A500 problem....

[giZmo350]

Hi all, I recently purchased an A500 (rev 6) unit on ebay. It has a 2.0 ROM and a ram expansion board. Sometimes when I power on the unit, a red flashing box comes up before disk access takes place. It reads, Software failure. Press left mouse button to continue. Error: 8000 0003  Task 00C034F8. If I press the left mouse button, it will continue to load some games but usually fails. Any thoughts? Is this a ROM failure or a disk access failure?

Also, I get about every color error on start up...  in other words one time it will be magenta, next yellow, next reboot black, next green! Sheesh! I reseated all the chips but to no avail. (except the Agnus - how do I get that bugger out?)

I also get one blink on the keyboard caps lock light on boot up. keyboard ROM checksum error.

Sometimes it boots up correctly!  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Amiga4k]

Your questioning the A500. Open it up, and re-seat any socketed chips. It either works 100% or you read on.

Assuming you read on, as it does not work 100%.
You should be question the person that sold it to you.

(1)Request a solution from the seller.
(2)Notify ebay of the problem immediately.
(3)Notify ebay if you a) get a solution   b) get ignored
(4)When it's all over, if the seller did not get you remedy then POST the seller's name.

Although mistakes do happen, and an error can usually be fixed, anyone that sells less than quality deserves "posting".

[Darklight]

Yes, I would suggest making sure all the chips are firmly seated, as well as trying to boot it without the ram expansion installed (ie, pull it out) and see what happens.  The fact that it's quite random sounds like it could be a loose contact inside.  
EDIT - Sorry, didn't see the part about you already having reseated the chips.  Give it a go with the ram expansion out.

[giZmo350]

I found some info that points to chip ram acting up (multiple colored boot errors - green and yellow). Some said to reseat the Agnus and some said "Don't mess with it!" I would assume to to the danger of cracking the socket. Is there a trick to popping it out without damage? I don't have an extractor.

I still don't know what is causing one blink on the caps lock light at start up. (keyboard ROM checksum error)

Ya, the ebay thing is kinda getting to me. I bought two machines and both were not as advertised. They always give you that biz about the stuff being "vintage" and "as is". Thing is one machine is older and one is newer (rev6a) with 2.0 ROM, fat agnus, etc. Funny thing... the seller never said anything about the machine being a 6a. Did all the 6a boards come with the 2.0 ROM and the fat Agnus already installed or is this a mod by someone? I guess if worse comes to worse I could use the old MoBo.

Well, wish me luck!   :lol:   Any suggestions on popping out that Agnus would be great too!   :-)    BTW, would it be possible to use an old agnus with the 6a board?

[Linchpin]

IIRC... some of the a500's were simply a500+ with 1.3 roms installed on them...

[scuzzb494]

Hi

The first thing that the Amiga does when you turn
on the power is to perform a check on its hardware. If
any of these tests fails, it will be signified by the
screen changing to a particular colour.

Colour - Reason
Red An error was found in the ROM
Green An error was found in the Chip RAM
Blue An error was found in the custom chips
Yellow The CPU found an error before the error
trapping software could be activated.

The keyboard processor also performs a self test. If
this fails the Caps Lock light will flash.

Now you say this is an A500. Are you sure. If the motherboard is from an A500+ it will have the 501 onboard and this means a battery. If there is a battery on the mobo it could be leaking. Next, if indeed an A500, does it have an expansion in the form of the A501. Cus again this will have a battery on it and this could be leaking.

The Amiga 500 is vintage, and given that they were the most popular of all the Amiga range are not too difficult to get hold of. I must have over a dozen, and have had one fail on me during usage. It's gonna happen. But I wouldn`t blame Ebay, honestly, this is all very very second hand stuff.

The A500 isn't that tricky a machine to get working, and certainly I've swapped the old chips over with great success to squeeze more life out of the beast. Just watch the shielding, as its often rusty. Also they had a habbit of using the odd screws that are difficult to extract. I wouldn`t worry about reseating the chips, after all its probably your best bet to getting the baby working.

Anyway have a look at my tutorial on the battery damage caused by a leak in an A500+.

http://www.scuzz.org.uk/amiga/a_amiga_inframe.htm

All the very best.

scuzz

[Tomas]

Check the battery on the ram expansion.. maybe it has leaked onto the board..
This is even more important if this is infact a a500+, cause then the battery will be located in a500 itself.

[Amiga4k]

There are only 2 ways to remove the Agnus PLL chip. Either use a PLL extractor tool, or remove the motherboard and you will find 2 holes under the chip. The chip could be pushed out IF you can made a tool that applies pressure evenly.

While it is operating with some success:
Open the case, expose the motherboard as fully as you can.
Using a pencil's with eraser, press the eraser on the PCB in various sections of the PCB. Watch for problems.

I would sell you the A500 I have for sale, but you'd probably not like my guarantee that you'd be happier.