Noob with an A500

[Xamiche]

Well, since the A500 doesn't have a battery you don't have to worry about leakage. However, some 512KB RAM expansions have a battery on them, so you might need to watch for leakage there. Buy yourself a can of air and give it a good clean out. Though try not to breath it in. It is an aerosol after all.

All you need to fire up the OS is a Workbench 1.3 disk. Assuming you don't have a later ROM installed. As far as resetting it to it's original state, it pretty much already is. There's no internal harddisk that needs reformatting, or any flash memory that needs resetting. You just need a WB1.3 disk or whatever games you have and you're set.

Expansion-wise, I'd definitely be looking to upgrade the kick ROM to version 3.1. Though some older software may not be compatible. A ROM switcher can solve that, so you can switch back and forth between the ROMs. A hard disk expansion is a good thing to have, for obvious reasons. The A590 was a good HD expansion.

[Xamiche]

madsjm wrote:
@Xamiche: I don't think you should recommend upgrading the kick rom to version 3.1 without knowing what he wants to use his A500 for.

If he for example intends to use it mainly for classic games, he should definitely stick with the old kickstart version. In that scenario, upgrading to 3.1 would mostly be a waste of time and money. In fact, it would just get him into a lot of compatibility troubles.

Who uses a (vanilla) A500 for newer apps anyway? :-)

Which is why I suggested a ROM switcher. Plus it gives him access to WB3.1. It's exactly what I've done with my 500 and I've never regretted it. I not only recommend it, it's the best thing I ever did for my old beasty. Of course if you can't find a ROM switcher you might have trouble.

Maybe if he shows his location some friendly person will be willing to teach him some basics, throw him some disks, etc?

That's a good idea. There are many users world wide who post here. You're bound to find someone near by who can help you out with wb disks and such.

[Xamiche]

Melbourne? Cool. If you have trouble locating a WB disk, let me know and I'll send you some.

To get the metal RF shield up, you need to bend up the 4 tab/prong thingies that poke through the RF shield, then undo the 2 screws at the front, and the 2 screws on the left side switch hold the expansion guard in place. That should see you good. You're gunna need one of those special star type screw drivers though.

[Xamiche]

From the picture I can tell you its a RAM expansion with a battery backed-up clock. There were dozens of different makes available so it may not match the box. Try re-inserting the RAM expansion and testing it again. It may have had a non-contacting pin or something. It happens. If you do get it working I recommend removing that NiCad battery. It looks like it's starting to leak already and that will kill the board for sure, if it hasn't already. Those caps near U1 and U2 look a little funky. Looks like the battery has already leaked unto the some components. If you're going to remove the battery and clean the board, know that the substance is not acid as most people think. It's actually a base. Potassium hydroxide (KOH). After removing the battery, get yourself some isopropyl alcohol to clean the affect parts as best you can.

With the demo, try looking for a draw/folder. Open it up and you'll probably find the programmes executable file in there. Just double click it.

[Xamiche]

ahh. Did you try typing in DIR to see the contents of the disk? That may or may not work. If not the disks start-up sequence is probably cactus.

[Xamiche]

I agree, a 4000 or 1200 would be much better. If you can afford one. An Amiga 4000 in Australia is going to cost you at the very least $800. And if you find a cheap one over-seas you can expect to have any savings eaten up by shipping costs.  A 1200 will cost around $200-400. That's un-accelerated. If you want an accelerator I hope you have a spare kidney or two.

If you're an Amiga fanboy nut, like myself, you might be able to justify spending that sort of money on an Amiga 4000/1200, but realistically if you're just looking to play some games and spend under a couple hundred dollars, the Amiga 500 is the way to go. Maybe even an Amiga 600HD if you can find one. They go for around $100-200 when they come up on ebay. Maybe cheaper if you find someone selling one here.

[Xamiche]

Naton wrote:
I did first look out for an A4000, made sense if I'm gonna get an Amiga, might as well get the most recent one, with all the new and old capabilities. But since I havn't seen any for sale, and I read there weren't that many made, I reckon they're a bit out of the price range of what I'm willing to spend on a hobby at the moment ;-) I then thought about an A1000, but thought maybe I was delving a bit too far back.. The A500 seemed like the most well rounded machine for me :-)

I got the battery out of the RAM expander, but probably did more harm than good, it took the clamps holding it in place with it, and I chipped one of the little orange things trying to sperate it from the glue :roll: reckless people shouldn't be let near computer chips I guess.(not too bothered if I broke it so don't worry or anything ;-))

Entering Dir gave me an unknown command response, and I managed to get an error 212 typing in c: , if that means anything :roll:

My guess is you need to boot into Workbench first, then access the disk from there.

Hmm. Do you have a soldering iron? The little orange thing is a capacitor. Cheap and easy to replace. I have about half a dozen 512kb RAM expansions here. If you like I will send one over if you send the broken one to me. I can send you some workbench disks at the same time.

[Xamiche]

Anything Amiga has been down for over a year now. It says June of last year on the site, but it was down before that. Anything Amiga was a great place to get stuff. I wish who ever it is that runs the site would come back. Amigakit is just too far away for my liking. I don't fancy waiting 3 months just to get some parts. I emailed him once but got no reply. I'm guessin' he's packed it in. :-(

The Amiga Innovations guy is pretty cool, but his prices are just awful. More than double what it would cost at Amigakit or other Amiga sellers.

[Xamiche]

Retro_71 wrote:
With Amigakit i have gotten my stuff very quickly BUT it cost me what i spent to get the stuff over here that fast.... Well it depends on what you buy if it's the light stuff then it's cheap. But i got 1 x a1200 and a cd32 from him along with other stuff so the postage was ebough to chose a horse...  :-D

Do you think it would cost too much to have AmigaKit ship over some KickROM chips by air? I've been trying to track down some 3.1 ROMs for my Amiga 600HDs.

BTW i have recently opened up my 6 512KB A500 expansions and what do you know they have all leaked (the worst one spread over 1/3 of the board  :-( ).

That really sucks. I hope they survive the leak. Damn NiCads. I curse them. :pissed:
I lost a few expansions that way. I lost an A601 to a leak. Those little buggers are as rare as rocking horse wheels.  :-(

[Xamiche]

amigakit wrote:
Approx prices for Kickstart 3.1 to Australia in Australia Dollars:

Kickstart 3.1 for A500/A2000 or A600: $35
Shipping by Airmail: $4
Total: $39

Please note we have many Australian customers and ship many parcels there weekly.

Thanks for the info AmigaKit. It's great to know you ship here regularly. :-)