A4000T Cyberstorm only working when pressed down every so often

[AmigaAbattoir]

OK, posted the pictures of my setup to the Image-o-Matic here but I guess one of the webmasters needs to approve them before they are available.

Awesome!!!  Now, it time to the hardware store! I also have plenty of other stuff to pick up there.

[amigamad]

have you checked to make sure there are no solder dry joints ,one of my friends abit board  has a dry joint which might be why it keeps losing time and settings. :-)

[Rigger]

You asked this question at the perfect time. My A4000 motherboard just happened to be out so I could do some modifications to the case and I could get those pictures. :-)

[tonyw]

I realise it's a bit late to add to this thread now, but I agree fully with Rigger. I had to do the same thing to my 4000 + CS2 when I put it in a tower. I think the nylon spacers I used were about 5/8" long - a little over 16 mm. I eventually bought 19 mm spacers and cut them down to fit.

tony

[A4000Bear]

You have dry joints under the 68060 socket. I have encountered (and repaired) numerous CSPPCs with this problem, including my own.

It is repairable with an ordinary soldering iron, however, extreme care must be taken as it can be very easy to ruin the socket.

Basically, it involves removing the 060, and using a very clean soldering iron, without any excess solder on the tip, heating each individual socket from the top until the soldered joint underneath melts and repairs the joint. It's really a job for an experienced technician, as the right amount of heat over the right amount of time is needed to effect a repair, without melting the plastic socket frame, or damaging the pins by filling with solder etc.

I have successfully repaired several boards with this method.

[AmigaAbattoir]

Thanks Rigger!!  It worked!  So far the machine has been working with it's case on and is in it's original upright posistion for about an hour.  The longest it has been working in that posistion for about a month.  Just hope it stays that way!

I have been having bad luck in finding piece for things this past week.  I've been remodeling my kitchen, and 2 stores I went to were out of tile spacers and no one carries the hinges for my cabinets.  So it only seemed natural that every hobby shop or hardware store I went to did not have nylon screws or spacers. :crazy:  

I ended up finding one place that had the right size nylon tubes.  So, I just ended up cutting them and using insulators with metal screws to fasten it.  I only put in two screws, one by the resistors and one under the first SIMM bank.  I also had to make the spacers uneven in order to get it working, but so far so good!!

Thanks again!!  :-)

[AmigaAbattoir]

It is repairable with an ordinary soldering iron, however, extreme care must be taken as it can be very easy to ruin the socket.

Basically, it involves removing the 060, and using a very clean soldering iron, without any excess solder on the tip, heating each individual socket from the top until the soldered joint underneath melts and repairs the joint.

I am definately not that good with a soldering iron.  I hacked a PSX controller to use parts from an arcade controller.  In the process, I ended up over heating a few (about 3 or 4) trace and had to recreate them.  But I did manage to get the thing working.

Luckily, the spacer trick that Rigger and Matt_H suggested has been holding up!

[Rigger]

Fantastic. Apparently the height being different is common. I had to make the spacer at the sim end shorter also.

[AmigaAbattoir]

Well, after about 4 hours of use, it's dead again.  :-(  If the machine does start up,it will randomly freeze after a few minutes.  When it doesn't start up, the ethernet card flashes like normal and I get the grey screen.  But the hard drives do not spin up and my Concierto does not make the startup sound.

My bedroom has a dead A4000T and the living room has a dead A1200.  Maybe it's time to change my nick name.

[Rigger]

Hmm, check that the ROM chips are fully seated. A light gray screen should mean that the hardware checked ok and the next this the system will check is the ROM. I know if the ROM fails the test then you get a red screen but it may not even move to ROM if it cannot find it due to poor seating.

Just a guess at this point but sounds like it can't hurt.

[AmigaAbattoir]

Just tried pushing them down and they should be in there.

At this point, I'm about ready to strip both my "Classic" Amigas (A4000T and A1200) and sell their parts on eBay!  :madashell:

I just noticed that the solder on the back of the accelerator connector look a slightly yellow on one side.  Going to try and see if any place can take a look at my Cyberstorm and my Blizzard 1260.