just picked up some amiga items.. what are they and why dont they work!

[Derfs]

i managed to find a towered 1200, with some assorted things but just wanted to ask here about some stuff to do with it.

i believe the tower is an eyetech ez-tower mk 4, and inside i have :-

A1200 with 3.0 roms
AT power supply (seems to been converted for the 1200)
A4000 keyboard adaptor
Squirrel SCSI
Elbox 4xEIDE'99
SCSI cd-rom
Floppy drive
A1200 8mb ram board with 68882 and battery (generic - no name on board)
DCE Scan Magic (external scandoubler/flickerfixer)
MountainGate Passport XL (which i believe is a caddy for removable scsi HD)
Maxtor SCSI HD (dont know how big yet)
Paravision M1230XA accelorator (68030/50/8mb)
and to top it off, an os3.9 cd

I can not get it started. there is no power going to the 1200, but there is to cd-rom. there is a blue wire that has been attached from the AT power supply and is going straight into the middle of the 1200 power socket on the back. i do not know if this is missing anything, or if i need to plug anything else into the 1200 to power it up, so does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks in advance!

[gurthuk]

Take some photo's as it is.

Then take it apart top the bare bones of a A1200 and power that up to see if it works standing alone.

If it does - add an item at a time and power it up, making sure you clean the connections and reference your photo's for continuity.

Logic dictates you'll either arrive at a fully working system or identify a fault part.

Replace or repair fault part(s).

[Derfs]

problem is i dont have a normal power supply to use to test the 1200 at the moment. tried looking for instructions for this tower (to do with how the PSU is hooked up), but no luck so far.

[gurthuk]

Start with the bare bones A1200 and PSU together. Simple things like the fuse in the plug are always a good start - simple but often over looked.

[ddniUK]

perhaps it used to have a mediator installed. They use the old AT power connectors with just one blue wire from the PSU going to the centre of A1200 power jack.
You could try a standard A500/A1200 psu to power the mainboard and the Tower PSu for the HDD/CD drives

[Ianoakley]

That's quite a good system you have picked up. I agree with the other comments in that you should strip the system to it's bear bones.

Sounds to me like you have no power to the A1200 motherboard.The pins are adjacent to the floppy power supply and there might be a lead which then conects to the front of the Eyetech case.If nothing is connected the Amiga won't boot.

[KatManDEW]

Sounds like you have a great system if you spend some time with it. I just got a A1200 on EBay and it was pretty much dead when I got it, but with the help of the great folks here on Amiga.org, my A1200 is now up and running.

Good luck with your new baby.

[Derfs]

its been suggested that i use one of the floppy power cables from the AT power supply to plug into the floppy connector on the 1200 mobo, so will see if that is what is not giving it enough juice.

[rkauer]

 Mediator system don't work at all with the Microbotics 1230XA (the real name of the Paravision accelerator).

 Just look for the power connector near the floppy data header on the motherboard: it connects to a PSU spare power connector.

 Problem solved if the PSU is OK.

[Derfs]

bloody hell it worked! only problem i have now is the squirrel and cd-rom do not auto boot, i have no mouse, no ide hd and no wb floppies!

ah well, mouse / ide cf adaptor and card / floppies are all at different address so thats no big deal. i am worried that the a3000 keyboard i have doesnt work. does anyone know if this only works after boot?

[orb85750]

Did you buy the system from someone?  If so, was it the person that built it?  Seems that the seller should offer some suggestions.   Or does one just find abandoned Amiga 1200 towers these days?

[Derfs]

it has been passed around a bit, and this was all left in a loft for many years. there is no way to contact who originally knew what was going on ;-)

[Tenacious]

I have no experience with your EZ-towr, but it does seem that there used to be more to your system than is there now.

The Squirrel SCSI plugs into your PCMCIA port?  The HD and the CDrom are connected thru that?  I don't remember if you can boot with Squirrel.

3.0 Roms will work with OS 3.0 and 3.1.  OS 3.5 and 3.9 require 3.1 roms.

1200 MB requires +5, +12, -12 volts and ground (common return) to power up.  These supply rails are included in your power supply.  If you are good with electronics, no sweat.  If not, getting any of these wrong will probably fry the MB.

There is a 030 accelerator AND a 8Meg ram expansion w/68882 installed at the same time?  How?

Was the EZ tower normally supplied with an AT power conversion cable?

Detailed pics overall and up close (and in focus) will help others help you.

It does sound like a good find.

[Derfs]

Tenacious wrote:
I have no experience with your EZ-towr, but it does seem that there used to be more to your system than is there now.

i think that too, but hardware wise, only about a mouse and a ide hard drive

The Squirrel SCSI plugs into your PCMCIA port?  The HD and the CDrom are connected thru that?  I don't remember if you can boot with Squirrel.

you cant which is why i need to get my ide cf adaptor back

3.0 Roms will work with OS 3.0 and 3.1.  OS 3.5 and 3.9 require 3.1 roms.

yup, that is what puzzles me. i have a os3.9 disc, but 3.0 roms.

1200 MB requires +5, +12, -12 volts and ground (common return) to power up.  These supply rails are included in your power supply.  If you are good with electronics, no sweat.  If not, getting any of these wrong will probably fry the MB.

its turned on, which is the 1st step

There is a 030 accelerator AND a 8Meg ram expansion w/68882 installed at the same time?  How?

sorry for not being clear. i do have both, however the ram expander was in there, not the 030 accelerator.

Was the EZ tower normally supplied with an AT power conversion cable?

i think it was an optional extra

Detailed pics overall and up close (and in focus) will help others help you.

It does sound like a good find.

cant help with the pics, i have no camera at the moment. im now just researching about this 5pin din keyboard adaptor to see if this a3000 keyboard is actually working or not. i can not do a soft reboot from the insert disk screen.

[Derfs]

well its up and running with a 256mb cf card for now, but i have encountered a few issues, so can anyone help me.

the keyboard adaptor i have is a 'EZKEY-SE Amiga Keyboard Adapter' which i plug the A3000 keyboard into, but it just does not work. i dont need any software to get this to work do i ?

i have no software disks so i dont have the drivers for the squirrel scsi. anyone know where i can get them?

the elbox 4xeide'99 adaptor also has no software. do i need to get into contact with elbox to get the drivers to use all ports, or can idefix97 help.

as i dont have any spare drives at the mo, im also thinking of connecting an old 80mb 2.5" hd to my pc through a usb adaptor so i can install stuff on that through winuae, so searching for a guide :-D