Amiga 3000 with jerky mouse and icons switching to monochrome green

[WeiXing3D]

I just took possession of an Amiga 3000 with an A3640 and SCSI external box (side car) with CD-ROM drive and 3rd HDD.

The machine boots fine and fast, but mouse is jerky and erratic, to the point that I can't control it to select or close anything.

After a few random clicks of the mouse, because that is all I can do, the icons start switching to green.

Has anyone seen this before. How to fix?

Does anyone know of someone who repairs Amigas in the U.S.? Just in case, since I am not a hardware guy.

[WeiXing3D]

Two thoughts right off the bat:

- I don't think the jerky mouse pointer and green screen are related.  You're looking at two, or possibly more, separate problems.

- Have you tried with both the 23-pin video output and the HD15 VGA output?  Is the problem the same on both?  Any difference?

- Open it up and check for battery damage, stat.

Okay, that's three things.  But I'll repeat that last one again - check for battery damage, if it's a barrel battery, remove it asap.  

I have only tried the VGA port and the switch in the "Enable" position. I don't have means to test with a 23-pin video output. I don't even know what I'd need to do so. I've tried with a NEC Multisycv Monitor 1770VX and 2 others with VGA ports and low freq range. But the same. Where can I find a 23-pin video output cable?

The previous owner checked for battery damage and reported that everything was fine. He sent me a picture and it looked fine. To remove, do I just pull it off and leave the empty holes?

[WeiXing3D]

This is the standard video output of every other model of Amiga.  The 3000 is unique in that only it contains the native circuitry for 31KHz "VGA" video output (the 15-pin connector).  I just assumed you must have a few old Amiga monitors kicking around, most of us do.  



There are some settings that are unique to an A3000, these links might help you:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-15710.html

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/batt.html

Personally I'd just pull it off, replace it with a better one.  Barrel batteries kill 3000's worse than just about any other system, due to their location on the motherboard.  I'm sure some folks will say go ahead and leave it if it ain't leaking yet, but since you never know if it might start leaking tomorrow... an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and all that, right?  

Are you able to boot off a Workbench floppy disk?  Do the same problems occur then?

I will order a 23-pin video cable and try that. Tomorrow, I will open the unit and check things by myself.

I tried booting with my WB 3.1 disk and the jerky mouse issue is less noticeable but still there.

Worse case scenario, do you know of anyone repairing old school Amigas here in the good old U.S.A.?

[WeiXing3D]

Sounds pretty obvious; but it's worth to mention...

Have you thoroughly cleaned the mouse?, do you have any other to test? :-)

As for the A3000, if you don't find yourself comfortable with a soldering iron, simply cut the battery before it leaks. They can do it pretty fast, in less than a year you can get a nice corrosion.
Also, if the mouse itself seems to work fine, the video & movement problems could be related to drying capacitors. If they haven't been changed yet maybe it's time to do it.

I want to do this, but post that I have read warn of losing the SCSI setting values stored in memory.

Any suggestions to this regard?

[WeiXing3D]

See the info at...
http://amiga.serveftp.net/JumpyMouse.html

Anthony's site also has info on battery replacement

Hi, I'll be sending an Email to the rest of my fellow SACC members to see if anyone would be available to schedule a technical session during one of our upcoming meetings. As you know I do not feel comfortable soldering, nor I have the tools to do so.

So, the most important question now is can I just remove the battery, clean the area (BTW I don't see any signs of leaking yet) without the risk of losing my SCSI settings? I have 2 internal SCSI HDDs and a side car with one more HDD and a CD-ROM reader.

Please advise.

[WeiXing3D]

UPDATE - I had the battery replaced by a computer technician, since I have already that I am not hardware kind of guy...I know that's an oxymoron having an old school computer now.

The technician found some signs of leaking, but not on the actual mother board, it was starting to crawl upon one of the chips adjacent. He cleaned the connectors and they look good now. There wasn't any apparent damage to the motherboard.

The mouse got a bit better by a 50% but it still jumps back to the left of the screen once I move the pointer to the center of the screen.

I also cleaned the mouse ball with soapy water and dried it well. I cleaned inside the mouse with a q-Tip and rubbing alcohol. I also used compressed air to clean the mouse inside and connectors in the cpu and terminals.

So what can I do next to fix this issue?

ADDITIONAL Comments: I noticed that when I first booted up the computer, the mouse worked fine for about 5 minutes, then it started to jump all over the place again. It happens when I scroll to the center of the screen. The pointer (cursor) always lodges back to the left side of the screen. When I move it to the center it flies back to the left edge. If moved fast to the right, it reaches the far right edge, disappears as in blinking, and reappears on the left hand side of the screen. I hope this more detailed description helps to illustrate the problem that I am having.

After trying this tips shared by Hypex at AmigaWorld: mouse short cuts. LAmiga Alt for left mouse. RAmiga Alt for right mouse. Ctrl + LAmiga + cursor should move. Shift for high speed. IIRC, and seeing that the cursor moves fine, I'm guessing that I may be  in need of a new mouse. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare one to try.

[WeiXing3D]

SACC has a couple of used working mice you could try but...

AmigaKit has NEW mice with much better specs!

Thanks buddy. I will try to buy one out of eBay shipping our of here in California. For now, the mouse is usable and it seems to be getting better. It's been stable for over an hour now.

My next project is to get a SCSI2SD micro SD adapter install and running. That'll be a new thread :laughing:

[WeiXing3D]

The mouse is working fine now. Whatever it was, after replacing the battery and cleaning a small leak, which did not reach the motherboard, yes, lucky me, everything seems to be working just fine.

No, need for countless chips replacements.