Does "magic pack" Amiga 1200 need recap?

[ferrellsl]

AmigaKit sells replacement A1200 boards? I don't recall seeing those for sale on the site. I know they used to have "made-to-order" A1200's but that hasn't been for a long time. Seems they may be out.

Yes.  See this:  http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=82
Might be out of stock at AmigaKit at the moment but they always seem to quickly re-stock most items if there's a demand.

[danbeaver]

"Out of stock at the moment" means none in the past 4 years

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Yes. See this: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=82
Might be out of stock at AmigaKit at the moment but they always seem to quickly re-stock most items if there's a demand.

That item hasn't been "in stock" on their website in years. Either way, they're still NOS 20-year-old parts that WILL develop the exact same problem. Also, A1200/A4000/CD32 caps are not the type where "the top pops", typically. Instead they leak from underneath, and directly onto the board. Do a google search on it, or whatever. Believe what you want, don't do preventative maintenance, and just spend your money on a new board that will most likely develop the exact same problem.

There's dozens of people all over the forums that do these repairs.  Prices start as low as $40. Again, not rocket science. Are you just trolling? Seriously this is the dumbest argument I've seen on here in... well... weeks?

[giZmo350]

That item hasn't been "in stock" on their website in years. Either way, they're still NOS 20-year-old parts that WILL develop the exact same problem. Also, A1200/A4000/CD32 caps are not the type where "the top pops", typically. Instead they leak from underneath, and directly onto the board. Do a google search on it, or whatever. Believe what you want, don't do preventative maintenance, and just spend your money on a new board that will most likely develop the exact same problem.

There's dozens of people all over the forums that do these repairs.  Prices start as low as $40. Again, not rocket science. Are you just trolling? Seriously this is the dumbest argument I've seen on here in... well... weeks?

I just bought an A1200 re-cap kit from AmigaKit and it cost $10.00!

https://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1137

They do issue a warning for the faint of heart, however...  :roflmao:

I bought the kit for my friends 1B MoBo as it's starting to act up.

BTW, Mike is right about the old caps not bulging on the top and WILL leak from the bottom.

[paul1981]

I picked up one of those new old stock "magic pack" Amiga's from Amiga Technologies. It seems to work fine, but I was wondering if these also need to be recapped? Or is it just the older "Commodore" Amiga 1200's?

Thanks.

I read a while back on another forum that the SMD electrolytic caps in those NOS A1200's should be fine and do not need replacing. The reason given was that because they were stored and had never been used the caps will not have deteriorated or leaked. Obviously they'll be some real science behind this, but because they had not been electrically active it preserved them. This was my understanding of it.

What you can do for sure is to inspect the motherboard. Look at the solder joints on all of the capacitors. Any dull joints (even slightly dull) are a sign of electrolyte leakage. All joints should be nice and shiny. First sign of any dull joints I would recommend getting the whole board re-capped. But until then.... 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

[sm3]

..
BTW, Mike is right about the old caps not bulging on the top and WILL leak from the bottom.

I suppose I will pop out the board then and have a look just to be safe. I'm not noticing any strange behavior, but my 1200 is used less than my 500 so it will not hurt to do a visual inspection.

Thanks for the information folks.

[ferrellsl]

That item hasn't been "in stock" on their website in years. Either way, they're still NOS 20-year-old parts that WILL develop the exact same problem. Also, A1200/A4000/CD32 caps are not the type where "the top pops", typically. Instead they leak from underneath, and directly onto the board. Do a google search on it, or whatever. Believe what you want, don't do preventative maintenance, and just spend your money on a new board that will most likely develop the exact same problem.

There's dozens of people all over the forums that do these repairs.  Prices start as low as $40. Again, not rocket science. Are you just trolling? Seriously this is the dumbest argument I've seen on here in... well... weeks?

Nope, not trolling at all.  Just trying to insert some common sense into this thread as did Paul1981, who also seems to have a bit more common sense than the average knuckle head on this site when it comes to solid state electronics.  Once again, if it it isn't broken, then it doesn't need fixing.  Period.  You must run a re-capping business in order to be trying so hard to get people to re-cap perfectly working boards.  I know an auto repair shop that would love to have a person like you on their staff.  Replacing caps on a perfectly working board is a waste of time and money and also risks damaging the board.

[sm3]

I read a while back on another forum that the SMD electrolytic caps in those NOS A1200's should be fine and do not need replacing. The reason given was that because they were stored and had never been used the caps will not have deteriorated or leaked. Obviously they'll be some real science behind this, but because they had not been electrically active it preserved them. This was my understanding of it.

What you can do for sure is to inspect the motherboard. Look at the solder joints on all of the capacitors. Any dull joints (even slightly dull) are a sign of electrolyte leakage. All joints should be nice and shiny. First sign of any dull joints I would recommend getting the whole board re-capped. But until then.... 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

Thanks Paul, this I guess answers my original question when I started the thread.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Nope, not trolling at all. Just trying to insert some common sense into this thread as did Paul1981, who also seems to have a bit more common sense than the average knuckle head on this site when it comes to solid state electronics. Once again, if it it isn't broken, then it doesn't need fixing. Period. You must run a re-capping business in order to be trying so hard to get people to re-cap perfectly working boards. I know an auto repair shop that would love to have a person like you on their staff. Replacing caps on a perfectly working board is a waste of time and money and also risks damaging the board.

The caps can still be leaking and the board "perfectly working". They can be leaking all over the place before you have your first external sign of failure. I'm not advocating "don't inspect it", I'm just saying that there is a statistically high likelihood that these parts will fail, given that they're 20+ years old, and if an inspection turns up any signs of issues they should be replaced immediately.

But whatever, Amiga users are a bunch of cheap bastards. Not wanting to pay $20 for the latest ROM chip, not wanting to inspect their systems or pay $40 for someone to recap their system for peace of mind, etc. You do what you want, just don't come crying on the forums in a couple years that your caps leaked everywhere and ruined your board because you didn't inspect it regularly, and now you're having to scour ebay or pay someone hundreds of dollars for a replacement system.

This is the exact same asinine logic that ruined so many Amiga motherboards. Everyone knew those batteries were trouble, but they waited to replace them, then they'd put the system in storage or whatever, or come back to it after a year, and the battery would have eaten a hole through the motherboard. IMHO I'd rather do preventative maintenance rather than wait for something to fail catastrophically. Pay a little now, or a lot later?

Oh well, I give up. :p

[spirantho]

For many of the capacitor failures in an A1200 or A600, the first you will see of the failure is when the cap has already eaten through the track on the PCB and damaged it. By the time you see the failure and your Amiga doesn't boot any more, the damage is done.
If the failed cap happens to be on the audio output, you will get advance warning of the failure as the sound will go quiet. Anywhere else and you won't.

When it comes to electronics where the system has a known weakness, such as the caps in the A1200, prevention is better than cure.

Or you can wait until the cap has eaten your track, your machine doesn't boot, and then buy another board.... but what happens when all the boards are gone?

Why do I think this? Because of the number of A600s and A1200s I have fixed which have failed because of leaking capacitors eating PCB tracks - all of which could have been prevented had their owners had their machines recapped before they leaked.

[danbeaver]

If you find any dodgy caps, Charles the maccaps.com guy will recap the board for a max of $55 with a 1 week turn around -- he is in the Midwest.

[sm3]

If you find any dodgy caps, Charles the maccaps.com guy will recap the board for a max of $55 with a 1 week turn around -- he is in the Midwest.

Thanks, if I needed it done, I was originally thinking about sending it to AmigaKit, but since I live in the USA, I might feel more comfortable shipping closer to home. I know how shipping companies treat packages and it's my only A1200 board

I appreciate all the comments.

[spirantho]

$55 for peace of mind and knowing that your Amiga is good for some decades sounds like money well spent to me! Certainly compared to the frustration dodgy caps will give (they can cause all sorts of problems you may not be aware are because of caps).

[sm3]

$55 for peace of mind and knowing that your Amiga is good for some decades sounds like money well spent to me! Certainly compared to the frustration dodgy caps will give (they can cause all sorts of problems you may not be aware are because of caps).

Yes, I don't mind spending money if I have to, but I'm not going to waste it if it's not really needed.

[QuikSanz]

If you find any dodgy caps, Charles the maccaps.com guy will recap the board for a max of $55 with a 1 week turn around -- he is in the Midwest.

He even has different quality's available you can go cheap or go the extra mile. Fast turn around from what I hear also.

Chris

BTW, he will also do a pro cleaning of the board while it's stripped of components.

[slaapliedje]

I should chime in here;  I've had two different systems where I had to have them recapped.

First one, I think was manufactured right around the time where a lot of companies were using crappy capacitors.  I was shocked that one of my Asus systems were, but it wasn't one of their high quality motherboards, it was a system that I had bought called The Asus Digimatrix.  Was the perfect size for an HTPC.  Well, it started acting funky, I took at look at the board and the capacitors were bulging all over the place.  It was still under warranty at that point, so I sent it in for repair.

Freaking jerks replaced them with the EXACT same capacitors, because about 9 months later, they started to explode again.  Had to pay 60 bucks for them to fix it.  About a year after that, it did it a third time, in which I basically said screw it, did it myself with better capacitors.  Unfortunately my crap solder job somehow fried the wireless (I think I applied too much heat somewhere, not sure) but I didn't really care, didn't use it anyhow

So when I was troubleshooting my A4000D and trying to figure out why I would randomly get Software Error #80000003 all the time, someone suggested that I get it recapped.  I can't recall how much it was overall (about 100 bucks, I think) to ship it off to Amigakit and have them recap it.

It's been running like a champ ever since, well not counting my own stupidity of trying to add more crap to it

slaapliedje