Blizzard 2060 repair chronicles

[EdFlux]

Check here

Card arrived today. It didn't have cat urine, but it appeared to be a sticky resin of sorts. Cleaned up with soap and water and it came all off, so the board is nice and shiny with no bad traces noted.

But, no boot    :cry:

Pulled the 68060 and a couple of the pins on the socket had green corrosion on them, hopefully I didn't toast the CPU when I powered it on. Currently soaking the board in lighter fluid to get any deep resin or corrosion off the board.

Scrub a dub dub!

[Matt_H]

Currently soaking the board in lighter fluid

!!!

Er, is that a tried and tested electronics cleaning technique?

Clean that thing good afterwards. You don't want a stray spark or heat from the 060 blowing up your board, your Amiga, or yourself.

[CLS2086]

Will you sell it ?

[save2600]

Have you cleaned the board with vinegar, water & a toothbrush? Lighter fluid... ummmm, no. Wouldn't try that meself ever. May as well clean off the corrosion with Coca-Cola then. Oh - but that would definitely eat through traces... lol

Did this "resin" as you describe it eat through any traces? Have you reseated any socket'd chips, especially the CPU?? And most importantly... did you dry out the board 100% before plugging it in?  lol

Next step would be to check for voltages across the various chips & components. Checking continuity, etc.

[EdFlux]

AFAIK zippo fluid isn't corrosive, i've used it before to clean very dirty PCBs with tar/resin on them.

And yes the board was dry  :-D

Still, no go. Upon further inspection, it looks like the S74FCT chips on the board have a few pins soldered together. These are located between the SIMM slots. If anyone has a board to compare, i'd like to know if they are supposed to have pins soldered together or if this was a prior repair attempt. Doesn't look that way on the pic on the hardware database. I did get my A2000 to start with the board disabled while holding "0", but it doesn't work everytime.

The vias also have green stuff in them, not looking good.

[NovaCoder]

Lighter fluid?

I find the best thing for cleaning PCB's to be.....PCB cleaner  :lol:

[orb85750]

EdFlux wrote:
AFAIK zippo fluid isn't corrosive, i've used it before to clean very dirty PCBs with tar/resin on them.

And yes the board was dry  :-D

Still, no go. Upon further inspection, it looks like the S74FCT chips on the board have a few pins soldered together. These are located between the SIMM slots. If anyone has a board to compare, i'd like to know if they are supposed to have pins soldered together or if this was a prior repair attempt. Doesn't look that way on the pic on the hardware database. I did get my A2000 to start with the board disabled while holding "0", but it doesn't work everytime.

The vias also have green stuff in them, not looking good.

Great, now you can't ship the board anywhere without declaring it as explosive/hazardous material. :-)

[EdFlux]

orb85750 wrote:
Great, now you can't ship the board anywhere without declaring it as explosive/hazardous material.

LOL, seriously, it's brought back boards from the dead for me. (like an Atari ST floppy drive that had a crazy capacitor explosion)

I took a real good look at a pic of the board online, looks like a botched repair job. I'm gonna get out the soldering iron and see what I can do. At least I got a 68060 out of the deal, all I need to do is find a 2040 or GVP-M now.

[Matt_H]

Great, now you can't ship the board anywhere without declaring it as explosive/hazardous material. :-)

 :roflmao:

@ EdFlux

The photos here tend to be super hi-res - doesn't look like those chips are supposed to be soldered.

[EdFlux]

I cleaned up the solder joints on the SMD chips I mentioned and still no luck. The 68060 only gets slightly warm to the touch. I have no way to test it unless I convert the board to a 2040 and pop an '040 in there, but I just don't want to screw it up any more. So I officially wave the white flag and bow my head to supreme  paperweightdom.

Anyone ever deal with these?:

http://www.amigacenter.com/
http://amiga.serveftp.net/index.html

I've heard good things about the center in France, kinda steep, but worth it IMHO.

[Miked]

I, too, have heard very good things about the Amiga France repair center.  Considering what you paid for the card, perhaps it is worth it to see if they can get it to function.  The alternative is where you are at now... a non-working accelerator.

[taunusand]

I have only heard good things about the 2 places you mention.

Lighter fluid? I have never tried that myself, but would not be afraid to try. I'm an electronic technician myself.
Thanks for the tip :-)

Good luck with the board :-)

[dannyp1]

I have dealt with both places you ask about and would recommend both.  They both did excellent work.