Melburnians who can repair old machines

B14ck W01f · 12 April 2016, 16:32

So I am a member of the Retro Computers Facebook group and someone told me there that I need to replace the electrolytic capacitors (caps) in my A1200 or some leakage will occur and destroy the PCB in the long-term,have noticed the warning signs already, including the internal floppy drive dismounting a disk if the disk is still in there, as well as the A1200 resetting itself. So I guess the sooner I get these caps replaced, the better.

So I'm asking if there are any people around my area, that will be happy to fix this problem?

B14ck W01f · 15 April 2016, 08:44

Over 80 views as of this post and not one person can help me. Great.

mihcael · 15 April 2016, 11:34

Might have to do it yourself.

Once you have practised on your machine i know someone that wants there caps changed too.

ajk · 15 April 2016, 12:40

Any technician who can solder at all will be able to replace the caps, but if there is already damage to the board, it would be good that the person knows how to deal with that.

whitegiant89 · 15 April 2016, 14:13

i have replaced the caps in my snes, i might be able to do an amiga. (i really should pull my 2 out and check them). But i'm in FNQLD which is at the other end of the country.

B14ck W01f · 16 April 2016, 05:59

Does anyone know how many caps I need to replace?

ajk · 16 April 2016, 06:31

I think there are 14 surface mounted electrolytic caps on the A1200 motherboard, these are the ones prone to drying out or leaking. There are another four larger, through-hole ones which don't usually leak, though it probably makes sense to change them at the same time as some of them are kind of in the way when working on the other ones.

whiteb · 16 April 2016, 09:02

I used a guy called Paul, in Mornington, somewhere, he is a member here but have forgotten his username.

He knew his stuff when he replaced the Audio in my 4000, and did the battery removal / replacement.

Here is his website, but dont know if its still valid.......

http://www.amisynth.on.net/

B14ck W01f · 16 April 2016, 12:43

Not any more.

BigFairy · 17 April 2016, 00:51

is there a link to a Do it Yourself guide with pics for the beginners ? I need to look into this as well at some stage.

BigFairy · 17 April 2016, 02:10

hmm after watching a vid on utube of it im not sure I could do it myself.

One place that offers to do it is amigakit, though you would have to send you a1200 to the UK for it to get done. I've bought stuff from them before so I guess it is an option.... I wonder how much it would be??

B14ck W01f · 17 April 2016, 13:11

There's a guy up in Sydney that could replace the cap, but it involves a courier, so he would be my last resort.

jabsy · 03 August 2016, 14:28

Did you guys have any luck? I have about 6 or 7 amigas I should do, Ive hardly touched them in years...

TroyWilkins · 04 August 2016, 02:40

I sent an email off to Amisynth, and got this reply sent to me not too long later...

Quote:

Paul De Piazza <pdepiazza@gmail.com>
1 Jul

Hi Troy,

Paul from Amisynth passed your email on to me as he no longer works on Amiga systems, my name is Paul also just to make it confusing. I have a workshop outside of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia where I repair and service Commodore, Amiga, Apple, Atari and other similar era machines.

A black screen on the Amiga 600 could be caused by a wide range of problems, it may be dead capacitors, faulty chips or other damage on the circuit board - it may even be a power supply issue. To give a rough idea of cost, if it's a simple repair it would be $25, and if all of the capacitors need replacing $62.50. If you bring the system in (or post) I'm happy to take a look at it for no charge and let you know what state the motherboard is in and what is likely to be needed for repair.

All the best,

Paul De Piazza
e. pdepiazza@gmail.com
m. 0408 607096

He has my A600 now to re-cap it and test to make sure it's functioning correctly before sending back to me. There is a bit of a delay, as I suspect he does this in his spare time, and I can't vouch for his work, as I'm in Tasmania and have had to send it to him, but you could contact him and perhaps go there if you've got the time?

ransom1122 · 04 August 2016, 03:59

I know a guy who fixed my 1084S i don't think he'll know anything about amigas though.

jabsy · 05 August 2016, 06:48

Cheers Troy, postage both ways from my place will be about $60, might be better to have a go at it myself. I saw cap kits on ebay, and I guess some of the online shops sell them too. Time for an audit.

TroyWilkins · 05 August 2016, 07:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by jabsy

Cheers Troy, postage both ways from my place will be about $60, might be better to have a go at it myself. I saw cap kits on ebay, and I guess some of the online shops sell them too. Time for an audit.

Cost me far less than that from North-West Tassie to just outside Ballarat, but I was only sending an A600, I guess an A1200 being bigger would cost more to send. But if you think you can do it yourself, more power to you mate, good luck! I know I couldn't - if I could, I would have done it myself. In any case, best of luck mate!

B14ck W01f · 10 August 2016, 04:28

I didn't know that this thread was still alive.

Paul De Piazza has replaced the capacitors of my A1200, which were causing problems for the floppy drive, not only on the PCB, but on the MBX 1200z expansion board as well!

The best thing about Paul is that he's actually willing to travel around Victoria, going so far as Warragul, where he visits his parents. He can stop by your house if you want him to.

I am planning to upgrade the A1200 to have a better FPU than the one installed on the expansion board and to add more fast RAM to it, but I have no plans to contact him and ask him if he can install them, since I can't do it myself.

TroyWilkins · 12 August 2016, 00:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by B14ck W01f

Paul De Piazza has replaced the capacitors of my A1200, which were causing problems for the floppy drive, not only on the PCB, but on the MBX 1200z expansion board as well!

The best thing about Paul is that he's actually willing to travel around Victoria, going so far as Warragul, where he visits his parents. He can stop by your house if you want him to.

Cool, since I posted my response up above, he got back to me to tell me the repairs on my A600 are finished, and I'm just about to go to the bank to deposit the money required for payment for the repairs and parts and postage back to me. Times like this I kinda wish I still lived in Victoria, hahaha.

TroyWilkins · 12 September 2016, 12:30

I thought I'd posted another response after I got my A600 back from being repaired by Paul De Piazza, but it appears I was too caught up in the excitement to post a response here.

Anyway, I can't recommend Paul De Piazza highly enough. I'm very happy with the work he did on my A600, and his pricing was most certainly fair, if anything I think he could have, and should have, charged more. I wouldn't hesitate to send any machine to him again to repair, and would recommend his services to anyone.

12 April 2016, 16:32	#1
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	Melburnians who can repair old machines So I am a member of the Retro Computers Facebook group and someone told me there that I need to replace the electrolytic capacitors (caps) in my A1200 or some leakage will occur and destroy the PCB in the long-term,have noticed the warning signs already, including the internal floppy drive dismounting a disk if the disk is still in there, as well as the A1200 resetting itself. So I guess the sooner I get these caps replaced, the better. So I'm asking if there are any people around my area, that will be happy to fix this problem?

15 April 2016, 08:44	#2
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	Over 80 views as of this post and not one person can help me. Great. Last edited by B14ck W01f; 15 April 2016 at 10:19.

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15 April 2016, 11:34	#3
mihcael Zone Friend Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Aussie Posts: 1,144	Might have to do it yourself. Once you have practised on your machine i know someone that wants there caps changed too.

15 April 2016, 12:40	#4
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,341	Any technician who can solder at all will be able to replace the caps, but if there is already damage to the board, it would be good that the person knows how to deal with that.

15 April 2016, 14:13	#5
whitegiant89 Lone CBM user Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Atherton / Australia Age: 52 Posts: 148	i have replaced the caps in my snes, i might be able to do an amiga. (i really should pull my 2 out and check them). But i'm in FNQLD which is at the other end of the country.

16 April 2016, 05:59	#6
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	Does anyone know how many caps I need to replace?

16 April 2016, 06:31	#7
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,341	I think there are 14 surface mounted electrolytic caps on the A1200 motherboard, these are the ones prone to drying out or leaking. There are another four larger, through-hole ones which don't usually leak, though it probably makes sense to change them at the same time as some of them are kind of in the way when working on the other ones.

16 April 2016, 09:02	#8
whiteb Fanatically Amiga. Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Age: 54 Posts: 1,557	I used a guy called Paul, in Mornington, somewhere, he is a member here but have forgotten his username. He knew his stuff when he replaced the Audio in my 4000, and did the battery removal / replacement. Here is his website, but dont know if its still valid....... http://www.amisynth.on.net/

16 April 2016, 12:43	#9
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	Not any more.

17 April 2016, 00:51	#10
BigFairy Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 80	is there a link to a Do it Yourself guide with pics for the beginners ? I need to look into this as well at some stage.

17 April 2016, 02:10	#11
BigFairy Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 80	hmm after watching a vid on utube of it im not sure I could do it myself. One place that offers to do it is amigakit, though you would have to send you a1200 to the UK for it to get done. I've bought stuff from them before so I guess it is an option.... I wonder how much it would be??

17 April 2016, 13:11	#12
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	There's a guy up in Sydney that could replace the cap, but it involves a courier, so he would be my last resort.

03 August 2016, 14:28	#13
jabsy Yeah Hup! Join Date: May 2006 Location: Australia Age: 54 Posts: 345	Did you guys have any luck? I have about 6 or 7 amigas I should do, Ive hardly touched them in years...

04 August 2016, 03:59	#15
ransom1122 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Omnicorp Age: 45 Posts: 5,812	I know a guy who fixed my 1084S i don't think he'll know anything about amigas though.

05 August 2016, 06:48	#16
jabsy Yeah Hup! Join Date: May 2006 Location: Australia Age: 54 Posts: 345	Cheers Troy, postage both ways from my place will be about $60, might be better to have a go at it myself. I saw cap kits on ebay, and I guess some of the online shops sell them too. Time for an audit.

10 August 2016, 04:28	#18
B14ck W01f m68k all the way Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Koalaland Posts: 523	I didn't know that this thread was still alive. Paul De Piazza has replaced the capacitors of my A1200, which were causing problems for the floppy drive, not only on the PCB, but on the MBX 1200z expansion board as well! The best thing about Paul is that he's actually willing to travel around Victoria, going so far as Warragul, where he visits his parents. He can stop by your house if you want him to. I am planning to upgrade the A1200 to have a better FPU than the one installed on the expansion board and to add more fast RAM to it, but I have no plans to contact him and ask him if he can install them, since I can't do it myself.

12 September 2016, 12:30	#20
TroyWilkins Registered User Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 548	I thought I'd posted another response after I got my A600 back from being repaired by Paul De Piazza, but it appears I was too caught up in the excitement to post a response here. Anyway, I can't recommend Paul De Piazza* highly enough*. I'm very happy with the work he did on my A600, and his pricing was most certainly fair, if anything I think he could have, and should have, charged more. I wouldn't hesitate to send any machine to him again to repair, and would recommend his services to anyone.

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