A1200 - no picture and duff HD?

[r_welfare]

Hi all

I've picked up an A1200 at a garage sale (another one...!).  This one is nice as it has it's original box and polys.

However, I can't get any picture from it (using an aerial cable from the RF modulator to the TV).  I tell a lie - somehow for a few seconds I got a really fuzzy picture of Workbench, but I haven't been able to replicate it since...

I'm assuming that the modulator has had it.  Can these things be fixed, or is it easier/cheaper to get a 'new' motherboard from eBay?

Secondly, when I got this fuzzy screen display, it was telling me that the 'fixed disk has source error 3457' (or similar number).  When I took it apart, lo and behold a hard disk! I wasn't expecting one. Are they easy to format? (Never had an Amiga 1200 with a hard disk before).

Any help gratefully received!

Many thanks
Richard

[r_welfare]

Good idea, but I'm tight for space so it has to use the TV rather than the monitor!

[r_welfare]

Well, I decided on a whim to take out the hard disk.  Oddly enough, with the hard disk unplugged the computer works! But plugging it back in stops it from booting or even generating any kind of picture.  The HD light is permanently on, and the HD makes intermittent whirring noises.

The HD is a Toshiba item of indeterminate age.  I'm thinking of junking it unless anyone knows a really simple solution to the problem?

[r_welfare]

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I think I will leave it without the hard drive at the moment.

Richard