Did I kill my A600?

[RedWarrior]

Ok- this follows from the CF formatting thread... Long dramas getting the CF adaptor in my machine... finally get it connected, and it doesn't boot.

Tried restoring my previous setup of noisy IDE 3.5"drive... and it's not working anymore!!

What could have happened?

[Xamiche]

Did you have a 44-pin CF adaptor? And if so you didn't connect it the wrong way around did you? Pins 41-44 carry the power for the drive on a 44-pin IDE connector. If you got it the wrong way around some damage may have been done.

Edit: Just saw the pics of your adaptor set up.



If you plugged the CF Adaptor in the way it looks on the photo, I think you may have plugged it in the wrong way. I'm not sure what damage that may have done, or whether it would damage only the card or both the card and the IDE on the a600 MoBo.  :-(

[monami]

the red stripe "usually" goes on the same side as the power connector.

[Xamiche]

On a 3.5" Hard Disk yes, it usually does. On a 2.5" <-> 3.5" adaptor however the 4 pins on the Molex socket are pins 41 to 44. So the pin next to the Molex plug is generally pin 40. Unless the maker wanted to have some funky tracks on the PCB.

[monami]

well that would be an easy mistake then!

[RedWarrior]

So you think I killed the motherboard? That's really bad news... Stupid adaptor shouldn't let u put it in backwards!

Is it fixable? There must be SOME hope?

[monami]

i was just thinking that. to my mind it's badly designed and cheap. don't give up though. have you tried the a600 on it's own? i've seem them survive worse stuff. after all i own some and they are still working!!! :lol:

[RedWarrior]

It's still alive- there's a kickstart animation... but it's not detecting the HDD at all, and I'm getting really depressed about it.

[Xamiche]

I'm not sure with any real certainty that you've damaged the boards IDE controller, but the fact it no longer boots the drive that it used to is a pretty good indicator. Which custom chip handles the IDE on an Amiga 600? You might need to replace it. Though surface mounted chips are really hard to replace. AmigaKit sell A600 MoBos for around $40. I also see them come up on eBay fairly frequently.

Just go over everything slowly and make sure you have the old drive hooked up the way it was before you installed the CF card. You said you had a 3.5" HD in there? How are you powering the 3.5" HD? Did you reconnect the power to the 3.5" HD? That's a mistake I used to make all the time. I'd put a 3.5" HD on my A1200, then freak out that it wasn't working only to find that I hadn't connected any power to it.

[monami]

did you see any smoke or smell anything burn. or a component type smell at any point? or is there any burn marks?

[RedWarrior]

I connected the power, so it wasn't that... but there were no burn marks or anything like that either... no smell...

confusing... I don't want to have to buy another machine! darn it...

[monami]

i bought a pc case at christmas 2001 for a downstairs computer . i was just telling my mother how great usb was and how you can just plug stuff in and out while it's on and boldly demoing it to her when i plugged a usb psx joypad adaptor in it and could smell burning. the joypad would no longer work...
inside 2 resistors had burnt off you could see the burn marks. it ruined xmas i know how that feels! i think the usb port had been wired incorrectly. best to avoid cheap stuff from china... :roll:

they should be made so you can't plug them in the wrong way.

[Gaiyan]

I fried the controller chip on my Atari Falcon when I put one adapter the wrong way round. There was a puff and lot's of smoke though...

[RedWarrior]

Would anyone in Brisbane like to donate an Amiga600, or 1200? I was really looking forward to breathing some new life into this machine & do some live music/art projects...

Major bummer.

[mike-]

might be the ide cable,  i've had hordes of problems with them, until i finally got one from amigakit