faulty a500 testing...

[AmmoJammo]

Simple question really...

I have an A500 that does nothing more than a constant blinking power light.

Would it be "safer" to take all the chips from the faulty motherboard, and put them in a good motherboard

or

take the known good chips, and put them in the faulty board?

And why! I can pick one on my own with no real basis for the decision, so I'd like to hear reasons why.

thanks!

[AmmoJammo]

sorry, it is the caps lock light thats constantly blinking, not the power light.

its constant, not a code.

But that isnt the question, which would be safer to not risk damaging the working hardware?

[AmmoJammo]

it doesn't work with no keyboard either, it doesn't work swapping in a known good keyboard.

Hence, I was going to start swapping chips

[AmmoJammo]

started swapping chips, putting the "bad" chips in the "good" A500.

started at the front, till I got to the second to last chip, "odd cia"

and sure enough, the "good" board displayed the same symptom as the "bad" that is, a constantly flashing caps lock light...

so, I put all the "good" chips in the "bad" board, including the "good" odd cia chip...

no more flashing caps lock!! except, it does nothing... lol, no kickstart screen, no floppy drive trying to boot...

hrrmm...

[AmmoJammo]

I kinda figured the ODD CIA would have been damaged by plugging or unplugging something with the computer on, so didn't think I'd hurt it, plus I have a spare "even cia" chip anyway
 
the floppy drive was plugged in incorrectly when I first got the machine, not backwards, but 2 pins off, could this have damaged something else that will cause the computer to do nothing?

[AmmoJammo]

Caps lock can be turned on and off for a few seconds after turning the mother board on but then it stops responding.

[AmmoJammo]

yes it had a faulty odd cia, its been swapped for a known good one, ALL of the socketed chips have been.
 
the original issue that presented itself as a flashing caps lock light has gone, but the motherboard still does nothing, other than have a functional caps lock key/light for about 3 seconds.
 

could this have damaged something else that will cause the computer to do nothing?

that is, other than the socketed chips, which have all been swapped.

[AmmoJammo]

So your incorrectly inserted floppy header most likely did damage to Paula, Odd and Even CIA and probably Gary as well.

So you will need to buy/find/steal some extra CIA's so you can check Odd and Even with new reliable known working chips. Then Paula, lastly swap  Gary.

:idea:

yes it had a faulty odd cia, its been swapped for a known good one, ALL of the socketed chips have been.
 

[AmmoJammo]

I discovered my "good" amiga displayed the same issue when I swapped out the CPU and kickstart rom...

I think from memory, it was the CPU not being seated properly that caused the issue then...

however, the "bad" motherboard still doesn't work?