Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: XDelusion on August 18, 2011, 05:32:14 AM
-
So my A2000 arrived in the mail today. I was so elated, it's been a long time since I owned one of these tanks.
Sadly, when I turned it on, I got no display through the RGB to VGA adaptor.
I hooked up the Chroma Cable to the back of my 1084s, but it only booted to a grey screen which would turn to black for a moment and return to grey...
...only to turn black again, then grey, and so forth.
The power light would flicker, and with the DataFlyer attached, the Hard Drive light would blink like it was trying to boot or something...
It has a MegaChip attached which appears to be pinned down where it should be. Also there is a kickstart switcher attached.
I removed everything and pushed down all the chips to make sure they were attached like they should be. When reconnecting the power, I left the DataFlyer out, both floppies unplugged, as well as the CD-ROM. Sadly, it still does the same exact thing.
It was shipped FedEx and the DataFlyer was on it's side floating freely in the case, so who knows what damage may have been done, but from the looks of it, it looks like some of the pins were bent on the DataFlyer and that's all.
Lastly, I noticed a strange little board that was connected to the back of what looks like a standard PC floppy drive. The floppy ribbon was connected to that so could it be? Is it a PC floppy drive adapter?
Anyhow, what next?
-
Wow. That's a bummer that people can't properly package electronic components for shipping. Hopefully you'll get it sorted out.
The MegaChip should also have a jumper lead to pin 36 on the Gary Chip.
Not sure about the DataFlyer or rest of the components.
-
Plugged in via Amiga Maniac's RGB adaptor...
Green screen. It's the Angus.
I read that it can also be plugged into the CPU. Anyone know which pin?
-
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/megachip
looks like pin 48 on page 7
btw I'm pretty sure an A2000 needs at least one floppy connected otherwise it just won't work properly probably won't even boot etc... something worth considering anyway...
-
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/megachip
looks like pin 48 on page 7
btw I'm pretty sure an A2000 needs at least one floppy connected otherwise it just won't work properly probably won't even boot etc... something worth considering anyway...
-
I got told once that when you dont get a screen at all, but the typical "reset color changes" over and over again, the kickrom might be fried. I'am still waiting for my A500 kick rom IC to replace, and check that theory, tho.
Unfortunately by knowledge of Amigas is not enough to know if that can even happen on an A2000 :)
KR,
Gil
-
Pics coming soon.
I see the battery leaked and turned some of the pins and pin holes on the CPU green. :/
-
xdelusion
wow sounds like you got some great extras in that unit! sorry for the troubles. That board attached to floppy cable probably is an adaptor like the floppies by AmTrade or whatever they were called.. (maybe AIR forget)
-
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=142&pictureid=813)
-
Dude, right now, right this very second SNIP THAT BATTERY OUT!!!
That is some serious corrosion going on and you'll want to snip ASAP to save what's left. I don't know how to clean up that mess but if I were you I'd look into it FAST!
Good Luck!:(
-
I will. And I've heard a tooth brush with a light dose of Tarn-x will do wonders on the connectors.
-
Or isopropyl alcohol. Remove the old battery first.
You will have to clean into each pin socket to get good metal to metal contact on the CPU legs. That might be the basis of your problem.
Also the Mega Chips have been known to crack your on board Agnus(Not Agnus that's the one in Franko's Amigas) socket if they aren't treated carefully. Check out the Agnus socket in the corners and make sure it isn't cracked. If you have an Agnus chip remover I would try the chip in the original socket once you get the CPU socket cleaned.
Good luck.
-
I will. And I've heard a tooth brush with a light dose of Tarn-x will do wonders on the connectors.
That's a bad damage to the CPU socket :(
You may want to completely remove the motherboard and wash it, dry it and the clean it with isopropyl alcohol as gertsy says, or acetone. The socket´s pins may be broken below, the same thing happend to me with an A501-like memory expansion, I will need to either replace the socket or solder the clock chip directly to the board. Take a look at Cosmo's blog (http://cosmosamiga.blogspot.com/), he has lots of examples and pictures of the cleaning and desoldering - resoldering process.
Good luck!!
-
Lastly, I noticed a strange little board that was connected to the back of what looks like a standard PC floppy drive. The floppy ribbon was connected to that so could it be? Is it a PC floppy drive adapter?
I put a picture of my Power Computing (?) high-density floppy adapter in the gallery section a few years ago. You might want to compare it....I can't seem to be able to search the gallery for pictures by user name....seems the search function to the Amiga.org gallery doesn't work anymore and when I view my profile it doesn't show me a link to my gallery postings anymore. If anyone can find that picture can they post a link? Thanks.
-
wow dude, that looks bad. Makes me squimish just looking at it... :P
Wouldn't "scrub" too much on those damaged traces. Might rub the MB apart due to the corrosion around the battery area.
Hope you didn't purchased it on the assumption it was in working condition, despite all the extra goodies it has. Good luck bringing her back to life.
-
I had similar problem. you need to repair the trace below CPU, look here:
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=2390
you seem to have different version, but I'm sure the problem is in that discolored trace.
-
Shoot who ever told you to use TarnX. Do NOT get that stuff near your motherboard! That is silver cleaner that must be washed with loads of water after use (on silver).
I sure wish you luck. They did you no favors on that motherboard.
-
wow dude, that looks bad. Makes me squimish just looking at it... :P
Wouldn't "scrub" too much on those damaged traces. Might rub the MB apart due to the corrosion around the battery area.
Hope you didn't purchased it on the assumption it was in working condition, despite all the extra goodies it has. Good luck bringing her back to life.
Actually that is not even that bad for an a2k. I've seen much worse over the years, especially when we used to do repairs. You are right about the traces for sure.. dont go to crazy scrubbing.. use a soft toothbrush..
Xdelusion
if you got green screen its for sure agnus. If you dont have a spare one i can send you to test.. maybe something wrong with dkb board or wasnt hooked up properly. bad 68000 cpu wont give green screen afaik.,
-
Shoot who ever told you to use TarnX. Do NOT get that stuff near your motherboard! That is silver cleaner that must be washed with loads of water after use (on silver).
I sure wish you luck. They did you no favors on that motherboard.
Moto is right! I missed that. I've used a little baking soda diluted with water, white vinegar diluted and THEN isopropyl to clean it (and THEN water and cloth to clean the isopropyl) again with a soft toothbrush..
-
I have A3000 that have issues booting up, constant boot - reboot cycle and usually when it's warm. I did have battery damage on it, and it looks like damaged something, because when I press down in certain area next to the battery, the A3000 boots fine. I did not have time to really fix it.
I would press down on all socket-ed chips, maybe got loose during shipping.
If you need some spare parts, just let me know.
-
amiman
Remove that battery NOW!
-
EVERYBODY WHO OWNS AN AMIGA: REMOVE YOUR BATTERY NOW!!! :)
Hey thankx everyone for the tips and offers.
Magnetic: If you have a spare Agnus you can let me use to test things with I'd be happy to try it.
Also if I recall correctly, you have a Scala 300 manual? Still want to sell that? I'm currently raising funds for more Amiga stuff as we speak. One of those things being an Amiga 1200 NTSC. :)
-
For those interested and willing to try such things...
I also found this thread in relation to battery leakage and repair.
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40875
-
Here's the Agnus that I have (MegaChip):
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=142&pictureid=814)
-
I dont have this one, only 512k and 1M
-
That's the problem, I have no idea what sat in that socket before the MegaChip was installed. According to how the jumpers are set for the MegaChip, it would appear that it was one Mb.
Does anyone know if it would damage my 2000 to drop one the Agnus' from his 500 in it?
-
xdelusion
A500 is same as a2k agnus! go right ahead
Damn man i forgot to send you that manual! I'll do it this week...
-
Will it fry my unit if I put in a 512 when it is expecting a 1Mb or vise versa?
-
dude u wont fry anything just put the damn chip in! seriously :)
-
Cleaned MegaChip and socket. CPU legs and socket. Now it boots to a purple screen and no longer reboots itself.
What the he'll is purple? That's not in my color chart.
-
Now yellow screen or boot! :) I think scraping at the battery leakage on the CPU sockets with a sewing needle should stabilize her. Then I add in the Video Toaster 2000 and Scala 300!!!
-
You could consider completely changing the CPU socket, it looks pretty bad and may be hard to get completely reliable. But of course it can wait if you get it working decently for now :)
-
Didn't touch a thing since last post, and now I'm back to where I began. Green screen, reboot, green screen.
Who's an electrician here in the US? :)
-
xdelusion
Did you replace the agnus chip with a known good working one?
When you power the machine hit the caps lock key repeatedly (like 15 times.. tell me if it stops lighting up)
-
I don't have a keyboard for this, and no one ever answered my question as to how to use a PC keyboard with it.
I had it booting for a few minutes with the original MegaChip.
Will not have spare Agnis' till sometime after Monday.
-
I don't have a keyboard for this, and no one ever answered my question as to how to use a PC keyboard with it.
with an adapter, aminet is full of them.
-
I don't have a keyboard for this, and no one ever answered my question as to how to use a PC keyboard with it.
I had it booting for a few minutes with the original MegaChip.
Will not have spare Agnis' till sometime after Monday.
You can purchase a Lyra or minmys or whatever to adapt the a2k connector to use ps2 kybrd.
When you say it booted for a few minutes can u plz detail how that happened and what exactly happened?
We will know better when you put in a regular agnus as maybe I suspect the Megachip is faulty??
Have you asked the seller about it?
-
Start at message 29. After the clean up job I had it requesting a floppy.
You can purchase a Lyra or minmys or whatever to adapt the a2k connector to use ps2 kybrd.
When you say it booted for a few minutes can u plz detail how that happened and what exactly happened?
We will know better when you put in a regular agnus as maybe I suspect the Megachip is faulty??
Have you asked the seller about it?
-
Animan99 was nice enough to send me an Angus chip for testing.
Sadly, I am still getting the green screen with this chip in place of my MegaChip.
I also took a photo of my 68000 socket after my cleaning job, though the image could be a bit clearer.
(http://www.amiga.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=142&pictureid=815)
I still think it would be best to ship the mother board to someone who could perhaps put a new socket in place for the 68000, as well as repair any damage that the battery might have done to the circuit board.
The seller said it was booting up before he shipped it, and I was able to get it to boot up a few times after I cleaned it.
The fact that I changed nothing, and it is now back to booting up to the green screen, tells me that even if I do get it to boot again, I'll be dealing with a very unstable system.
Anyone up for the task within the U.S.?
-
For the note, the seller usually deals with PC and does not know much about Amiga.
He said it was booting before he shipped it, but since I was having issues he refunded me $35. :)
Also I wanted to note that I used Alcohol and Vinegar to clean out the contacts. I then used my Air Compressor and a dry rag to clean things off.
-
Does anyone know how to get a hold of Magnetic?
He was offering to sell me an A2000 mother board and now it looks as if he is banned.
I'd also like to be able to thank him for shipping me the Scala Manual that arrived in the mail today.
Thankx!
-
Does anyone know how to get a hold of Magnetic?
He was offering to sell me an A2000 mother board and now it looks as if he is banned.
I'd also like to be able to thank him for shipping me the Scala Manual that arrived in the mail today.
Thankx!
No,but your not going to get anywhere with that machine until you replace the 68000 socket. I doubt it will run reliable not matter how well you clean the existing socket because the plating is probably gone.
it appears the board works,just needs a little tlc.
Mech
-
This is what you need to do to repair your Amiga 2000 computer:
- Carefully desolder and remove the 68000 IC socket
- Clean the area with 99% alcohol and 100% cotton pads
- Solder in new IC socket
- Plug in new 68000 processor (do not use old on)
- Make sure none of the traces are corroded
That should do the trick. :)
-
That's on my list for things to do soon.
I got to find a place to order the socket and the new processor, then I'll go from there...
...hopefully not damaging my board as desoldering has not always been my strong point.