Newly acquired A2000 problem

[David Wright]

No video but black screen on boot up. Took out all the video toaster and relevant boards, nothing.
I assume that blue barrel is my battery, some leakage but doesn't appear to be on board. Still would like to know the easiest way to remove.

Also, what is the chip added with the 3m cable, chip ram upgrade?

Any basic procedures to diagnose this?

[JimS]

Also, what is the chip added with the 3m cable, chip ram upgrade?

Looks like a ROM switcher to let you switch between 1.3, 2.x and 3.x ROMS at boot time.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The cable in your picture is connected to a ROM switcher.  I would remove that and try booting off of just one ROM.  If that one doesn't work, try the other.  It may be that one has failed - but hey, at least you have a swap/test component.    Remove all boards (including that accelerator I can see in the picture) and try again.

Also, get that battery out ASAP and clean the area as is described extensively in this forum and others.  Give it a wiggle till it breaks free or side cutters work well.

[David Wright]

I did try removing all components but not rom switcher, will try it.
Also noticed to my surprise a megachip expansion on board.

Should I be able to see floppy light activity when inserting disk? No led light on hd either, spins but nothing else.

I will try the rom switcher next.

[QuikSanz]

Remove Accelerator HDD and everything but floppy. You should work to get an insert floppy disk and floppy drive "clicking" first before moving on.

[David Wright]

Removed everything but the two floppies, and no insert disk, no click, no display and nothing happens when I insert floppy.

To summarize,
I removed accelerator, scsi card/HD, and video toaster.
Turn on, still black, no clicking or insert prompt. No activity when I insert floppy.

I have (from what you tell me) is a rom switcher and a Mega chip chipram expander. Both run a clip that attaches to , I presume, the Gary chip.

[JimS]

Have you tried pulling out the socketed  chips and reseating them?

[orange]

I'd remove the battery (yes that blue barrel) , clean and check traces

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

As others have said, +1 for clean and reseat every socketed chip, including your Megachip adapter.

[kirk_m]

Definitely reseat the chips.  My A500 has a chip come loose every time I move it.  One of the CIAs has DF0: selector mod that uses a machine socket for the CIA to sit into on top of the mod's PCB.  Without fail, if I should pick the 500 and move it, this comes just slightly loose, and the machine will not boot.  I open it up, reseat it, and, it boots like a champ.

[Plaz]

Leakage from the battery will often form corrosion on the legs and sockets of the CPU closest to the battery. Extremely rare but also possible is the bad battery causes a short.  Carefully cut the legs on that battery and get it out before it does more damage.

If you're handy with tools and fine details, pull the CPU, carefully clean the legs with an eraser or very very fine sand paper (600 grit or higher). Next check the CPU socket closest to the battery. These types of sockets are not easy to clean, often I just replace them. But if the corrosion is not terrible in there, you can use a sewing needle to carefully scratch at the inside of the sockets to clean the worst part of any corrosion. The sockets should look silver, not green or dark. After it's all as clean as you can manage, slowly replace the CPU being careful not bend any of the pins.

I hope you get it running again.

Plaz

[David Wright]

Here is photo after battery removal.
Reseated a few chips including rom switcher.
Nothing yet, will reseat and clean cpu.

Thanks

[scuzzb494]

No video but black screen on boot up. Took out all the video toaster and relevant boards, nothing.
I assume that blue barrel is my battery, some leakage but doesn't appear to be on board. Still would like to know the easiest way to remove.

Also, what is the chip added with the 3m cable, chip ram upgrade?

Any basic procedures to diagnose this?

Do you have any history on the 2000 ?

What are you displaying on and how are you connecting to the display ?

The ROM may be at fault and may just need say one of the ROMs put back in to test. The CPU would throw up a colour in truth. You say there is no LED light from power so is the power getting to the board ? Sounds dead to me.

I just gently rock the battery back and forward and eventually the thing just snaps off. Dunno how you removed . er don't do that with a 3000T though.

I have a 2000 that throws up a grey screen and appears to be dead but I just tap the side of the computer a couple of times and when I reboot she is fine. Its a dodgy card on that.

Have a look under the power supply to see if you can spot any dodgy connectors to chip legs. Happens.

Good old dust. Strip back to a basic 2000. Reseat the CPU. I wouldn't do too much as you kinda just add to problems which may not be there. Could be the ROM switcher.

Great bit of kit. Haven't had one fail on me yet. Been using one of mine all afternoon today.

Have fun

[David Wright]

I did rock the battery out, kind of indelicate I know. I have a 4000 that needs done too, can I just snip that out?

This man gave me a lifetime of his Amiga video business. Tons of disks, cds, manuals , original boxed graphics and productivity. Huge, I say.

The 4000 works fine now that toaster hardware is out and displays quite nice with hdmi to scart convertor.

Back to the 2000. I was thinking of taking my Vampire out of the 500 to see if that works and disable the rom switcher. I don't know if Mega chip is an issue either. Power does spin the Ricoh Reader drive (never seen that before) which is in the cd drive bay. When HD card and drive were in zorro slot , power was getting to that.

I did see a bit of green corrosion a few pins of the cpu which I cleaned as best I could.

[UberFreak]

I wouldn't install the Vampire into a corroded socket.
If you saw corrosion on CPU legs, you can bet the inside of the CPU socket is corroded too and needs to be replaced.