Is My Amiga 600 Dying?

[HopperJF]

 :-(

I set up my Amiga 600 the other day and my Commodore 1084S monitor, unfortunately I have lost the cable so have ordered one from eBay.

I decided to fire up the miggy to see if everything was still in ship shape since it has served me well for nearly 10 years. Unfortunately it didn't seem too good. When I switched her on the disk drive made a brief noise like it was reading a disk, but then there was no clicking, it wasn't searching for a disk.

I tried leaving it on for 10 minutes to see if it just needed warming up after being in storage for around 18 months but still no joy.
I put in a bootable disk but still no joy, it doesn't seem to be searching for a disk.
I can't really say much else until I get the monitor cable but I'm hoping it will be something simple like the floppy drive.

[countzero]

HopperJF wrote:

Is My Amiga 600 Dying?

yes.

search the forum for 'amiga 600 woes'.

[ZeBeeDee]

Have you performed open case surgery and made sure all the cables are connected?

Something might have worked loose ...

[Damion]

You could try re-seating the ROM, but chances are the caps need to be replaced. Both of my A600 motherboards are flaky for the same reason.

[Tomas]

I was trying to post earlier, but internet went down just as i pressed the submit button..
But anyways.. Is this a stock a600 or has it been expanded? If it is expanded, then try to remove all kinds of expansions and see if that helps.
You might also want to check the psu and check that all chips/roms are seated properly.

[HopperJF]

Tomas wrote:
I was trying to post earlier, but internet went down just as i pressed the submit button..
But anyways.. Is this a stock a600 or has it been expanded? If it is expanded, then try to remove all kinds of expansions and see if that helps.
You might also want to check the psu and check that all chips/roms are seated properly.

It is a stock A600.

I will open her up in a minute and see if everything looks OK.


Edit: Never actually noticed before, but this A600 has NEVER been opened!!! So I have now, some 16 years after it was made, ripped the warranty seal!

The board itself looks brand new, everything looks fine but I will carefully clean it over, but other than some dust over the RF ports it all looks fine and clean.

[a1200]

Make sure you push the socketed ROM in nicely. They do slowly work up after years of heating up and cooling down.

[taunusand]

You could try to connect her to at TV :-)
If you get the kickstart screen, it could be the floppy drive.

[potis21]

[off-topic]

some 16 years after it was made, ripped the warranty seal!

you nasty ch.popper!!!!! :-o  :lol:  :lol:


edit - sorry- I just failed to resist  :oops:  :shocked:

Any way for you to check the PSU is ok since the +12V are required for the floppy?
Any buddy around with a spare psu for checking?

Any tech friend to start swapping caps?

[rkauer]

 I put here in one (hmm... in truth, was on 2 threads) the complete list of electrolytic capacitors needed for the A600/1200. Even the code on the boards are the very same.

 Just do a search for "capacitors list" with my name in it. [EDIT] No need to. Here is the link

 Since you broken the warranty seal, it's a good thing to measure the voltage levels on the floppy power connector. +5V must be 4.85V at least. +12V must in the 10.5~12V range. If you find one of the voltage levels wrong, you can simply convert an AT/ATX pc PSU to use in your Amiga.

 In case of no-go (voltage OK), probably you need to replace the floppy unit. Search on my pictures (here on A.org) on how to convert a pc unit to work.

[skipp604]

It also may be the case of worn floppy-insert detection microswitch - the one that consists of two small "fingers" just in front of the loading slot. I had this issue in my A4000 floppy drive. What it was, it actually thought the floppy was in, when there was no disk in drive, and there were these noises as the drive was trying to read non-existing disk.

I'd suggest replacing the whole floppy drive, or try reviving the microswitch somehow.

[Lonewolf10]

Both of my A600's died last year

One of them was one of the first to be made - the motherboard was labelled A300 (the A600's original name which was changed at the very last minute).

One went with a loud click and then I smelt burning so quickly switched it off. The 2nd one was unusually hot around the top left corner (power supply area) and then died one day when I switched her on.
Not opened either up since - due to lack if time.


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[taunusand]

@Lonewolf10
Your problem could be solved with rkauer's above link :-)
(new caps)

[Damion]

taunusand wrote:
@Lonewolf10
Your problem could be solved with rkauer's above link :-)
(new caps)

Indeed... and best to do it as soon as possible on all A600/A1200/A4000 before the board is ruined or needs serious repair. Between the leaking caps and batteries, I hate to imagine how many are slowly dying in people's closets...


 

[taunusand]

-D- wrote:
Indeed... and best to do it as soon as possible on all A600/A1200/A4000 before the board is ruined or needs serious repair. Between the leaking caps and batteries, I hate to imagine how many are slowly dying in people's closets...

Please don't mention that :bigcry: