My AmigaOne Experience

[takemehomegrandma]

@ Staticman

I am sorry to hear about your situation. When you have spent that kind of money you just expect things to work or to get the help you need to get it working (or simply having it replaced), even if it is targeted to very experienced Linux users.

I am also sorry to see some of the replies you got from your fellow A1/Eyetech supporters (here and on ann.lu). I understand that you were very keen to get yourself a new "Amiga", and supporting the company that made them available by doing so, and perhaps you wanted it so much that you simply overlooked the fact that the systems was not really ready yet and that it would take some experience in both HW and Linux to get it working? Perhaps you overlooked the fact that Eyetech outsources their repairs of the €900 A1 hardware to their customers?

Anyway, what's done is done. Eyetech gave you new components and told you to fix your board yourself, and by doing so you damaged it. But don't throw it away. A socket (if that is the only thing you broke) is replacable. You should try to find a TV repair shop or similar that has the equipment and experience on surface soldering. They should be able to replace the broken socket with the new one and place the new ROM chip in that. Hopefully your A1 will be more stable after that.

BTW, did Eyetech explain why you would need to replace Suse with Debian?

[GadgetMaster]

@Staticman

I think that this unfortunate situation resulted because both parties made mistakes. It is sometimes easy for experts to think that a procedure is simple because they find it easy themselves.

As an experienced techie, I would have welcomed the 'easy fix' and would have thanked Eytech for the free upgrade. But I realise that not everyone is in my position.

When the problems persisted and it was found that some "push-in" ROM chips were the solution, you say that you insisted on them undertaking this feat and you say that they agreed to do this but still sent the chip and extraction tool.

There was no obligation for you to attempt the upgrade just because you had the parts. If you were not confident enough then you should have sent it back together with the chip as originally agreed.

The postage could have been shared aswell i.e. you pay one way and they pay for the return.

Another option to save on postage would have been to let someone local that has more experience perform the upgrade.

All this is irrelevant now as you have caused physical damage to the board.

I assume it is still repairable, its worth showing someone to check.

Can you post some hi-res pics of the damage?

To cut your losses you could sell the board to those that have made an offer to you.

To put things into perspective, I doubt that any company would accept goods back in a phsically damaged state. Warranties normally only cover manufacturing defects. But then again not too many companies would let you attempt an arkward upgrade. Most would perfom an upgrade but at a charge.

I can see that you are far from happy. How about letting someone else talk calmly to Eytech on your behalf. They maybe able get a better result. Maybe both parties can agree on an acceptable outcome.

[unclewilli-amigalover]

this is the reason i choose to waite for the complete A1 and os4 system. already knew i was unable to use linux and the likes, don't think its fair that eyetech should carry the complete blame. i suppect pulling a wild tiger off a slab of raw steak would have been easer than replacing that rom to some people, so if you already knew you couldn't do it you shouldn't have tried...but sorry for your loss. :-(

[itix]

You could throw A1 board away, install x86 board and go for Windows.
Better than nothing?

And maybe call consumer officials UK, but I've no idea how consumer
laws work in UK. Maybe you can get replacement board, maybe not.

[Tomas]

So your saying HMetal its a professional thing to do to tell a customer 'heres some parts go do it yourself'.

I am not hmetal, but i do think that was a professional thing to do. The AmigaONE was advertised as a early beta board, then the users SHOULD expect some problems, and also should be advanced enough to manage to do this himself. I think it was pretty generous of eyetech to send the rom for free, i have had experiences with companies which dont even do that.

He could have also gotten some technical persons to do it, would not cost much to have someone replace the rom.

[Tomas]

"it's dead easy,even the worst dummy can do it".

It is dead easy, if he used the proper tool to replace it with.

[JurassicCamper]

JoannaK wrote:
Jurasic Camper: you can talk here too.. It's not illegal or something

Why post on two forums like some people have the need to.
Like I said there I have spare plcc32 smt sockets so if he wants me to have a look at the damage, and solder one in if possible all he's got to do is get in touch. I agree Eyetech should never have sold boards write protected. That was STUPID of them. Mine was write protected as well.
However, it clearly states that the earlybird offer is not for everyone.
No offence but if your realy don't have the confidence in your own abilities to attempt something, THEN DON'T.

[JoannaK]

Jurasic Camper: *IF* Eyetech and Hyperion had listened to those of us
who have more experience on hardware and OS making this and many other
could have been avoided. All these things were (using OTP rom on
prototype, weak testing etc) well known  over year ago. And time has
shown results of this. (*)

For user responsibility.. Well, there is this nice saying (from
babylon 5).. "Fatih Manages" ... it's been ultimate  definition of all
those AmigaOne users (who actually use it, instead of storing it at
the back of cubboard). Unfortunately Faith rarely fixes broken
hardware :-(

He belived Eyetech.. apparently one time too much. He sould have
listened himjself and be clever enough to have more experienced help
on this project.



(*) Another quote from B5..
"Arrogance and stupidity on same package, how efficient"

[Targhan]

@Sky
Oh man, messing up everyone's idle-time ;-)

[Argo]

No it's not. I just had to do the same thing with my ASUS board. I had a BIOS flash go bad. I call ASUS tech support they told me to send in the BIOS, nothing about how to get it out.
I've done this before and was comfortable in my ability to remove the BIOS ROM and reinsert it once I got it back from being reflashed. If I had not felt comfortable removing the ROM or did not have the proper tools, I would have taken it to a local PC repair shop for removal and reinsertion.
oh, yeah, they told me not to send in the whole motherboard only send the BIOS.

[JoannaK]

Staticman: that 'Adwanced' is most likely written somewere on their
web site. And knowing those finding (or other important info) is quite
impossible.

[SHADES]

I don't know of any company that asks it's customer to take on hardware replacement by themselves. That's totaly stupid!!!.

It would void warrantee and I bet it has now even though Eyetech sent you instructions, that's ridiculous. that is not customer service by a long shot. You don't go buy a car and get instructions on how to change the piston rings, nor should you have to when the damm thing is NEW.

What an F up!!. I would write a big nasty letter to the head of Eyetech and I hope you kept e-mails and copies of your conversations. there might be something you can do with regards to small claims etc..

disgusting service Eyetech. Weather you say advanced or not, you are responsible to replace this system when it doesn't work as advertized. I'm shocked.

[amigamad]

At least other novices will get help rather than mess there board up after reading this thread. :-)

[Tomas]

You don't go buy a car and get instructions on how to change the piston rings, nor should you have to when the damm thing is NEW.

Sure it is new, but was sold as early beta board!! That means that you are a betatester... That means that all kinds of nasty bugs follows the board...

I am sure, if he paid shipping+costs for replacing the chip, eyetech would happily replace it... Would be expensive for eyetech, if they should replace every damn board for free.

A betatester should have some technical knowledge.

[JoannaK]

Thomas: that's the way Genesi handled their Betaterter boards. Those
were exchanged to new at Genesi's expense.


In the end. I'd like to see close up Fotos so I could evaluate
damage done.. it'll may (with good luck, depending on socket) be
fixable by someone with time, experience and tools. If there are no
rerious breaks on traces.. it'll be fixable.

[reflect]

before you honk your own horn too much, JoannaK, you should perhaps hear both sides of the story. Alan just replied on ANN.lu and he gives a quite different story than Staticman does.