... Will find someone local (I hope) It does boot up tho. We got it working thru a TV.
Someone asked for specs and here goes :
Specs:
Amiga 4000/40
CPU: 68040 @ 30Mhz
RAM: 48Mb Fast and 2Mb Chip Ram
HDD:
1x SCSI 2Gb Seagate (speed 4.5MBps)
1x IDE 1.3Gb drive (speed 1.5MBps)
CDROM: 10x IDE (quoting speed from memory)
FLOPPY: High Density Floppy Drive.
KICKSTART: 3.0
Installed, a Warpdrive CPU Board with SCSI (& ram).
Comes with clean Amiga Keyboard, and nice Black Amiga Mouse.
SysInfo Speed Tests...This runs like...
35x A600's
15x A1200's
10x A2500's
Workbench 3.1 installed, along with heaps of games, Scala, etc.
Cheers,
Red.
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@Red_eye
Sounds nice :-)
The one piece of software advice I would give is to get OS3.9 and the required Kickstart 3.1 ROMs to go with it. Aside from a few cosmetic enhancements, the OS has come a way since 3.0 / 3.1 including (but not limited to)
Bugfixes
Support for large drives (also available for 3.1 with the appropriate patches)
Better support for graphic cards
Asynchronous copy / delete operations from Workbench (quite how it took until 3.9 to implement this I've no idea)
Tons of functionality previously only available trhough 3rd party hacks/patches, such as NewIcon / DefIcons etc. etc.
Anyway, assuming the battery is OK you should have a lot of fun :-)
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Ah,
Yuall forgot to mention MP3 support, AMP, Aminetradio, Graphics That rival even MAC, etc...
You have much fun ahead. Lots of help here at AORG.
Chris