I got ripped off on a dead Amiga 4000

[save2600]

@Ceaser,

You can't expect a computer system such as this with all its socketed chips, daughterboards, etc. to NOT come loose in transit. Hell, A500's and A2000's have had to have their Agnus chips reseated after UPS hauled them away from Commodore back in the day!

The seller looks legit and the screen did have Workbench up. If you are going to own an Amiga system, you MUST NOT be afraid to remove and reseat chips and components. That's common sense 101 when dealing with vintage computers.

Using a very small flat blade screwdriver, you may carefully pry up one end of a chip (I.C.). When you feel the pins have moved up slightly, you may then press down on the chip to reseat it. That "fixes" most chip/socket problems. If not, the more aggressive thing to do is remove the chip completely (working your screwdriver from one end to the other carefully and slowly) and press it back in again. Assuming the legs/pins did not need to be cleaned. Look for oxidation on the pins and if necessary, light sand paper or better yet: a fibreglass brush may be used to clean them up.

The Busters people talk about require a PLCC chip removal tool (if it's not directly soldered to the board that is). Rat Shack sells them for $10 and are a necessity. NEVER try to remove one of those square chips with a regular screwdriver!!

Other scenario is that the capacitors on both the 040 card and audio sections could have been soldered in backwards. + <> - got reversed, causing the caps to blow up and leak their acidic spunk all over the board. VERY common when buying someone else's old Amiga 4000's.

One more thing: be sure to tighten the motherboard down with all the screws AFTER you've determined that the capacitors did not blow up. Good grounding is necessary for our Amiga's to behave properly. Removing the 040 board, observing that all those TINY pins are in alignment and reseating *IT* is also something you're going to have to do...

BTW: Great price you got there! Well, if you can get it to work that is  ;-)

[save2600]

I can't believe none of us thought of that. It's often times the simplest thing, isn't it?

All hail Thomas!  lol

But the question is: Where'd the key go? lol  The computer was shown working. Did the seller forget to include
the key? Or is it inside the case where it shorted something? Hope not  ;-)  But at the same time, hope that
the key conundrum is all that's wrong with your set up!

[save2600]

They don't have to bulge or leak. They just dry out and don't perform their job anymore.

Caught this comment and a reply where AlexH was kinda getting upset at the prospect of his
Miggy's needing repair someday (it's inevitable anyway), but as an electronics repair guy for
the last 30 years - I can confirm that PulsatingQuasar's above statement is factual. It's
actually more rare (and a serviceman's dream) that there *is* physical evidence that a
component has failed. Makes our job that much easier and it's usually never
"easy"!   :-(

And yeah, it's total BS that some ratfink talked to the seller about this and his response
of no longer obligated to help. Totally counterproductive. Wasn't it something like 18 days
before he had actually heard from the seller? Weird. In any event, I do agree though and
this has been mentioned before - there are too many unprofessional sellers on ePay, but
at the same time, probably just as many clueless buyers that have more dollars than cents.
Not saying this is the case at all. Just seems the people with money spend it a little more
foolishly than those who know exactly what they are buying. Hence the (often) outrageous
prices old computer stuff goes for on ePay - where "buyers" from a specialised forum such
as this would never pay those rates. Just an observation.