Possible to determine A500 board revision without opening the case?

[Astral]

I've come up with an idea to avoid opening the case and destroying the warranty seal to view the revision.

Just drill a big fricken' 2" round hole through the top of the case and through the sheidling. It will be there in all it's glory. Dada - warranty seal intact!

[Tenacious]

Just out of interest. And if it is a revision that can be easily expanded to 1 MB chip RAM onboard, I might decide to open it.

IIRC, all of the A500 versions sold in North America can remap the trap door A501 from SLOW memory to CHIP ram, for a total of  1Meg of CHIP.  The case must be opened to do this.

The MegaChip product (2 Megs of CHIP with a special Agnus on board) could be added to all of these.  Again, the case must be opened.

There is a hack on Aminet to modify (rev 5 and 6?) motherboards to get 2 Megs of CHIP.  You replace the Agnus and memory chips.  I did this 15 years ago.  The A501 is retained only for the clock.

The A500+, primarily sold in Europe, was the only 500 that came with 1 Meg of CHIP standard, expandable to 2 Megs of CHIP with a different trap door memory expansion.

Practically speaking, after remappting the trap door for 1 MB of CHIP memory, the next biggest bang and cost effective expansion is FAST ram.  This also speeds CPU operations.  After remapping and adding some FAST, I can't remember ever running out of CHIP memory.

Sorry for starting this...

 

It's a good discussion.  I was referring to the sarcasm of some of the replies.

Try NOT to advertise owning more than 1 or 2 Amigas, regardless of how they jumped into your possession.    There are a few here who are irrationally jealous of others they label as "hoarders".

[freqmax]

Put an ionizing fire alarm on top of the part where the motherboard revision is located and a photographic film beneath. Leave it for a week or whatever that is needed to expose the film. Then send the film for development to get the data.

(perhaps multiple exposure digital camera works too)

[motrucker]

The only way to accomplish this feat is to X-ray the computer. Have a friend who's a dentist?

[Methuselas]

I'd give anything to find a rev 6 or 8 mobo..... that and a spare key spring for the one that was missing when I saved my A500 from the bin.

[zipper]

and a spare key spring for the one that was missing when I saved my A500 from the bin.

Cut in half and stretch - works but feel is a little different.

[arttu80]

I've come up with an idea to avoid opening the case and destroying the warranty seal to view the revision.

Just drill a big fricken' 2" round hole through the top of the case and through the sheidling. It will be there in all it's glory. Dada - warranty seal intact!

Now, this is what I would call good common sense! Had veeery good laugh, thanks dude!

Wait, where I put my 2" drill bit...

And back to the original poster, YOU really can get that small tiny little camera tool from SnapOn and such vendors, which plumbers and mechanics use to sneak in tight places, so in theory you can sneak this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPbhf21i6k into really tight orifices of YOUR amiga and see her inner self. Remember to use ruuber gloves, man!

[Colani1200]

Just drill a big fricken' 2" round hole through the top of the case and through the sheidling.

One of the best ideas so far. :lol:

[nicholas]

Does WhichAmiga not help?

[AmmoJammo]

How many different revision boards are there?

I know of 3, 5, 6a and 8a? are there others?

I'm fairly confident you'd be able to work out what revision the board is, but I only have a 6a and 5 to look at, but can easily tell the difference without opening the case...

[Astral]

How many different revision boards are there?

I know of 3, 5, 6a and 8a? are there others?

I'm fairly confident you'd be able to work out what revision the board is, but I only have a 6a and 5 to look at, but can easily tell the difference without opening the case...

How would you work it out?


There is a Rev 8A.1 as well. I think there is a Rev 7 as well. There may be others.

I am sure if Piru was here he could help and explain it. But he's not. But, just think along the lines of his whichamiga program. It sometimes states that "Your computer is probably an Amiga 1200"...or..."Your computer is an Amiga or compatible"...or...sometimes spot on specifically "Your computer is an Amiga 1200". Sometimes you can be confident, sometimes you cant.

And that is the also part of the problem with telling the motherboard revision via a software program. The software program doesn't know for example that "you've owned the computer since new" and that "you know it has never been opened" and therefore can't reliably use any kind of hardware spec peeking code to accurately tell you what the motherboard is based on expected specs. The software doesn't know if it's been modified. It could assume, but not know.

What if Agnus has been changed? What if Denise has been upgraded? What if Kickstart has been changed? What if a chip RAM hack has been done? What if all these changes and more were done to one motherboard?

At best, a software tool may be able to state "Your motherboard is *probably* a Rev x" based on expected specifications....but not accurately "Your motherboard *is* a Rev x".

In saying that I haven't specifically sat down and made a table of motherboard and related specs and cross referenced the possible outcomes.

In saying all the above, I was wrong once, but that was a looooooooooong time ago

[persia]

Schrödinger's A500.  It's all Amiga 500s until you open the case, then your observation determines which A500 it is.

[AmmoJammo]

turn the case upside down!

you can look through the slot vents under the memory, and see if it has the single row of memory chips, with every second one missing, or the two rows of chips with all being populated...

then at least you'll know if its a rev3/5 or rev6a/8

[Astral]

turn the case upside down!

A great suggestion! And with the benefit of hindsight - so obvious

Perhaps a combination of this method + something else may be the answer?

[AmmoJammo]

A great suggestion! And with the benefit of hindsight - so obvious

Perhaps a combination of this method + something else may be the answer?

I've only got rev5 and rev6a boards... but I believe there are enough differences with components and their locations that you could figure out if it was a rev3 or rev8 as well....

[Astral]

I've only got rev5 and rev6a boards... but I believe there are enough differences with components and their locations that you could figure out if it was a rev3 or rev8 as well....

You're probably right...but I'm keeping in mind there is only a small viewing "window" from underneath...so it may be hard to see all those differences through the case with the naked eye. As someone else previously mentioned, a flexi-camera may help here. A quick glance at different openings in the casing (zorro slot side, floppy drive side, trapdoor access and various vent holes) makes me think this is probably possible with a camera.

This has got me intriqued I'm now thinking that, while not practical, the answer is YES to the original posters question. Regardless of the "easiest" solution being - "just open the case to see"!

PS. I've got Rev 5, 6a, 8A and 8A.1 here...I am checking them all out now...