Trying to get my A1200 setup...

[GameBase]

OK the dusty old A1200 had its power on today for the first time in gawd knows how many years... and it *kinda* worked.

I've discovered it's an A1200 with 3.1 Rom (v40.068). Workbench says its has 1,803,616 graphics mem, and 0 other mem.

I've got a few questions...

- It has a HD (see attached pic), but when switching the machine on, it just goes to the usual purple Insert Floppy screen. So my guess is either the HD is knackered, or do I need to do/press something to boot from it? The H.Disk power light is on.

- There is an ELBOX 1200/0-8 in the machine too (see pic)... but again I'm assuming this isn't working as Workbench (when loaded from floppy) shows 0 fast ram. It seemed to be installed snugly so maybe its just fooked.

- I don't have a SCART cable yet, so I've connected it up via RF cable directly into a 14" Sony Trinitron TV in order to test it. As you can see in the attached pic, the video output does not seem to be centered correctly, but instead slightly down and to the right. Where you see the mouse pointer - I can't move the mouse any more up/left from there. Loading some games also seemed to have this issue. I'm not sure if it would be the amiga, or the TV causing it.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Should I persevere to get it 100% working, or does it sound like it's knackered and I should just try to buy a fully-working one from Amibay?

Cheers

[fitzsteve]

Wow it's exactly the same setup as my A1200 I got out of the loft a few years ago with the Elbox 1200/8. Sadly whilst in storage the battery on my 1200/8 leaked and destroyed it

I can't see in your pic but check to see if any green gunk is on the surrounding components, this might be why you are showing 0 other Memory.

It could also be that the Ram chips or the card it's self need to be reseated, you could try that but first report back on the condition of the Ram card.

The next step would be to remove the battery and repair any damage but we'll cross that bridge if we have to.

As for the HDD, it's probably knackered or maybe your old PSU is too weak to drive that and the Ram board. I'm guessing you probably don't have another PSU to test it with.

Report back on the Ram board and we'll go from there, hopefully it can be restored and a new CF HDD installed to bring it up to date

About the screen you can use 'overscan' to fill the screen or a tool called border blank to blank out the border.

Steve.

edit:

Looking at the pic again in detail it looks like the battery has leaked, the jumper pins look green.

Do you ever come over to west Kent? I'm in Sevenoaks and would be happy to take a look at it if you're ever passing...

[roy bates]

try to get it working.

remove the hardrive,if the light stays on its probably knackered.but you could try to do a soft reset from the keyboard to see if it boots if that fails try to remove the harddrive cable and reseat it and try again.
if that fails bin the drive.

as for the memory catd hold both the mouse buttons down and see if the cardshows in early startup if it doesent try to unplug the card and re-insert it after cleaning the edge connector,if that fails tell us what make it is.

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

There's not much point buying a 'working' one off Amibay, they are all very old now so you might buy one that has more issues than this one.

Clean the contacts and see if you can get that old memory expansion card to work, if it's dead then you'll also need to order a new ACA card.

Best thing to do is take everything out and send the mother board off to AmigaKit for new CAPS and any timing fixes it needs (tell them to test it with an ACA 1230). You can also order a SCART cable off them while you're at it.

After you get it back, install Classic WB on a nice little CF 'hard drive' with tons of WHDLOAD games and you'll be all sorted

[GameBase]

Thanks for the replies.

There's green gunk on the ram card, yeah - see pic.

As for the HDD... I have one other A1200 power supply so will try that. I'm not too fussed about the current HDD as I'll probably be replacing it with a CF drive soon.

Re the screen - when you mention overscan - I take it this means the non-centered image is not the TV's fault? I don't recall this ever happening before (twas a long time ago mind ). Would the same issue appear if using a scart connection or connecting to an amiga monitor?

I like the sound of getting the caps replaced and any timing issues looked at. Is there a way I can test/tell the state of the current caps?

@Steve: Cheers for the offer... I don't come over that way very often, but could make an exception to get the miggy looked at and a nice CF HDD sorted - I'll bring the beer money of course . You ever down Folkestone way? I have a home-made arcade cab setup with gamebase 64 and gamebase Amiga on it (I'm the author of the GameBase frontend btw) along with mame of course. Be great to have a gaming session with someone into it - most my local mates couldn't care less about this stuff!

[fitzsteve]

Geez that's some serious damage, I don't think I've seen worse

I can have a go at fixing it for you, thing is once you've removed all the corrosion there's a good chance there wont be much left of the solder pads and chip sockets but we can give it a go!

I'll drop you a PM in the morning as I'm hitting the sack now, I'm sure we can sort something out for a CF HDD and the Monitor too.

A Gaming session could be fun some time as well

Steve.

[roy bates]

remove the simm and cut off the battery.

then soak the card in vinigar for about 20 minutes using a toothbrush and wash it after,then let it dry out.

some of the ic's look a bit battered though.

[NovaCoder]

If the card is dead then go for one of these ACA 1232

[fitzsteve]

So I'm trying to get this running for for GameBase! At the moment the board isn't detected at all, probably due to the corrosion that is on the connector pins and was also on the A1200's edge connector!

Here she was before any work done:



As you can see damage is severe and goes into the tracks under the PCB





Now. To try and save it!

First thing is to remove the battery and take a bath in Distilled Vinegar:



After a long time in the bath and may scrubbing I was able to get a lot of the corrosion off but I just can't get it all, I fear to scrub harder would cause more damage so I've cleaned and rinsed with IPA.





As you can see it looks a lot better, I fear it will be a Miracle if it works however once dry I will test! The only worry is the corrosion that remains will probably spread again





If it does work, maybe it can give GameBase user a few months or maybe a years service? Let's see when I test later - fingers crossed!

[spajdr]

I hope you get it working steve, good luck!

[Peter]

It's almost too sad to look at that poor card... :-(

[fitzsteve]

Well just tested in my A1200 and it is showing up as 'defective'

I tested with a couple of different Simms. I think it's Game Over for this one, maybe one of the Guru's can save it - but is beyond my skills now...

[GameBase]

Ah well... many thanks for trying. I'll have to get myself some more memory some other way!

Cheers for today Steve - gonna have a good gaming session tonight!

James

[Peter]

Ram Expansions seem to be selling at reasonable prices at the moment...