Need Amiga Mother Board Repairs in U.S. or I'm Out.

[XDelusion]

I've asked this before and never received a response, so I'm going to ask once more.
Aside allowing my self to be raped shipping my Amigas to Canada, is there anyone here in the U.S. that will work on Amiga mother boards?

 I'd REALLY like to have at least once stable machine (out of the four I own), but I only know one guy and it took him 3 years to get my A600 back to me, only to find that the IDE port needed replaced too.

 I really have no interest in waiting another 3 years, and I've got all sorts of money dumped into this hobby and a lot of ideas I'd like to realize on the hardware...

...but alas, no one seems to exist that can work on these things.

 If I can not find someone soon, then I will take a loss and sell the Amigas as are on Ebay, letting the buyers know they will need re-capped and what not. Then I will piece out my PPC, Flicker Fixers, 80Mhz Apollo 060, and all those other beloved items I had once dreamed of using and will be out for good, or at least until a feature rich alternative to the MiniMig emerges onto the scene, in which case I will return...
...assuming that FPGA board supports MIDI and hopefully my Genlock hardware and what have you...

 In the mean time I will of course continue using MorphOS, and will follow the progress of AROS x86 with fingers crossed, but will for sure be exiting the 680x0 scene for good, except when I emulate a game because God knows WinUAE still sucks when it comes to OctaMED S.S. performing as it should.

 So anyhow, if anyone knows anyone within this country of ours, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get in touch, thank you!

[XDelusion]

@XDelusion

i feel your pain. most everyone in the US these days just 'bites the bullet' and sends their classic kit to amigakit in the UK for repairs. yes, shipping isn't cheap, but they do a terrific job, you get amiga professionals doing the work, and the turn-around time is (usually) very reasonable.

if this was late summer i'd say to come out to amiwest and just hand them your kit. that way they can use their cheaper freight rates to ship it back to their shop in wales.

i also noticed you're having problems with octamed. doesn't that run on your MOS setup?

-- eliyahu

I'd be better off piecing things out and making some cash as opposed to shipping my goods to Europe.

As for MorphOS, no sadly no one ever bothered to write a Puh Der Baer type aplication or one that allows the Maetrix output to assign to AHI and the SB16... like Amithlon, so no go there. The best I got at the momenst is Digibooster (I still need to order the latest release) which sadly has no MIDI support what so ever, else this crappy little Efika of mine would have one MAJOR use!

[XDelusion]

I never tried him, but he was advertizing on Amibay once.
http://www.maccaps.com/MacCAPS.COM/Macintosh_Recaps.html#3
I may someday use his service on my A600.

Good find! Thank you, I wrote him!
---


For those wondering, I have 2 600's and 2 1200's. A PAL and NTSC of each.

I also have a 2000, but the mother board needs some serious work... though I could care less. Never was much of a 2000 fan.

[XDelusion]

What kind of problems are you having with them?

I just received an e-mail back from that Charles guy. Quick response I must say!

 Anyhow, all four of them have audio issues. Crackling and all that jazz. The PAL 600 needs it's PCMCIA port replaced. The NTSC 600 needs it's IDE port replaced. The PAL 1200 just needs recapped as far as I can tell. And the NTSC 1200 needs it's kickstart sockets replaced...

...a result of me trouble shooting a purchase from Amigakit.

[XDelusion]

Replacing capacitors is relatively easy and shouldn't take up too much time.  However,  there are some brands you should avoid.  See: List of Bad Cap Manufacturers

Is there a  list of good cap manufacturers sites?

[XDelusion]

Sure: List of Good Capacitor Manufacturers

Funny, they mentioned the lack of a "good list" in that very forum.

[XDelusion]

The audio problems you're experiencing could be caused by bad capacitors and/or electromagnetic interference.  Check for any bulging caps and for any brown rust-like material on, under, or near the capacitors.  Not all capacitors that have gone bad will show physical signs, but it doesn't hurt to check since it is a sure sign that they have gone bad. The IDE port is easy to fix and the PCMCIA isn't that hard but takes more time.

Also, bad traces can also cause problems, especially on older motherboards.  If you have a USB microscope and a multimeter, look for any corrosion and check the continuity between traces.  Even if there is a loss of connection between traces due to corrosion it is still possible to fix it.

Indeed, the A600 that I waited 3 years to have recapped also had bad traces. Since the IDE port on it is screwed though, I've not had a chance to test the audio yet.

Needless to say, the prices I've been offered for repairs on all four boards are most certainly within my ball park. I do believe I shall have them all repaired, then will probably part with the PAL boards after I get them back and have tested them. Considering I can have everything repaired kind of makes me want to have a 600 and 1200, fully decked out. It will be like having two new units... or so I hope, in which case I need not worry about FPGA for the moment.

Alas, one of these threads paid off!

This is the second or third time amiman99 has saved the day for me.

[XDelusion]

:-D
Yes - of course. You would have to be afraid we implemented some spyware - as a sort of revenge for the NSA activities here...
:-P

I hear you man... my ancestors are native after all. Believe me, that history is still very much alive and well as far as I'm concerned. Though with the NSA and all this jazz...

...I really don't think America is the center of it all, I believe the power has always been more of a Global nature, though like The Phantom Menace or politics in general, America has became the front man to take the blame. I mean haven't you noticed that everything is anti-America now a days, even though the rest of the world that is in bed with the U.N. is guilty of the same practices. I mean didn't Britain drop an atom bomb of their own, but no one ever talks about that.

 I have no love for political empires, no love for the new world order, or religion as an institutional power. So from where I stand, I have nothing to do with any of that NSA B.S. or anything else being reported on osnews.com.

BTW, how's the EU feeling? Like those cameras down your back on every street corner? Can't say I'm looking forward to the American union my self not to mention all the cameras that have began to show up here either.

 Anyhow, I'm going to bury my head back into my Amiga now.

[XDelusion]

@xdelusion
even if shipping to europe isnt an option you may ask around in international section on a1k.org. there is a number of people there who can fix stuff, i have got a board repaired by one of them

I've shipped out to this guy:

http://www.maccaps.com/MacCAPS.COM/Macintosh_Recaps.html#3

His communications are great and he's only 2 hours north of me, win win!!!

[XDelusion]

So you sent out all 4 boards you were talking about? Make sure you post back and let us known how it worked out !

I'm sending them as I can afford to get them fixed, so so far there is just an A600 on it's way.  And yes I shall be sure to come back singing his praises very soon me hopes!

[XDelusion]

I'm coming to this party late, but I can vouch for Charles.  He's really active and helpful on the 68kmla.org forum (I dabble in classic macs too... I'm ratting myself out!) and I've done business with him before..  I've ordered some SCSI drives from him and he was great.  I'm betting he'll do a great job.  I'm planning possibly on using one of those SCSI drives I got from him in my A500 HD setup...

Glad to hear, I've had good feelings about him already.

[XDelusion]

So I got my A600 back from

http://maccaps.com/MacCaps/Repair_Service.html

New Caps, repaired bad cap job from previous electrician in fact.
Pulled PCMCIA from my flakey 600.
ACA now seems to function without crashing (yet).
Audio is PERFECT!
PCMCIA works flawlessly!

It's like new, the guy is very friendly, very cost effective, honest, not to mention talented.

[XDelusion]

This may be just the ticket for fixing one or all three (eventually) of my 4000 motherboards, as while AmigaKit may do an awesome job, the cost of sending one and having it sent back from the UK may sway me in this direction. With only a mostly working 1200HD that isn't connected to the net, it's only a poor substitute for my last rather hot rodded 4000 setup, which would be made faster merely by updating 3 or 4 year old libraries/datatypes/drivers, etc. Please let us know how it goes. ^^ Reanimating my 4000 would reopen my 130XE's access to new software via sneakernet shared 720K PC formatted disks. This old mac is pretty comfortable, but I really miss having my 68K supercomputer.

So I got my A600 back from from Michigan. Only took 1 day for it to get back after it was shipped so he's close.

http://maccaps.com/MacCaps/Repair_Service.html

New Caps, repaired bad cap job from previous electrician in fact.
Pulled PCMCIA from my flakey 600.
ACA now seems to function without crashing (yet).
Audio is PERFECT!
PCMCIA works flawlessly!

It's like new, the guy is very friendly, very cost effective, honest, not to mention talented.