Buying an A4000T? Things to look for.

[Kin-Hell]

X-ray wrote:
Bumped because some changes were made, and because Erol and Tahoe still haven't got back to me about their disk module revision numbers  ;-)

Maybe that's cos they are un-grateful fukkas!  :-D

Nice thread.

[Hyperspeed]

What makes me wonder is this: if those X-Rays are penetrating the plastic-leaded chip carriers (on your photos) to reveal the core itself doesn't this also suggest a leaded apron or leaded glass would also let X-Rays through in the screening room?

I've often wondered too about MRI scanners. If Magneto in the X-Men can suck out the iron in your blood to make bullets then what is a 7-tonne magnet going to do? When I visited a hospital years ago they told me people had been killed when instruments and coins etc. had been sucked into the scanner!

As for the A4000T, why did Commodore decide to mount those drive-bays vertically. That's a pain in the arse for CD-ROMs!

[X-ray]

@ Hyperspeed

If the core is being revealed then the plastic cannot be impregnated with lead. Even a very thin strip of rubber that is impregnated with lead will stop the X-rays of the type used to image that board. A lead apron worn by a person has two such layers, and a glass screen at a console is the equivalent of four such layers.

The bays on the A4000T: you have two spare horizontal bays, so you can put a CD in one and a DVD in the other. I had an early SCSI CD-ROM in a vertical bay, but that one had retainers in the tray. Those seem rare these days. If you were really desperate for a third horizontal bay you could always move the floppy to a vertical bay.

[Jeff]

@X-ray

If you were really desperate for a third horizontal bay you could always move the floppy to a vertical bay.

[/quote]

Thanks for all the information and pictures. You could put together a nice guide.

As far as the drives go, couldn't a person just use slot loading drives in the horizontal bays?

Jeff

[koaftder]

Man, those pictures are nice. Only a serious amifan would do that. Excellent job!

[Hyperspeed]

by Jeff:
As far as the drives go, couldn't a person just use slot loading drives in the horizontal bays?

Ever since a Quantum Fireball in a PC started getting the dreaded ping-pong noise of bearing failure I have been reluctant to mounting any type of spinning drive counter to gravity.

Until magnetic bearings become commonplace I will remain a sceptic of drives mounted vertically, particularly removeable media!

:inquisitive:

[X-ray]

I don't think it is an issue. These are the drives I have run vertically:

External Zip Drive: 3 years (not enough desk space)
Toshiba SCSI CD Rom: 2 years
Quantum Fireball: 8 years
Seagate HD (original A4KT drive): 10 years
Connor HD: 2 years

I had no problems with those and they are all old units. The Connor is the only one that has given me trouble, but that was after I ran it another 2 years horizontal. It  developed errors. It still works though and it is the only drive I have that has been attached to and formatted on a MAC, PC and Amiga. It has been an external drive and an internal drive and has even been used to transfer X-rays off a medical scanner. So it got heavy use and I'll forgive it for playing up.

[X-ray]

Bumped because Erol and Tahoe still haven't got back to me about their disk module revision numbers  ;-)  :rtfm:

[X-ray]

Bumped because Erol and Tahoe still haven't got back to me about their disk module revision numbers, which I think I deserve  ;-)

[Ancalimon]

adolescent wrote:
Also make sure the disk module is there (along with other standard stuff).  User Jose here got a "complete" A4000T without the disk module.

vesalia has got spare disk modules.
I just ordered a AV module for my 4000t

[X-ray]

I also bought those from Vesalia. I would like a spare ports module too, but they don't have that. I'm still looking for one.

[Oli_hd]

Bumped because Erol and Tahoe still haven't got back to me about their disk module revision numbers, which I think I deserve

Well I got an A4000T a week ago and the first thing I did was pop it open (clean it) and check the disk module revision number, down side is its a revision 1, as is a spare I also bought from Vesalia.

Now Ive got to do some touch-up on the paint work, anyone got any hints on a good paint to use?

My A4t is a late Escom one and the door is missing.. anyone know if some company out there still has a stock of front facias for the Enlight Case?

Also at the moment my Cyberstorm is dead (been like that for a few yeras, I will get it repaired after my finances recover) but in the mean time Im using the A3640, problem is the revision 3.1 card wont boot, the LED goes dull then bright but then stops but my 3.0 board works just fine except I have had to remove the heatsink that was on it as it doesnt fit under the metal carrier with it on... so any hints on a: why the revision 3.1 board aint working (Ive changed the CPU on it for the 3.0 chip and get the same) and if revision 3.0 cards are ment to get so hot it crashes. (Could be a timing problem with the 3.0 card but it works fine when it starts, then reset or something and you get errors like iprefs have crashed or a guru etc)

hmm I gotta go looking for more of those slides too.

[pc_amiga]

I have an Escom A4000T...and there is 1 burning question that I never understood...which has to do with the Turbo/Speaker LED connector...

The LED is always on if I connect it one direction and always off if I connect it the other way on the motherboard.   That is, the Turbo/Speaker switch never turns this light on or off...so what is the LED really for?

[fiat1100d]

Well, when the speaker is disabled, the light emitted by the LED varies with the sounds emitted by the computer.
Try playing an audio file, or play a game, and you will see that the light intensity changes.

[da9000]

Wow, great photos, details, infos X-Ray!!!!!!

Any chance you have a radiograph of an A3000 mobo?

Anyone have one? Anyone in the USA that can take an x-ray of an A3000 mobo? (I'm trying to revive my dead A3000 and I'm not sure if I busted any vias as I was desoldering the Chip RAM)

[AmigaHeretic]

As for the A4000T, why did Commodore decide to mount those drive-bays vertically. That's a pain in the arse for CD-ROMs!

I know it's a pain!  Think about it... it's 2008, we have 20x DVD burners, Blueray burners that hold 50GB of data when my computer back then had an 80MB (yeah megabyte) harddrive...

and gues what???  Companies are still making computers where the discs go in sideways and are hard as hell to get in!! :-)



HP Pavilion Slimline s3300t series