What to look for in an A3000

[AmigaEd]

I've been thinking about expanding my Amiga collection with an A3000. What kind of things should I look for or look out for?

For example, does the A3000 have the leaking battery issue?

Are there some motherboard revisions that are better than others?

I seem to remember hearing something about the Buster chip revision, but not sure what the issue was.

Regards,
AmigaEd

[TheGoose]

Q: For example, does the A3000 have the leaking battery issue?
A: Most do by this time. Mine did, but was recoverable. Definitely a #1 thing to look at when buying used...

Q: I seem to remember hearing something about the Buster chip revision, but not sure what the issue was.
A: Can have some issues, but really, you don't need to do anything about this. You can still use a DENEB or Zororam, configured correctly.

Make sure the flicker fixer is still in working order (one of the unique reasons to collect an A3000)!

[Darrin]

Mine arrived from eBay with a leaking battery.  Fortunately it was rather easy to break off and clean up the motherboard.

Obvious things to look for if there are several available is how many floppy drives are installed and how much RAM is on the motherboard.

[mechy]

As thegoose said,battery damage is the number 1 concern.
Look for motherboard revision 9.2 or 9.3 these are very good/stable. Buster 11 may be a plus,but 9 is workable.revision 7 boards usually had the rom towers and avoid them if possible(theres nothing wrong with them,and the rom tower can be gotten around,but i would go for later boards).some earlier boards had the scsi termination power diodes backwards also.Plenty of zip ram is a plus also,since the zip memory is expensive.High density drive is nice,but again not really a must have.
Dmac 4,ramsey7 chips are a plus,but dmac2/ramsey 4 is ok in most cases.Most of these chips are socketed so buster 11 can be changed, dmac4 is hard to find these days.
Avoid any boards older than rev 7 imho,and also avoid 16mhz machines.

hope that helps.

Mike

[TheGoose]

Oh another thing, with the A3000Ds you will two other major differences, 16Mhz or the 25Mhz CPUs, Obvious you would want the 25Mhz 68030...

EDIT - oops beat me to it.

[Tenacious]

The new ZorRam makes the 3000 (4000, too) very attractive.

[desantii]

I wouldn't go so far as to say avoid 16mhz machines. I've had both and the difference in speed in really not that noticeable. I have never had any problems with it
 

As thegoose said,battery damage is the number 1 concern.
Look for motherboard revision 9.2 or 9.3 these are very good/stable. Buster 11 may be a plus,but 9 is workable.revision 7 boards usually had the rom towers and avoid them if possible(theres nothing wrong with them,and the rom tower can be gotten around,but i would go for later boards).some earlier boards had the scsi termination power diodes backwards also.Plenty of zip ram is a plus also,since the zip memory is expensive.High density drive is nice,but again not really a must have.
Dmac 4,ramsey7 chips are a plus,but dmac2/ramsey 4 is ok in most cases.Most of these chips are socketed so buster 11 can be changed, dmac4 is hard to find these days.
Avoid any boards older than rev 7 imho,and also avoid 16mhz machines.
 
hope that helps.
 
Mike

[mousehouse]

Hmmm, things to look for with a A3000...

1. battery problems. I have 2 a3000d's now (as of last week), both had leaking batteries - one was leaking badly but it seems it started recently.

2. ZIP memory. It's expensive and afaik there are some cases where some fast memory on the motherboard is needed, even when memory on an accelerator or zoram is present.

3. buster. my 3000's rev.9.x came with a Buster7, the 7.3 with a -09.

4. ROM version. If it comes with 3.1 roms all the better... motherboards with a ROM tower are harder to replace (I could not get the tower out).

5. floppy faceplate. If only one floppy is installed, does it come with the plastic faceplace in front of the second? the A3000 comes with the floppy openings by default - one of which can be shielded by the frontplate.

6. int21 modification. If it's done this means the SCSI on a accelerator card can be used.

Jus what I could think of!

[TheGoose]

About the battery. I opened mine up today and reviewed the dismal situation. I had a new battery and a socket here; wondered if it could be fixed.

My conclusion was no, looking from the top side; too messy, too little to work with. Then I thought about the bottom and had a few questions (this is loosely still on topic I think.)

Where are the tracks for the battery ? on the top side surface ?
Or could one it be re-soldered from the bottom of the p.c.b. ?

And even less probable, could a battery to relocated?

:confused:

[Tenacious]

About the battery. I opened mine up today and reviewed the dismal situation. I had a new battery and a socket here; wondered if it could be fixed.

My conclusion was no, looking from the top side; too messy, too little to work with. Then I thought about the bottom and had a few questions (this is loosely still on topic I think.)

Where are the tracks for the battery ? on the top side surface ?
Or could one it be re-soldered from the bottom of the p.c.b. ?

And even less probable, could a battery to relocated?

:confused:

The battery pads are on the top of the motherboard under the Zorro boards.  Has the factory battery already been removed?  If not, mark the MB for positive and negative.  If so, you will need to determine polarity.  The negative is common to the ground plane of the MB.  You could also use a multimeter to check polarity when the A3000 is powered up (the computer is supposed to charge the battery during runtime).  Coin batteries are OK, but not the only solution.  I use rechargable cordless phone batteries.  Their wires can be extended and the battery secured anywhere convenient.  You need to match the old battery voltage, the current rating is almost unimportant.

If the old battery leaked onto the MB, you really need to wipe that stuff up.  Maybe with a baking soda solution.  Naturally, there can be NO moisture remaining on the MB when you power up again.

[pwermonger]

Buster isnt a huge issue in the 3000. IIRC, Buster issues were mainly with the 040 and Zorro III cards trying to use the bus at the same time. 030 doesnt have that problem.
 
RAM is expensive so the more you get already in the system, the better.
All 3000s have both floppy openings. In a one-drive system there is a plastic piece over the left floppy opening to extend the rest of the front and hide it.
If  you have no SCSI devices to connect external, you need a terminator for the 25pin SCSI port or it takes an age to boot as it tries to find external SCSI devices that don't exist. This part came with the 3000 but usually is missing.

[TheGoose]

The battery pads are on the top of the motherboard under the Zorro boards.

Not any more they aren't. Hmmm would like to get a clock working again, so I can see and sort my mods by date.