An A2000 and an A4000 to revive?

jman · 09 May 2011, 21:37

Hello,

I may have the chance to get my dirty hands on these two Amigas, they belong to this friend of mine which could be willing to give them to me for free ("as is", of course). I don't have much info (yet) about them.

- One of them has a A1081 monitor (11kgs for a 14"!)
- The A4000 is dead (in his own words "the cpu board card is fried").
- I don't know the revision of both, so no info about RAM, HD and CPU.

I was wondering if they were worth being saved from the oblivion (money and timewise).

Assuming that the A2000 can be actually working, I was thinking how to revive the A4000. Is there the possibility to buy a (cheap) accelerator card just to have it working again? What kind of hardware might be needed to have it live again? I'll try to have more info but I'm afraid the only possibility to know more is to bring them home.

Thanks.

prowler · 09 May 2011, 22:00

Hello jman,

Yes, get them home first. Amigas are ALWAYS worth saving from oblivion!

Then, lift the covers off and, if you can, take some phographs for us to have a look at and we'll take it from there.

With a bit of luck, the wealth of knowledge at EAB will soon have you up and running with those machines at minimal cost.

alexh · 09 May 2011, 22:01

The A2000 is practically worthless. The A4000 could be worth €200 if it can be resurrected. More if there is anything reasonable inside.

You can get an A3630 for about €20 and an A3640 for about €40

Hewitson · 10 May 2011, 05:01

Worthless? Even the A500 still sells for decent money.

8bitbubsy · 10 May 2011, 05:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

The A2000 is practically worthless. The A4000 could be worth €200 if it can be resurrected. More if there is anything reasonable inside.

Did he ever ask how much they are worth? The Amiga 2000 is a great Amiga, and expandable with many options. By the way jman write it looks like he is going to keep them and upgrade them.

Damion · 10 May 2011, 06:59

Both are potentially worth saving. The A2000 can be a really nice machine, and is generally a bit more robust WRT the maintenance it will require at this stage vs the 4000. (Battery leakage is the biggest problem with both.) Alexh is right, the 4000 is ultimately better and worth more, but will likely require much more time and money to restore.

alexh · 10 May 2011, 08:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Worthless? Even the A500 still sells for decent money.

Erm yeah right.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Amiga-500-Comp...ht_1353wt_1139

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

Did he ever ask how much they are worth?

Yes

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

The Amiga 2000 is a great Amiga, and expandable with many options.

Without a doubt it is the least sought after and can be the cheapest of all Amiga's. It is huge, has no Zorro III, no AGA, good accelerators are expensive. It has proved to be the most worthless in monetary terms of almost any Amiga during my time watching. Boxed A500 units with no yellowing and described as tested usually sell on eBay for more.

Jope · 10 May 2011, 08:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

Without a doubt it is the least sought after and can be the cheapest of all Amiga's. It is huge, has no Zorro III, no AGA, good accelerators are expensive. It has proved to be the most worthless in monetary terms of almost any Amiga during my time watching. Boxed A500 units with no yellowing and described as tested usually sell on eBay for more.

This man speaks the truth. :-)

A fine machine to tinker with, but totally worthless in terms of market value.

Hewitson · 10 May 2011, 08:47

It's not unusual to see A500's sell for over $100 over here.

Don't understand why the A2000 would be not sought after, it is a far superior machine to a 500 or 600.

alexh · 10 May 2011, 08:51

Could it be :

1) Form factor? The thing is huge.

2) Nostalgia? People want to own the Amiga of their childhood. Very few (in the UK at least) actually owned an 2000 / 1500.

(Not to mention that the A600 has integrated IDE and PCMCIA->CF which makes it much more usable out of the blocks)

ppill · 10 May 2011, 09:25

I've actually considered the A2000 over an A500 when looking for a kick 1.3 machine. Both are huge! The 2000 IMHO takes less space (have you seen an A500 lately?

. Has an external keyboard and you can place a monitor on top of it so in terms of desk space they're both pretty much the same.

It's just that getting any expansions for the A2000 here in Poland is next to impossible so I've settled for an A500 with 1MB Chip and 1,5MB Fast. Works a treat.

Anyway, good luck with the restoration. Both are fine machines.

jman · 10 May 2011, 10:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damion

Both are potentially worth saving. The A2000 can be a really nice machine, and is generally a bit more robust WRT the maintenance it will require at this stage vs the 4000. (Battery leakage is the biggest problem with both.) Alexh is right, the 4000 is ultimately better and worth more, but will likely require much more time and money to restore.

Yes, my idea is not to restore them to be sold, just to put them aside in the garage along with their friends: a 1200 and a 600 (and some other piece of retrohardware as well) ;-)

Also, it could be fun to tinker with the hard disks with that friend of mine to see his old C code and stuff.
Speaking of which, would it be possible to replace them with some more recent units? Something compatible with the current hardware, no CF, SATA whatsoever. After all a SCSI disk is always a SCSI disk, right?

Well, thanks for your suggestions. I'll evaluate how much time would it take to bring these babies home. I will definitively let you know if and when I will be unscrewing their case.

Hewitson · 10 May 2011, 10:16

You should definitely get them, an A2000 with a GVP Impact Series II is an absolutely fantastic machine

alexh · 10 May 2011, 10:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by jman

would it be possible to replace the hard drives with some more recent units? Something compatible with the current hardware, no CF, SATA whatsoever. After all a SCSI disk is always a SCSI disk, right?

The A4000 has IDE and so will use any PATA hard drive. Operating system patches will need to be applied to use large hard drives and partitions.

For the A2000, if it has a SCSI card, then you can fit a cheap Ultra Wide SCSI hard drive and a cheap adapter. Get both on eBay for under £10

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SCSI-SEAGATE-C...item19c5516d19

cosmicfrog · 10 May 2011, 11:01

LOL as ever love alexh ebay skills for tracking down a bargain but italy to Newquay would be a bit expesive hehehhe, though who ever got that a500 got a bargain, especialy if those paddles work.

right back on topic
lets hope both the a2000 and a4000 have some cards in them, especial the a2000 as if it han`t got a HDD in it its just a huge a500 with a floating keyboard.

all I can say is when you get em take lots of pics, chances are both have suffered battery damage

alexh · 10 May 2011, 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

italy to Newquay would be a bit expesive hehehhe

Heh, yeah but Jman wasn't after an A500. I was just showing to Hewitson an example of how cheap A500's can be if you hunt around.

For the hard drive that Jman was after I chose one which shipped to Italy. €6 airmail seems good value.

8bitbubsy · 10 May 2011, 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

Did he ever ask how much they are worth?

Yes

Where? He said that he wonders if it's worth paying the money to repair them or upgrade them, he didn't ask how much they are worth. When you say that the A2000 is worthless then it sounds like you are trying to give a "discrete" hint that he should bin it or something.

Saying that it's cheaper to get a working one isn't the same as saying he asked how much they are worth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jman

I was wondering if they were worth being saved from the oblivion (money and timewise).

alexh · 10 May 2011, 14:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by jman

I was wondering if they were worth being saved from the oblivion (money and timewise).

I thought he was asking if they are worth saving moneywise. How are we supposed to answer that without mentioning how much they are worth?

The answer is a plain A2000 has little or no commercial value.

It's not a particularly nice answer. And yes if that is his criterior it might lead to him throwing it (or giving it) away.

But part of being a retro enthusiast is not caring about money and/or time.

jman · 10 May 2011, 15:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

He's asking if they are worth saving moneywise. How are we supposed to answer that without mentioning how much they are worth?

lol guys, come on don't fight :-)

My question was simply if I can put them back on their legs with little or no effort.
And you provided enough tips to understand it could be done.

They will *NOT* be trashed ANYWAY, that's a promise. Rather than that, they will be gifted to someone willing to take care of them ;-)

jman · 10 May 2011, 21:35

Ok, first hint.

I know exactly what is damaged in the A4000, I've called my friend and checked on the interwebz.

Apparently the fried component is really the CPU daughter board (last verdict of the then computer shop). He says he's willing to give it to me for repairing duties and then ... well, I'll try to be persuasive :-)

The good news is that the suggestion Alexh provided can be the perfect trade-off I was looking for.

And with a little bit of luck I can find the replacement card and have a spare 68040 from the desktop, is that hoping for too much I can kiss the old 040 goodbye anyway?
Hints on where I can get a A3640? I'll have a look in the meanwhile.

Probably this weekend I will take it home.

Thanks for now, I'll keep you posted.

09 May 2011, 21:37	#1
jman Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: . Posts: 351	An A2000 and an A4000 to revive? Hello, I may have the chance to get my dirty hands on these two Amigas, they belong to this friend of mine which could be willing to give them to me for free ("as is", of course). I don't have much info (yet) about them. - One of them has a A1081 monitor (11kgs for a 14"!) - The A4000 is dead (in his own words "the cpu board card is fried"). - I don't know the revision of both, so no info about RAM, HD and CPU. I was wondering if they were worth being saved from the oblivion (money and timewise). Assuming that the A2000 can be actually working, I was thinking how to revive the A4000. Is there the possibility to buy a (cheap) accelerator card just to have it working again? What kind of hardware might be needed to have it live again? I'll try to have more info but I'm afraid the only possibility to know more is to bring them home. Thanks.

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09 May 2011, 22:00	#2
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Hello jman, Yes, get them home first. Amigas are ALWAYS worth saving from oblivion! Then, lift the covers off and, if you can, take some phographs for us to have a look at and we'll take it from there. With a bit of luck, the wealth of knowledge at EAB will soon have you up and running with those machines at minimal cost.

09 May 2011, 22:01	#3
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,355	The A2000 is practically worthless. The A4000 could be worth €200 if it can be resurrected. More if there is anything reasonable inside. You can get an A3630 for about €20 and an A3640 for about €40

10 May 2011, 05:01	#4
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	Worthless? Even the A500 still sells for decent money.

10 May 2011, 06:59	#6
Damion Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: US Posts: 315	Both are potentially worth saving. The A2000 can be a really nice machine, and is generally a bit more robust WRT the maintenance it will require at this stage vs the 4000. (Battery leakage is the biggest problem with both.) Alexh is right, the 4000 is ultimately better and worth more, but will likely require much more time and money to restore.

10 May 2011, 08:47	#9
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	It's not unusual to see A500's sell for over $100 over here. Don't understand why the A2000 would be not sought after, it is a far superior machine to a 500 or 600.

10 May 2011, 08:51	#10
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,355	Could it be : 1) Form factor? The thing is huge. 2) Nostalgia? People want to own the Amiga of their childhood. Very few (in the UK at least) actually owned an 2000 / 1500. (Not to mention that the A600 has integrated IDE and PCMCIA->CF which makes it much more usable out of the blocks)

10 May 2011, 09:25	#11
ppill CON: artist Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Poland Age: 43 Posts: 1,250	I've actually considered the A2000 over an A500 when looking for a kick 1.3 machine. Both are huge! The 2000 IMHO takes less space (have you seen an A500 lately? . Has an external keyboard and you can place a monitor on top of it so in terms of desk space they're both pretty much the same. It's just that getting any expansions for the A2000 here in Poland is next to impossible so I've settled for an A500 with 1MB Chip and 1,5MB Fast. Works a treat. Anyway, good luck with the restoration. Both are fine machines.

10 May 2011, 10:16	#13
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	You should definitely get them, an A2000 with a GVP Impact Series II is an absolutely fantastic machine

10 May 2011, 11:01	#15
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	LOL as ever love alexh ebay skills for tracking down a bargain but italy to Newquay would be a bit expesive hehehhe, though who ever got that a500 got a bargain, especialy if those paddles work. right back on topic lets hope both the a2000 and a4000 have some cards in them, especial the a2000 as if it han`t got a HDD in it its just a huge a500 with a floating keyboard. all I can say is when you get em take lots of pics, chances are both have suffered battery damage

10 May 2011, 21:35	#20
jman Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: . Posts: 351	Ok, first hint. I know exactly what is damaged in the A4000, I've called my friend and checked on the interwebz. Apparently the fried component is really the CPU daughter board (last verdict of the then computer shop). He says he's willing to give it to me for repairing duties and then ... well, I'll try to be persuasive :-) The good news is that the suggestion Alexh provided can be the perfect trade-off I was looking for. And with a little bit of luck I can find the replacement card and have a spare 68040 from the desktop, is that hoping for too much I can kiss the old 040 goodbye anyway? Hints on where I can get a A3640? I'll have a look in the meanwhile. Probably this weekend I will take it home. Thanks for now, I'll keep you posted.

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