Green screen of death.

[OldB0y]

Don't bother with a hard drive, get a 4/8/16Gb CF card, and a CF -> IDE adapter instead.  Uses less power, is silent, and is solid state - oh yeah they're also cheap.  Be careful though, as not all brands of Compact Flash card seem to play ball with the Amiga.  I use both Sandisk and Kingston which work for me.  I think Amigakit sell them, if not search e-bay and you'll find loads.

Some more modern 2.5" IDE HDDs don't seem to work with the Amiga anyway from what I've read, but I haven't tried so couldn't say for sure.

Also, get a PCMCIA CF adapter and CF card, again from Amikit, comes with drivers etc. Then you'll never need worry about your external floppy drive.  As for the internal one, if you haven't already, try cleaning it with an air duster/head cleaner disk etc, its probably just caked in dust.

If the expansion card doesn't work, check the A1200 edge connector for corrosion/dirt etc.  Your RAM expansion is probably this:

http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/pc1204

[OldB0y]

Yep , that's the one Oldboy .

Is this what I need ?http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=883

It says it comes with an unregistered version of WHDLOAD , how is this limited ?
The A500 came with a few games (Zool , SWIV etc.) how much hassle are these to install onto HD/CF ?

yup, thats the kitty:-) Checkout http://www.whdload.de for installers for most (if not all) Amiga games.  Usually download installer -> unpack with lha, run installer, insert disks when requested etc.  There is a site (not sure I'm allowed to mention it) that is a repositry of games that have allready been installed with whdload, all you need to do is download, unzip and run...

Un-registered whdload will run a lot of stuff as mentioned, but some games will quit after 1 level etc check the readme accompanying the game installer - most will fully work though in my experience.  I registered mine though, as its very cheap and well worth it.

Is this joystick any good ?  http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=52&products_id=610

I used to have a mini version that was ace , but fell apart may moons ago .
Are there any other Amiga joysticks out there ?
Would be good to get 4 player Bomberman going again !

I've got a clear, original one of those - they're okay, as are the very similar ZipStick (looks the same but has square yellow buttons).  I mainly use a competition Pro CD32 pad though - pretty good for most stuff

What's the service life of compact flash like , don't they have a quite limited read/write life ?

Dunno, I think if you write loads you may run in to trouble, but I've had mine a couple of years with no bother, and have re-installed the OS/AmigaSYS multiple times etc

Hope that helps a bit:-)

[OldB0y]

Yeah,  I know what you mean.  Thanks to my Dad bringing an A1000 home from work all those years ago,  I've had lots of experience with various Amigas.  Its surprising how stuff moves on though even with 'retro' computers, and how quickly you forget stuff when your not using them.  

I re-setup my A1200+ Blizzard 1230 for the first time in about 5 years back in 2007 having moved house - it took me a while to remember all the cli stuff, editing the startup-sequence and get WB how I wanted it again!  Then I saw lots of people had started replacing their HDs with CF cards etc - more to learn!

Ended up buying a B1260 last year to appreciate all those '060 demos at their best, and have just started resurrecting my towered A1200 - haven't had as much fun with a computer in years! (not having fun with em' comes with working in IT I guess...).  

The wife doesn't mind, as it keeps me quiet (that and the fact they're not cluttering up her lounge) :-)

let me know if you need WB3.0 disks, I'm sure I've got enough working blanks to do a complete set.