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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Matt_H on October 31, 2003, 10:52:32 PM
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Just a quick little poll to test the durability of the Amiga line. Have you ever had an Amiga die on you?
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Yes :-( my trusty old a2000 died in my arms, *sniff* cause of death: battery leakage :-(
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I've had 3 (1 A1K, 2A2K's) die of the green screen of death.
(Chip memory) I actually fixed the A1K by testing EACH and Every combination (thousands) of memory pins and wrenched out the suspect memory chip with the lowest resistance with 2 soldering irons. (I was so proud) :-D
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Just a quick little poll to test the durability of the Amiga line. Have you ever had an Amiga die on you?
Never had one die, outright. I have had several that have "quirked out", though. They just keep exhibiting worse and worse behavior until you shelve them.
An A3000 that seems to have a bad ZIP in it, maybe? It'll work for a little while and then guru. Not a heat issue. Does seem to crash faster on RAM intensive things. Haven't cycled through all RAM to test it. (it's currently on my shelf -- if anyone wants it, make me an offer! I'm too busy to fix the darn thing.)
2 A1200's with white FLICKER 'O' DOOM bug. One degraded to the point I sent it back to C=. (Could hardly read the screen in any mode other than NTSC) Replacement started acting badly, so I sold it and took the money and put it toward my cherished A4000.
1 A1200 CIA fried due to stupidity.
Other than that, they've been good. And I've logged a LOT of hours on my 4000 and a few of the other miggies I've owned.
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>Have you ever had an Amiga die on you?
Nope! But I've been easy on them (or just lucky :-P)
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Just a quick little poll to test the durability of the Amiga line. Have you ever had an Amiga die on you?
only one.... which was enterily my fault... the memory addon card for my a500 had loosened so it shorcutted and busted a few chips at the same time... :-( I was young and stupid :-P
I had an c64 die on me though... Had had it in the closet for a years, then decided to try i out... all i got was a black screen :-(
No idea on why it just died while being stored.
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No never. I have had 2 that did not work but then they were 3 a500,s that cost me £3.00 with a printer and other junk. :-)
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@matt
Out of all of my Amiga's, only my 1200, a CBM original from 1993, died. It probably could be resurected, but I lack the patience to decode where the fault is.
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Yeah. An A4000, a 500, and a couple of 1200's.
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I once had an A1200 I thought was dead. To make sure, I pumped 24VDC through it and it was...:lol:
Actually, my A600 stopped working for no apparent reason, but there is no physical damage I can see. At the same time, it doesnt draw any current so perhaps it is something repairable.
My first A1200 was indeed victim to a dodgy PC PSU that sent a rather large voltage spike through it, probably much higher than 24V ;-)
My second A1200 has stood the test of time. It was towered for a while, then I got a new mobo from eyetech and put the old one away for safe keeping - its now up and running in my recently cobbled together A1200D :-)
Several friends all owned Big Box amigas and they have all had endless problems with them. Personally I think the 1200 was the most reliable machine ever made...
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Nope. In my history with Commodore/Amiga hardware I've never had a Amiga die. A few got quirks like the A3000 PAL problem. But none died outright.
A500 + A570
A3000 <-- this one was well used because it was my BBS for 5 years (24/7), over half of that was with a PP&S Mercury 040/35MHz.
A1200 still relatively new
A4000 previously abused so if it dies, it's probably not my fault
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I have a dozen Amiga's currently and have sold off 3 or 4. Had 1000's, 500's, 2000's, 3000's, 4000's, and a 4000T. None of them ever died. I did blow an Agnus one time however.
I had a CSMKIII and PIV quit, but I blame that on the guy I bought the 4000 from. Really crappy shipping . The CS lasted about 10min. and the PIV never worked.
They have been rather durable all in all. Never had one of those "toy 1200's" though :-D
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Yup, I had an A1000 die on me. I never figured it out since I traded it in back in the trade up deal C= used to have for my A3000.
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I bought my first A4000 from a very dodgy fellow, whom I didn't trust at all. I ran it and checked it all out before I gave him any money, all with no problems.
As soon as I got it home, it started to play up, running slower and slower as it warmed up, until about an hour after it was switched on, it would just stop. I'll bet he was glad to be rid of it and laughing at my stupidity.
It didn't take long to find the faulty chip with some freeze spray. I took it to a local C= repair agent, who replaced the chip on the 3640 (or was it the mobo?). Total cost; AUS$12.00 :-D
Although it's now in a tower, I'm still using it, 10 years later, never missed a beat since :-D
tony
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I had an a3000 PS fizzle the MB
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I had my original A1000 sort-of-die on me.. One of the CIA chips went South. But it wasn't fatal, it just made the clock repeat the same 17 seconds over and over like a very short "Groundhog Day" :-) The internal floppy has since died, so it can't boot at the moment.
The power supply in my 2000 failed. But out of my own Amigas, that's about it. Since I worked in an Amiga service shop for a while, I saw a lot more failures there...
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NONE of my Amiga computers have ever died on me. In fact, in all the years that I have been dealing with computers I have never had a computer die on me. But, my friends are always having problems with their computers and asking me for my help. I guess that would mean that I do know what I am doing when it comes to computers. :-D
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DoomMaster wrote:
NONE of my Amiga computers have ever died on me.
Don't worry, your time will come. It is inevitable.
Offtopic but, I once thought a rather important HP1000 had died on me. I arrived at work that morning, started up the ICT machine and went off to do other things while it started up. 20 or 30 minutes later, I sat down at the terminal, and try to log on. No RTE logon prompt. So, I made sure the terminal wasn't in some wierd mode, checked cables and tried again. Still no prompt. Now I'm worried.
I tried some other things like sending commands from terminal zero and power cycling the computer. After a couple hours of troubleshooting, it turned out that I caused the problem.
The evening before, I gave the computer a cleaning and reseated all the cables and cards including a 3MB RAM card. While moving the RAM card, I flipped a DIP switch. The computer thought it had 10MB of memory when it really only had 4.
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One that was given to me already dead a few years ago, prior to moving. That I got running again by replacing Agnus. I forgot about it for a couple of years out in my garage to withstand harsh Canadian winters . I fired it up recently and it worked fine. I bought my first A500 in 1987, and I've put it through lots of abuse, not knowing what I was doing such as changing my own k/s roms from 1.3 to 2.04 and spilling my beer all over the works watching a hockey game on TV, and yet she's still going, and going, and...
(knock wood)
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Never.
Although I did lose a GVP HD8+ unit to the hard-disk drop-out beast. One cool thing about UAE: it never wears out.
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Yeap, one A2000 (very very early b-model), some cap exploded in the PSU,
took the whole mobo with .... what a firework.
Have gotten it for free a few weeks earlier so the only "damage" I ended
up with was an Cherry-KBD (those with the small F-keys), a case in
top condition, a 1.2 ROM and a Matushita-chainsaw usefull letting my anger
out (with a big hammer :-P ).
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Not really!
But the mouse can wear-out after 10years, or more! Opps, forgot, df:0 has long gone on the A2000.
The monitors can have problems after that period, as well!
My 1988 1084 presently has the on/off switch taped-on, and I switch it via the wall switch.
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My first A500 had a capslock light than seemed to be stuck on, no the key wasn't stuck, but the whole keyboard locked up. As in, wouldn't type even tho the keys pressed and appeared to spring back as they should.
Sometimes after multiple reboots it would work properly the light would go out and the keyboard would unlock. I couldn't be arsed to try and fix it, or get it fixed so bought a new (second hand) A500+ for 50 squid.
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NONE of my Amiga computers have ever died on me. In fact, in all the years that I have been dealing with computers I have never had a computer die on me. But, my friends are always having problems with their computers and asking me for my help. I guess that would mean that I do know what I am doing when it comes to computers.
It wont be long your militry grade chips in your ancient profesional amiga,s will die .
As for always helping friends with computers i also do but that dont make me an expert or big headed. :-( :-D
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NONE of my Amiga computers have ever died on me. In fact, in all the years that I have been dealing with computers I have never had a computer die on me. But, my friends are always having problems with their computers and asking me for my help. I guess that would mean that I do know what I am doing when it comes to computers.
It wont be long your militry grade chips in your ancient profesional amiga,s will die .
As for always helping friends with computers i also do but that dont make me an expert or big headed. :-(
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One cool thing about UAE: it never wears out.
The hard drive in the pc its running on will though.
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True, but you can always buy a new HDD. Eventually, sad but true, all the classic Amiga hardware will be dead and lost forever.
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2 A500's, (two dead discdrives)
and a CDTV (nooooooo! in slow motion he fell on his knees in a moment of disbelieve)
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Yet having a new CDTV and a good working A500 :-)
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sad but true, all the classic Amiga hardware will be dead and lost forever.
True i dont use my cdtv to much i want it to last a bit longer.
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Yes, my first A1200 died in my arms because of power over-voltage (Lightning)
:boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo:
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Accelerators with PAL chips will most likely to croak and hard drives that run 24-7 are most likely to take a step closer to their grave. Otherwise, like I did with my other amigas, watch their voltages, keep it clean from dust and dirt, check their fans and your Amiga will last longer than you think.
Unfortunately, I may have to throw out one accelerator card for my 2000 unless I find a way to keep those PAL chips from failing when they start to heat up. I had the cover off and placed fans over them while I had it running, but if I need to keep the cover closed, it won't help at all. I'll try to use retangular chip heatsink fins and see what happens.
The very first sign that your old hard drive starts to give you trouble, back all your valuable information and get a new one.
Replace batteries that leak immediately and clean the board with 1. Isopropyl alcohol and 2. rinse with 50/50 alcohol/water. Make a label with a date to replace the battery 5 years from today and place it on the case of your Amiga. If necessary make a quick-disconnect plug for the battery and the board.
Replace any bad fan immediately with a brand new one. Make sure you match the same volume air flow as it says on the label.
:-)
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I've never had an Amiga completely dead.. Anything that went wrong I can usually fix.
I was cleaning my A4000 mobo last week when one of the SMT caps just fell apart. (Was cleaning it because the right audio channel was really low compared to the left.) Replaced C180, C433 and C443. Everything is right with the world again. :-)
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I had my A4000 get executed by memory eploding on the CV64/3D. (Seriously now, blue sparks and stinky smoke, and one of the chips had a hole in it.) Sent the CV64/3D back for repair and eventually got a replacement. A4000 suffered a moderately burned trace on the mobo that there was no way I was going to be able to fix. It kept working, very VERY badly for a while, but one morning when I powered it up, only a cold unfeeling black screen was shown. It had been giving me really random crashes and failures to boot up properly before hand. I tried everything to get something out of it, but nothing worked. I was able to part out the good bits though to some guys around who still used Amigas and make back a couple bucks.
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My first A500, bought in 1987 lasted 10 years
And my beloved A3000/25 (purchased seconhand) lasted 4 months. It's gone bigtime battery acid,CPU scorched ....
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Hi,
Yea, an Amiga 3000 died on me, I was adding some memory and when I got it all back together and turned it on it went for about 30 minutes as I was setting up Ibrowse to tour the internet when I got the black screen of death it just sort of flickered the screen and died never to live again. Other then that, no, I still have all my Amiga's, I have a non working A500 but it was not working when given to me.
Smerf
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I had to replace a serial port buffer chip in my A2000 a few times, and an A500 burst into flames on me once. Fried my Prometheus card a couple weeks ago too, but I think that was my fault and not random death's fault. And another A500 blew a huge chunk of smoke at me once, but I didn't see any flame that time.
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None actually died on me. The keyboard failed on my old A500, though. Current A1200 going strong. Touch wood.
Isn't this thread tempting fate a wee bit?!
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I never had an Amiga die on me. One of my A500's didn't work correctly though, when I bought them (the guy only wanted to sell his A1200 (which I _really_ wanted to have) if I took three A500s with it. It booted up fine, but the keyboard didn't work. After a short while, I found out one of the keyboardpins on the mobo was gone. Easy fix if you're handy with a soldering iron.
At the moment, I'm happy with both my 1200 & 2000 (one of each as a spare). If I can find the time & money I'm thinking of really juicing up the 2000 upto its max...
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Actually, just remembered that when I first added RAM to 4yr old A1200, a chip was fried! So, the A1200 that I currently rely on and claim good reliability from, actually has had a replacement motherboard.
Still pleased with overall Amiga reliability, though.
On a similar note, how have people found the Amiga's reliability when compared to other platforms?
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I think the thing that has to be born in mind, is the fact that 5 year old PCs can be had out of skips - well, that's where I got some bits the other day :-D
But 10 year old Amigas (and older) are still being used regularly....
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I own an A4000 and an A1200 and neither of them have died....yet :-)
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i retired my old trusty a500 a few years ago when i got my 1200, the 500 still works great tho its in storage for the time being, the only puter problem ive ever had was i purchased a new c64 and it was bad from the start, had one other c64 stolen, another 64 broken by an idiot now ex-friend, and the 4th and last one i bought still works perfectly to this day, tho ive got such a large cache of old c64/amiga hardware and software, i cant remember which c64 was my old one :P but they all work so it doesnt really matter :-o :-o :-o
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I bought an A1200 in 92
that gave my life meaning.
It still works as it has ever.
I bought a third hand A1200T years ago.
Now I use it with a 060
and im in heaven,
and noone dies in heaven.
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and im in heaven,
and noone dies in heaven.
:-D
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One A1200 (94 - fried) and my A1000 (first Amiga) twice! The last time earlier this year. Not bad since I got it Xmas of 85. :-P