Display options and colour fault on Amiga 1200

[Dimlow]

First of all Hello to all, I posted this in Amiga org, but didnt get the responces i was looking for so id thought id repost here.

Years ago Iwas very into my Amiga 1200 and used to right Games in Amos and learnt to program in C on the Amiga until commodore when bust and i decided to Swap to the PC.

Well years later and with the wonders of EBay i purchased another Amiga 1200 witch of course worked for a while now the colour has stopped displaying on the TV. (The TV is fine) So i have purchased ( not arrived yet) an RGB scart lead for the Amiga in the hope that the RGB will work fine and that the problem is just with the modulator of the Amiga and not the Amiga its self. So the question is have i done the right thing, will i see colour again, if not then does anybody have a clue to how a go about checking the Amiga? I am well equipped with scopes and meters and can find my way around digital electronics quite well.

The next question for all you Amiga experts ( I was one once but my memory has failed me!) is what options are there for the Amiga 1200 for getting a better display resolution in Workbench? In the days i remember having to use 640 x 512 laced and putting up with the flicker on my TV screen. But with today's LCD TVs and monitors there must be some other option ???? I guess i just got used to my 1920 x 1600 24" monitor!

Some specs on the Amiga so far
I have installed a CF card as a hard drive.
A Blizzard 1230/50Mhz 8MbRam with FPU has been ordered.
A Prism2 based wireless network card Ordered.
3.1 Roms have been ordered.
(Edit Also Purchased two 32Mb Simms and a new 4gb CF)

Something that surprised me about going back to work bench from my Q6600 3.3Ghz PC. THE AMIGA SEEMS MUCH MORE RESPONSIVE!!! Must be somthing to do with Windows Vista Bloat.

Also if you guys have some tips suggestions of OS and other software/ C compilers / etc etc. Id be grateful of them.

Oh Yes, i have searched for these answers on the forum but didn't really find the answers.

My claim to fame! I once got on the cover Disk of Amiga user international with my software for converting Texture Studio Texture files to Imagine Attribute files (ts-i is still on Aminet!). Also got my Imagine Object of a train on that same disk. I am also the author of DisCat(Lost forever i believe) Written in Amos and also published in the same mag i think.

Also as a special request does anybody have these magazines, with my stuff on, id really like to get a copy!

Also, i like the idea of the Zone here, nice board too and loads of usfull information.

Regards
Gary

[NovaCoder]

Hi Gary,

When you say that it used to work on your TV, which cable were you using...composite or RF? Have you tried both?

If you've got a SCART connector on your TV you'd be better off with an RGB to SCART cable anyway (better quality). Make sure you get the right RGB to SCART cable.

Try here -> http://amr.abime.net/magazines

[Dimlow]

Yes i forgot to mention that yes both Composite and RF are the same ie no colour. That was expected as both of these signals are generated by one chip (CX1145 or soming like that). I looked on the ciruit diagram and can see that there is a Colour clock signal going to that chip, maybe one or more of the caps have gone dry or leaked in that area and the clock has stopped working. When i have time i will scope it. Also yes, i have now ordered an RGB scart connector with audio from eBay. With luck that will work and i can just ignore that fault

Thanks for your input
Gary

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Dimlow

The next question for all you Amiga experts ( I was one once but my memory has failed me!) is what options are there for the Amiga 1200 for getting a better display resolution in Workbench? In the days i remember having to use 640 x 512 laced and putting up with the flicker on my TV screen. But with today's LCD TVs and monitors there must be some other option ???? I guess i just got used to my 1920 x 1600 24" monitor!

http://ftp.uni-heidelberg.de/ftp/pub...agictv2.readme

Apparently it's good if you just want to use a TV.

If you want to use a LCD monitor the best thing to do is prob wait for Jens to release his new scan-doubler.

You could also try an LCD TV with a VGA input as 'some' can handle a native Amiga RGB signal (try before you buy).

[Dimlow]

That does look very interesting, i will have to give that software a try. Maybe i was using something like this years ago, because i sort of remember using high resolution displays. I cant really have put up with that flicker all the time. This is the one area i believe the 1200 or any other Amiga failed. If it had a decent VGA / TV output things would have been much better.

Thanks for that!
Gary

[Dimlow]

Well i tried MagicTV last night, its not bad, but still, its not good either, i think i will have to find some other solution.

Yesterday, my Pcmcia Wireless network card arrived, I Plugged it in and it worked great! Also my Blizzard 1230/50 MkII arrived, I plugged that in and it didn't work, it was bought untested on eBay! well, had a quick look on the net and found that if you have a 68882 FPU , you also need a clock chip. Looks like the clock chip has fallen out in its time. So i pulled the FPU and plugged it back in, together with its standard 4mb ram that came with it, It Worked! OK now two things working that's not bad! Also my RGB Scart lead arrived, plugged it in and it worked! i had colour again. This is getting too good. Right, also my 64 Mb RAM arrived, two 32 Mb of unbranded randomly chosen on eBay, simms arrived, Plugged that into the blizzard, well, that worked too!

Now here comes the weirdest bit. My PCMCIA network card was still working. i had expected it not to work, as i had read on here that with the old MKII 1230 and more than 4 Mb memory, the pcmcia slot will not work. So, I exchanged my network card for the CF card and adaptor in the pcmcia slot, did it work ? you bet ya, it did, So can someone tell me why i was worried about getting the old MK11 1230, i only paid £60 for it on eBay and it works great. The sysinfo score is only 8400, but as i understand it, people are only getting more because they are dumping some libraries into ram with some other tweaks. Yes before you ask, i do use MAPROM. I also had a play with BlizKick and BlizzMagic. Couldn't get BlizKick to kick a 3.1 Rom but that's another story.

So, to cap it all off, im very happy with what happend yesterday, just have to find myself a new clock chip for the 1230's FPU, and i will be set. Just waiting for my 150x CF card to arrive, so i can finally put the lid on the 1200 and remove that whining 2.5 inch hard drive for ever.

Gary