A600 Cleanup and Tear-down!

[LuMan]

Well, as part of my portable A600 project I thought I'd start off with a tear-down to familiarise myself with the hardware. Although there are literally hundreds of A600 inside pics on EAB I thought I'd like to see it in the flesh, so to speak.

Off we go:

Whipped the top off and exposed the mobo:


A little jiggery-pokery with the mouse/joystick ports (and a screw) and the thing shuffles free of the lower case:


AGH!! Looks like a bit of water damage!


Lifting the A600 off the metal tray and things get worse!!!


Lots of pics, so onto next post....

...cont

Hopefully the actual motherboard will be protected by the insulating membrane:

Nope! Looks like tea, but it's actually rust. Fortunately the mobo is on the other side of the damage.

So, a bowl of hot, soapy water and some elbow grease and we're in business:


Looks OK, so I washed the rest of the case. Not quite showroom clean, but a whole lot better:


You shouldn't really do this, but I can't resist skeletal computing


Sorry the pics are big (and out of focus). I'll try tidying them up as the project goes on.
[EDIT]OK - resized and replaced various pics.

One last bit. The keyboard is being retr0brited. Well, I'm using hair bleach straight out of the bottle (see http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=37808&page=15)

Before:


And after applying the peroxide stuff:


I'll post more pics of how it turns out

[alexh]

Nice report but pls post thumbnails & links rather than embed full resolution pics.

[8bitbubsy]

Very nice job, but please learn how to focus with your camera. No offense man, but the eye gets kind of angry when it can't see the details properly. The pics are quite big, can you make them smaller?
Also please change the old SMD capacitors if you know how to, I can actually see some hints of leakage on the pics. Or so I think.

[LuMan]

@Alexh - Yep, will do. I didn't realise how big they'd be until I added them

@8bitbubsy - I'm using the camera on my mobile (Orange San Francisco) and it's less than perfect. I'll switch to using the missus' camera in future and this has got a much better macro setting.

Update: I've just remembered that I've left the keyboard, complete with retr0brite applied, on the windowsill of my playroom... I won't be in until about 3.30 this afternoon - I wonder how 'brite' it will be...

[ajk]

You could just resize the current photos to about 1/4 of the size they are now, they wouldn't lose any visible details but it would make the thread much easier to read

[LuMan]

Hi ajk - One step ahead I've re-sized the pics and will upload them back to my webspace when I get in from work (not allowed to ftp from here). I'll also swap them for thumbnails to free up some screen.

Thanks for the tips, guys. Hopefully it'll be more readable later on today

[Matt020]

Your thread is ruined by the shit-aweful photos.

[LuMan]

OK, I've cleaned up the photos on my webspace and now they should be a little more viewable. I've also retaken a couple and made sure my camera-phone behaves itself for a change

The keyboard came up OK after I rinsed the peroxide stuff off. I showered it (in the shower - really) before scrubbing the excess away with an old toothbrush. As the keyboard is predominantly plastic there's no danger, but it's important to remember the springs under the keys! A quick blast with a hair-drier, to get into the nooks and crannies, and an hour or so in the airing cupboard and it's dry as a bone. Some keys came up better, so I'll do the bottom 2 rows again:


I'm going to look at the actual case next. It's a little beaten up, but it's a good test for my 'new' a600, which should arrive this week. As you can see - it's yellow on the outside [yuk!]


Hope the thread becomes more readable with the updated pics

[ajk]

Well done with the new image size Keyboard seems to have cleaned up really well, you can expect the same for the case.

[fitzsteve]

Great job LuMan, looks like its come up real nice.

Thanks for sharing

ps. pics much better now

[TCD]

Cheers LuMan for updating the pictures I should make this one sticky and link to it whenever people post too big pictures (I'm looking at you Steve ).

[Djay]

hmmm.... cleaning heaven!

i have recently taken a few Amigas apart to clean them up, i am on my own when i say it great fun?

i didnt retrobrite them, not bad enough to bother, but clearing out 20 years worth of shit, is strangely satisfying?

has anyone else noticed that there is always rust on the RF block?

Great work... more piccies please

[LuMan]

Thanks for the positive feedback with respect to the pics, guys. Sos (my other half) got herself a kick-ass new Fujipix jobbie at the weekend and we've been playing with it relentlessly. I'll use it for future pics (a new A600 coming this week) so pic quality should keep improving

Anyhoo, I smothered the upper case of my 'test' A600 and left it out in the glorious sunshine we had on Saturday. Note - when using natural sunlight for the UV contingent of Retr0brite you may need to re-apply as it dries out

Well, here's a side-shot of the case showing the difference between the treated upper and untreated lower. I'll treat the lower section this week sometime and I'd also like to re-do some of the keys as they're not as bright as the others:

[fitzsteve]

@Luman, great job you can clearly see there that its made a decent improvment

[LuMan]

AAARRGGHH!!

Just dumped my .pic. folder off my webspace....

Trying to retrieve it now.....


UPDATE:
Phew!! Got them back!!

[Paul_s]

Who's the bird on the 'Peroxide stuff'? She looks blonde Nice miggy btw

[LuMan]

OK, I've (finally) rebuilt a 'new' A600 out of a couple of donor machines. I meticulously cleaned and retr0brited the case and keys (but forgot the floppy eject button - D'OH!), as well as some insidey bits as well.

Rather than post all the pics here I'll direct you to my updated website which has the rebuild on it:

http://www.luweb.co.uk/Amiga/a600rebuild.htm

The website's not complete, but there's some stuff under the Amiga section.

[fitzsteve]

Wow LuMan, looks like new

[LuMan]

<seethe>
Looks like 123-reg have dumped my webspace... Working on getting it back (if anyone's at all bothered!!)

L

[FOL]

Originally Posted by LuMan

<seethe>
Looks like 123-reg have dumped my webspace... Working on getting it back (if anyone's at all bothered!!)

L

Could ask, . Lots of nice people with webspace who may be able to help.