A500 Boot Problem

[BGary335]

I recently purchased an A500 off of EBay. Upon powering it up, I get no lights other than the Caps Lock key, which stays lit continuously, and no video (I'm using an A520 adapter, by the way). However, I can tell a video signal is going to the TV when I switch the computer on, there's just nothing on the screen. I try inserting a floppy, and get nothing from the computer, except a momentary spin of the floppy drive. I tried replacing both the Agnus chip and the Kickstart ROM (in fact, I've tried several of each)but nothing changes. I've noticed that neither the CPU chip nor the Kickstart ROM get even a little warm. The rest of the chips however seem to heat up at least a little.

Any ideas on what the problem might be? I'm thinking maybe its the CPU, butI'm not sure. Any help wouldbe very much appreciated!

[BGary335]

Any ideas at all?

[BGary335]

Yes I have tried another PSU, and it made no difference.

Yes I ahve inspected all the chips and connectors, cleaned them, and made sure they were seated properly.

[BGary335]

@ ajlwalker:

You are correct. I am not pressing it, rather when I switch the system on, it comes on and stays on for about 5 minutes, then goes off. Just seems to me to be longer than it should be. Granted, I haven't used a 500 in 5 or 6 years, but from whatI can remember the Caps Lock light never stayed on that long on boot up.

[BGary335]

Well the problem seems to have worsened. All I get when I power up now is a continuous Cpas lock light and nothing else.

[BGary335]

@Argus

What are the CIA chips? Sorry but I'm not too familiar with anything other than the Kickstart ROM chip, the CPU, and the Agnus.

@HellCoder

Yes but it was sold as is, and all he'll give me is the same one-liner:Sorry it was sold as is. Not even an attempt at helping. It's that attitude that leads me to believe he was just trying to rip someone off. Yes, the auction did say as-is, but when you give a real nice description of the computer, and include none of the bad stuff, its hard to not buy it. If he would've given some reason for why it was being sold as is (like maybe that it doesn't power up), than I wouldn't have bought it. Unfortunatately, I had to make a decision based on what info he did give, and as you can tell I made the wrong decision.

@DrDekker

I've tried disconnecting the keyboard, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

[BGary335]

I have not swapped those. Right now I don't have any other CIA chips to swap them with.

[BGary335]

Ok, did that, and here's where we're at now: When I switch the system on, the Caps Lock light and now the floppy light both come on and stay on continuously. Now I'm even more confused. Why has the floppy light decided to come on? Are we going in the right direction?

Oh, also, there is no video. The screen flashes when I power the system as if its about to send video to the TV but nothing happens.

[BGary335]

@Erol

Those codes aren't much help at all actually at this point in time because there is no video of any kind whatsoever. Beleive me, if I was getting any color screen, I wouldn't leave that information out! Also, the Caps Lock light does no kind of blinking at all. It is solid from the time I turn the system on until the time I turn it off.

[BGary335]

@Erol

We've already done that. See the previous page of this thread for the result.

As for looking voer the board, yes I've done that and haven't found anything that looks wrong.

[BGary335]

In addition to the modulator, I have also tried the monochrome video out, but I get the same result. Other than that, Ihave no other way of hooking itup to a monitor or TV.

[BGary335]

I appreciate everyone's help, however I've given up on it. It's probably nothing that can be fixed. I'm going to sell it on Ebay for parts. I have, however, just received another 500 which, thankfully, seems to work just fine! I do have one question for you guys though: It currently has a Kickstart 1.3 ROM, and I have a 2.0 ROM I'd like to upgrade to-how much work is there to it? Does it involve soldering? Thanks agin for your helpy guys, I really appreciate it!

[BGary335]

Great! For some reason I was under the impression that there was a jumper line on the board that had to be soldered.

[BGary335]

How do you tell what version it is? Is it written on the board somewhere?

[BGary335]

Tomas, I have replied. Look again.

@sdyates,

I have more software for 2.4 than 1.3 so upgrading to 2.0 would be the best way for me to go I think.