Amiga dealers in Australia?

[realmadman]

Are there any still dealing in Amiga goodies?  I'd like to get my A4K/040 up and running again, and then upgrade it, but would prefer to deal with somebody in Aussie dollars.

So, are there any left?

[gizmomelb]

hmm, none really that I'm aware of..  may I ask what's wrong with your A4000?  I've got an A4000/030 that has battery damage to the motherboard and I was probably going to part it out.  So depending on what's wrong with yours I may be able to help.

cheers,
Gizmomelb

[whiteb]

There are 2 i believe, one is in Queensland, but last i checked the website has had its website "Under reconstruction" for the last 6+ months.

The second is "Amigainnovations" in Perth, but his prices are an insult to the amiga scene, and its his "Part time" business.

I know its not Australian, but i just ordered Kickstart 3.1 from Amigakit.com, with exchange rates, and postage factored in.. i saved about AU$20 from Amigakit, instead of ordering Kick3.1 from Amigainnovations.

[coldfish]

It was AmigaInnovation's "impressive" pricing that helped me give up buying real hardware.  And with emulation now boasting greater compatability and higher specs than any of my real Amiga systems, and me with several mid-highend PCs sitting nearby...

Anyway I think he's on to selling obscure & expensive handheld media player thingys now?

   

[realmadman]

gizmomelb wrote:
hmm, none really that I'm aware of..  may I ask what's wrong with your A4000?  I've got an A4000/030 that has battery damage to the motherboard and I was probably going to part it out.  So depending on what's wrong with yours I may be able to help.

cheers,
Gizmomelb

Umm, needs a new HD floppy, needs the battery fixed (previous owner ripped out out and destroyed the connectors), needs a new hard disk, needs a new mouse and keyboard...  And that's all before I can use the poor thing.  

Then, once it's up and running, it'll need the buster chip replaced (currently rev 7), and I want to network it, upgrade to kickstart 3.1, put in a gfx card, etc...

[Castellen]

Contact Doug at Anything Amiga who are somewhere in East Australia.
amiga1[at]internode.on.net

He does sales and can help you with the parts you need.


As far as I know, I'm about the only one doing SMD component level Amiga repairs in Australia/NZ.
If you give me a bit more information on the state of the A4000D motherboard and perhaps a photo of the RTC/battery area, I can give you an estimate to repair.

[Oliver]

Umm, needs a new HD floppy, needs the battery fixed (previous owner ripped out out and destroyed the connectors), needs a new hard disk, needs a new mouse and keyboard...  And that's all before I can use the poor thing.  

Then, once it's up and running, it'll need the buster chip replaced (currently rev 7), and I want to network it, upgrade to kickstart 3.1, put in a gfx card, etc...

Hi, you know most of that stuff you can do quite happily with ebay and regular computer shops.

The battery is easy to get from a specialist electronics shop, and just needs to be soldered in.  The connectors are actually a part of the battery, so you haven't lost anything there.  The batery comes with connectors attached, which solder onto the board.  This is quite an easy soldering job.  Don't know if you've done any soldering before, but it only took me about 10 minutes to become fairly proficient.

I think you can use any regular ata hard disk for the 4000, can't you?  Does it also have SCSI?

These days for a mouse and keyboard, you might be best served by getting (or making, if you're up to it), adapters for PC mouse and keyboard for Amigas.  You can also find the Amiga items on ebay, and often also in general second hand stores, but too often for silly prices.  You can save money if you can put in the time.

I think kickstarts are normally best bought from ebay.  Then just read some instructions online, and plug them in.  It's pretty cheap.

If you really need a more reliable deal, then shops may be worthwhile, but I've had good experiences with ebay and other second hand sources in Perth.  Lots of people on this forum have also been happy with AmigaKit's service, and seems a very reliable source to deal with.  The only 'current' Aussie Amiga dealer I have dealt with is the afore mentioned Amiga Innovations.  Found him (Dwayne?) to be reasonable to deal with, but not competitive in terms of stock and price.  For the classic stuff, I think he's probably just selling old stuff, and doesn't bother trying to get extra stock (this is just my impression though).  Remember to shop around and get a good price (amd reliable deal).  There are some real sharks in this small market.

Good luck.

[realmadman]

Yeah, I know I can use any regular IDE/ATA hard disk, and no, no SCSI interfaces on my A4000.

Some pictures:



Oh, and on closer inspection, my buster is a rev 9, will I still need to get it upgraded?

[mihcael]

AnythingAmiga
Amiga Innovations

and..
http://www.dtu.com.au/
http://connect.to/amiga

[Castellen]

@realmadman
That board appears to be in fairly good shape, a lot better than I was expecting :-)

Assuming the board mostly all works and there's no problems with the audio stage (which often have capacitor problems), then you should be able to do it yourself.  Instructions here.

Still, if you want me to do it, I'd estimate around AU$80 for parts, labour and complete board test.  Return freight for motherboard extra.
If you can put up with the weird layout, I can also make an A4000 compatible keyboard from a standard PC PS/2 keyboard.
That would be roughly AU$25 for parts and labour, not including the keyboard.

Email me for any more details.

[InTheSand]

@Realmadman:

If you want a recommendation, I'd take Castellen up on his offer - I bought my A3000 from him and also a modified PC keyboard to use with it and have had no problems. He knows what he is doing!

 - Ali

[realmadman]

Cool, thanks for that, I was hoping that I'd be able to have my beloved A4K up and running again one day.  Last time I used it it worked fine, asides from the hard disk (which is the original Seagate 120M unit), and is exhibiting the not ready on powerup problem, I thought it was dying, but hopefully it's still working after reading this page: http://amiga.serveftp.net/A4000_HardwareGuide/ideprob.html

I'll email you about it soon, right now I'm just finding out all this sort of thing and with my first son due within the next week or so, my computer hobby will have to be a lower priority for a little while, but at least now I know who to contact