A1200 stopped recognizing hard drive

[amikid]

Hi all,

I picked up an A1200 a couple months ago - powered it on, tested it to make sure it work, then put it aside for a bit. Everything worked just fine.

Today I took it back out, opened it up to clean it and also put in a SD card reader in place of the 4Gb IDE drive that it had in it. Now, it no longer recognizes the hard drive no matter what I do.

When booting from the install floppy, HDToolBox spends a long time on "checking scsi.device address 0 unit 0", and then nothing comes up.

The boot menu shows my floppy and CC0 (which I believe is compact flash), but no HD.

I have replaced cables, tried different card readers, nothing.

When a card reader is in I can see the power led come on, but NOT the "activity" led.

I have tried Ctrl-A-A to reboot (as recommended in many other threads).

Someone elsewhere on this site has said a similar problem on the 4000 is the result of faulty "U903/U904" chips. Is the A1200 prone to the same problem?

I've got a bad feeling about this one ... Any ideas/thoughts/things to try?

Thanks in advance.

-k

[prowler]

What specific make and type of SD card and reader are you using to connect to the IDE port of your Amiga 1200?

I have a suspicion that it might be because not all types of card and/or reader have proved to be compatible with the Amiga's IDE port.

Edit: Don't worry, it's unlikely that you will have damaged anything. Does the original hard drive still work satisfactorily when reconnected to the Amiga?

[amikid]

@prowler, thanks for the reply. No, the original HD does not work at all when reconnected - that is the worrisome part. It did prior; it does not now.

I have tried two different SD card readers and the original HD, nothing works. Both SD card readers work in other Amigas. This is the one slated for this machine: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It works great on my 600.

[prowler]

That really is astonishing!

I'm sorry to hear that. I can't think of a single reason why you might have trouble when transplanting into an Amiga 1200 a SD card and reader combination which has previously been working satisfactorily in an Amiga 600.

[Amiga1992]

I once had similar problems and it turned out it was a combination of bad cable and adapter. But you tried that already, so I am stumped as to what could be going on. Also assuming you didn't plug it backwards. I see that the way to plug it is with the card facing the motherboard, I think (according to pin 1 on the adapter).

Let's start with the usual suspect first: is the machine recapped?

[amikid]

@akira, Yes, the original harddrive is now plugged back in using the original cable with the original orientation (I take pictures of everything before I start disassembling). Of course I tried different orientations when things didn't work, but I hear the drive spin up, and it appears it's being accessed right after initial spin-up, but it ultimately isn't recognized.

I bought the machine without knowing its re-cap status, but it appears it has been. Everything looks good on it.

I guess my next step is to implicate or exclude a HW issue. I have no experience with IDE or the controller chips, so would appreciate any leads.

Thanks again

[fordav1]

trace all pins on IDE44 to their origins as per schematics. likely you will find broken tracks under the connector from a previous leaky cap. I've seen that problem a lot on both A600 and A1200. if you do find missing connections, patch the connections with thin wire and maybe your problem will be fixed.

[amikid]

@fordav1 thank you, and I agree. Stewing on this yesterday I realize that i need to start with continuity to the GayleAA (and the other chips), and then if that looks good get my logic analyzer out. I don't have a pcmcia drive to see if other functions of the Gayle still work.

[amikid]

Well, in the light of day (literally), once I looked at the pins to start tracing continuity it became pretty clear what the problem was:

I've attached a picture. It looks like pins 9 and 11 of the onboard IDE connector didn't make it! Moreover, Pin 1 (_RESET) appears loose and doesn't seem to have continuity.

This explains it nicely - pins came out when I detached ONE of the cables at some point. Trouble is, I don't actually SEE them in any of the cables (!) that were plugged into the mobo. I swear the HD was working before so they must be there somewhere.

Now, since I definitely require a HW repair, are there any highly skilled folks in the Toronto area that would be willing to work with me on this?

Thanks to everyone for their great suggestions!

-k

[amikid]

Actually, this may involve just finding new pins, pushing them in, and resoldering:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=64583

(not sure yet - still reading through a bunch of Google hits...)

Anyone have experience with this? If this is the case I should be able to do the soldering myself (I claim to have low-intermediate skill - would never attempt a delicate repair, but this my not be that hard).

Thanks again folks,
-k

[supaduper]

Yep just replacing the two pins is very do-able, just dont keep too much heat on the pads and use lots of flux,
Also too long with the heat on pin will melt the plastic connecter(heat transfer) so just take care and you will be fine

[fordav1]

no don't do that. you are only doing a band-aid fix. the connector is damaged and those replaced pins will not be properly supported by the plastic and will just bend again and make it worse, possibly damaging the holes/pads on the PCB as well.
you can remove it VERY easily using a simple soldering iron.
Heat each pin from below and pull it out from the top with tweezers/pliers.
After all pins are out the connector will fall off.
then check the PCB and trace all of the holes. If you find a bad connection repair the PCB properly.
If nothing is broken or corroded you are lucky and pray to the heavens that your board survived the abuse.
Now replace the cheap connector with a better connector like this....
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/112159195838
and problem solved.
I have done exactly that many times to A600's & A1200's. The better connector allows easier location of the cable too.

[Amiga1992]

You should contact alenppc on these forums to get your Amiga repaired. He is based in Quebec if I am not wrong, so pretty close to you, and will do an amazing job.

I am glad you found the issue though, shouldn't be hard to repair.

[fordav1]

it needs recapping too. they have not been done, it's clear the caps are original and have started to leak because around the caps it's all crusty and the solder holding the caps is dull, meaning they are starting to leak.

[Amiga1992]

True, I agree this board needs a recap. alenppc can do all that for you at the same time.

[amikid]

Yep, it needs caps redone - when I first looked I saw that TWO of the larger ones had been replaced, but the smaller ones have not.

Thanks for all the suggestions, appreciate it.

-k

[amikid]

Just to close the loop on this thread - I have received repaired and recapped board back from alenppc. It boots just fine off of the HD and SD cards again. Great workmanship - I highly recommend him.

Thanks again to everyone who offered advice, suggestions and feedback.