Weird issue with Amiga 600

[walterg74]

Hi guys,  new on the forum, played with Amiga as a kid but never had one at that time. Took advantage of a trip to europe to get me some last month, and got 2 600s, one 1200 and a 500+ (over compensating? )

So anyway, i had/have a weird problem with one of the 600s.... I didn't have time to test it on the trip as it was short, so back home I hooked up everything and it wouldn't boot up correctly. Power LEDs went on, but the screen would either stay black (with video signal) or sometimes white. Seller said it was working before.

So anyway, a few days passed, I was about to list it on our local ebay as not working, and I tried hooking it up again, but after disassembling it and checking for any loose stuff, dirt, whatever (which I did not find). So after that, the condition changed, and now I would only get a fixed purple screen (not knowing if that was better or worse...).

So the thing is that I just left it like that and had to go do something else, and when I came back I saw that the classic "insert disk" screen had appeared! :huh:

So now I'm like WTF? Now if I power it down, I get the purple screen, and after waiting a variable amount of time (sometimes several seconds, sometimes much longer) the boot screen will appear...

Do any of you experienced/veteran folks know what on earth could be causing this behaviour??

Also, and this might be general, the disk drive does not work, and just goes back to the boot screen after inserting a disk. The seller did tell me that, and provided an external drive. However, inserting games in this external drive, none work Is this normal for booting games? (from the external drive).  Because if I put a workbench disk in it then it DOES load fine, so the drive is working...

Thanks for your input!!!

[carvedeye]

Have you tried pressing down on all your chips etc.....some may have loosened in transit.

[walterg74]

Wow, that was quick.. ha!

Yes I tried, but the 600 only has the rom socketed, the others are directly soldered...

This particular one also had an expansion (being workbench read ~800k without and ~1800k with, I assume it's a 1MB expansion to take the machine to 2MB? Consists of 4 sims -256kb each?).

Tried both with it, and removing the expansion card, same results.

I might transfer this expansion over to my second 600 which seems to work flawlessly.

[Dr.Bongo]

If you switch the 600 on is the boot time before the kickstart screen about 30 seconds? If,  so it's most likely that the internal floppy drive is faulty causing the delay. Try re-attaching the floppy cable at both ends.

[walterg74]

If you switch the 600 on is the boot time before the kickstart screen about 30 seconds? If,  so it's most likely that the internal floppy drive is faulty causing the delay. Try re-attaching the floppy cable at both ends.

Hmmm.. I'd have to double check as I think sometimes it takes longer, but then again it could just be my anxiety for it to work... I will have to wait until next weekend though, as I am currently again on a trip for work (in Zurich now).
If I had thought it before I could have bought a replacement drive and have it shipped here, eh? Does the store known here ship express? (if its worth it and not that expensive).

Edit: Re-reading your post, if it is the faulty drive, what woud re-attaching the cable accomplish? (I think I already did that anyway -though maybe not BOTH ends- when I disassembled the computer to look for corruption/whatever on the motherboard). I mean, if it's faulty wouldn't it just keep causing the same delay? (also I don't know what exactly the fault is, since it does take and reocnize a disk is inserted).

[amiman99]

Yes, it does look like a floppy drive problem or HD problem. If the A600 has a Hard Drive, remove it and see if you get instant Floppy insert screen.
If you dont have HD, then try to re-seat the floppy drive cables, and maybe replace the drive with the one from A500 and see it that fixes the problem.

[Dr.Bongo]

As a test, plug one of the internal floppy's from your other 600 or even your 1200 in and see if corrects it. Just going from experience here, but I wouldn't be surprised. Also, bet this will bug you until next weekend

[walterg74]

Yes, it does look like a floppy drive problem or HD problem. If the A600 has a Hard Drive, remove it and see if you get instant Floppy insert screen.
If you dont have HD, then try to re-seat the floppy drive cables, and maybe replace the drive with the one from A500 and see it that fixes the problem.

Nope, no HD. Would disconnecting the floppy remove the delay (if that was the cause) or would be exactly the same as the comp cant contact the floppy?

Side comment: san antonio? I have to go visit... i've been sent for work 5 times to the US, to Houston, and I always say "this trip I'll go see san antonio"

[Dr.Bongo]

No floppy in amiga = delay. Same thing when the drive is faulty

[walterg74]

As a test, plug one of the internal floppy's from your other 600 or even your 1200 in and see if corrects it. Just going from experience here, but I wouldn't be surprised. Also, bet this will bug you until next weekend

Ha! Of course it will bug me... That's why I'm here up writing about this at almost 2 am :insane:

What was that store, amigakit or something? Is that based of europe or the us?

So since all you guys are around... Here's another question I don't get...

Where I live, most of our tvs have 3 standards built in:

PAL-N (a weird variation used in my country and I think two others)
PAL-M (another weird variation used in Brazil and I think one or two others)
NTSC-M

So naturally, I knew these being UK machines, that they would not be compatible as-is. I currently solved it before leaving on my trip, by simply buying from someone on our ebay a tv from europe. Problem solved!

Still I have the following doubt... When I connect other european computers (spectrum, atari st, segas, etc) to my tv (my "normal" tv, not the recently acquired european one) the image of course is black and white and sound distorted.

However, when I hook up the amiga 600s or the 1200, through their builtin composite connectors, the image is in color... So wtf??? I though the only way you "lose" pal/ntsc/whatever info was with RGB? So how can the image be in color on these?

[amiman99]

Nope, no HD. Would disconnecting the floppy remove the delay (if that was the cause) or would be exactly the same as the comp cant contact the floppy?

Side comment: san antonio? I have to go visit... i've been sent for work 5 times to the US, to Houston, and I always say "this trip I'll go see san antonio"

Its like 3hr drive from Houston to San Antonio.

[walterg74]

Its like 3hr drive from Houston to San Antonio.

Yep.. That was alway the plan... Just cruising west on 10....

[Dr.Bongo]

spectrum, atari st, segas, etc

erm, they don't have a composite output though. So how are you connecting them?

[walterg74]

erm, they don't have a composite output though. So how are you connecting them?

Well RF of course...

[Dr.Bongo]

The RF signals won't work correctly to NTSC AFAIK. The Amiga's will on composite because it doesn't rely on video standards. Composite is composite.