My A4000EC030

[Steve C]

I've decided it's time to breathe some new life into my old Amiga. It's been sat alone and forgotten in the spare room for too long now. It has a 1942 monitor, but thats going to fail soon. The floppy drive makes a horrible grinding noise when trying unsuccessfully to read a disk.

Its was badged as EC030 but i'm pretty sure SYSINFO reported an MMU is present. It also sports an upgraded Buster chip. I bought it as a desktop unit, but at some time I've put it inside a tower unit, chopping up the original case to mount it in the tower with the Zorro board properly supported in the Amiga 'skeleton'.

I would welcome any thoughts and suggestions about the way forward but my immediate plan is this:-

Display.
The 1942 is failing. It started to show yellow tints, then recover, but these episodes are becoming more common. I use Productivity mode, but the top half of the display is unstable, having a perceptible 'bounce'. The power switch is broken, needing a wedge to keep the display on. The front flap has one of the hinge pins missing.
So I've bought an Indivision AGA board to hook the Amiga up to an LCD monitor I have spare. That should be delivered tomorrow - thats within 48 hours of order! - Good work Amigakit!

Floppy Drive.
Dying if not dead. Its a Power Computing DD drive which is a SonyMP-F17W-22 mechanism with a circuit board plugged in the back.
I'm not sure about this. Should I replace the drive or go down the other route of the Gotek Floppy Emulator? Will any old PC floppy drive work with Power Computing's circuit board plugged in, or do I need to find an exact replacement for the Sony? To be honest I'm not sure I really need the higher capacity drive, so suggestions are welcome.

The battery came out a while ago, so I'm going to get a replacement from Amigakit, but they're out of stock at the moment. I have a 4-way IDE adaptor that uses IDEFix97, a DVD-ROM and a CF adaptor to go in. Workbench is on a 40gig HD using ClassicWB.

So, once it's back up and running, what should i do next? Bearing in mind I don't have a fortune to spend, what are my options for network/internet etc? I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

[trixster]

I'm in the process of upgrading my A4000 so I'm interested in what you're going to do.

You'll be very pleased with the Indivision AGA2. I have the AGA 1 in my 4000 but the AGA2 in my A1200. I really rate it as a piece of kit. The picture it gives is fantastic. You'll read lots of stories about it not being able to deliver smooth 50hz PAL for games but that's not true. You need to spend some time understanding the config set up and pair it with an LCD that will support low res 50hz outputs.

So that leads onto the Monitor, as I assume you'll want a new display. I cannot recommend highly enough the dell 2001fp. I bought two at about £25 each. The dell supports 50hz beautifully with no tearing or stutter. The Benq (can't remover the model but it's often mentioned on here) is well recommended too.

For Ethernet you're looking at the xsurf 100 but at £100 or so it's not cheap.

You can upgrade the ram to 16mb on the motherboard very cheaply, and up to 64mb if you are prepared to mod it. Further ram can come from zorro3 ram boards for £70-100ish for 128-256mb.

RTG and accelerator cards are serious cash.

A Mediator board to replace the zorro daughterboard is a relatively expensive option but it does give access to very cheap rtg cards, Ethernet cards and sound cards. Think a tenner each for the latter two and 20-30 quid for a Radeon or voodoo card.

/edit didn't read your bit about already having an LCD!

[Viserion]

As for the floppy drive, you can try cleaning it. Should be several videos at youtube to show you how.

If it's nor possible to save it, you can use a pc floppy drive if you mod it. Not all of them are mod able however. See "Modifying PC floppy drives for Amiga use" under "hardware mods" section.

Or get a already modded/ original will work, but not all will fit. You need those who are made for big Amigias as 2000/3000/4000. Those for other Amigas will work, but not fit/look nice in the case.

Third alternative is of course the gotek ones. Can buy them readily modded, but be aware so you don't pay over price on ebay.

It is possible to do it yourself, if you get a programmer to do it. Not difficult to do.
I have done so myself.

You can also use the HxC version, but that costs EUR10. Not tried that one myself, but I've read it's more flexible than the Cortex version that is free.

Don't know much about display, but see if the capacitors are bad. Typical they bulge, or there is a fishy smell.Another sign is if the solder is dull instead of shiny, or corrosion on the motherboard.

Don't know how well you now electronics, but be careful, as in worst case it can kill you.
At least parts in the power supply can.

[nogginthenog]

You could add a 68882 math co-pro! It probably won't be used much but it's only £3.16 (from China). Just pop it into the empty hole on the 030 CPU card.

This is the seller I used:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pcs-MC688...-/261022092829

[amigakit.com]

So I've bought an Indivision AGA board to hook the Amiga up to an LCD monitor I have spare. That should be delivered tomorrow - thats within 48 hours of order! - Good work Amigakit!

Thanks for the order Steve, I hope you have fun with it when it is installed in your A4000.