Switched my Amiga on after 19 Years!!

Hi All

I switched my Amiga A600HD on after 19 years, so that my Kids could play it. Anyway after pressing the on switch, it whirred and up came a grey screen and thats it, HDD light is yellow and comes on and off. Floppy Drive light doesn't come on even if I boot with the workbench disk.

Please can anyone come to my aid? What do I do?

Thanks

Charlie

[fitzsteve]

Hi Charlie,

Welcome to EAB.

Problem is when these are not used for such a long time the capacitors can deteriorate.

If you're handy with soldering iron you could replace them.

Of course this might not be the fault, I would suggest trying some more simple things first.

Open her up, make sure the socketet chips (like the Rom) are properly seated.

If you have another PSU try that first as old PSU's can and do fail to provide enough joice.

Worst case you can get another motherboard from ebay for about £10-15 or even a whole replacement A600 for a few quid more!

All the best,

Steve.

[Retro1234]

fitzsteve is the man he knows his hardware

Just a thought maybe HD is trying to validate takeing long time or try disconect HD
Soft reset and hold down both mouse buttons see if can get early boot menu.

How come SNES and MD dont have cap problems?

and welcome

I opened it up gently pressed sockets cable connectors etc, now it does nt come on at all, I'm hearing a squeaking sound now and again from the psu so it could be that.... looks like I'll have to buy another one from Ebay, the one I've got cost £500+ back in 1992! anyway there cheap as chips on ebay so I'll prolly get one from there. This particular unit was abit sentimental though!

I've got alot of A600 games shall I stick to the A600 or go for the A1200?

and do the A500 games work on the A600?

What do you guys advise?

[fitzsteve]

I have a spare PSU you can have for gratis, where abouts in London are you?

Worst case is cost of postage.

A600 is a nice portable machine and most of the Floppy Disk based titles will work fine, the only issue is aging disks are prone to read errors that can make loading games frustrating.

The latest craze is to fit a 4gb CF card (via CF-IDE adapter) and with WHDLoad install the games to the CF-HDD (these can be downloaded pre installed or someone like me can help you set them up.)

If you decide to go this route then an A1200 with an el cheapo 4mb/8mb Ram upgrade will do the trick. There were new accelerators made in 2010 by Individual Computers (ACA1230 for abut £85) but I think these are all sold out now. An 8mb Upgrade should cost you £30-40 and an A1200 depending on condition £40-80 i.e if boxed/yellowed/etc.

Steve.

@Boo boo,

Zetr0 was telling me its the type of Capcitor used in the A600/1200 if you use them daily they can live forever but when not used for a long time the degrade. The old A500 have different Caps and he never seen any of these failed!

Also PSU's of this age are prone to failure, best option these days is to modify an ATX PSU, probably not the best idea if being used by Children though.

b4 I take up the nice offer, Is there a way the psu can be tested, friends got a multimeter?

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

I have a spare PSU you can have for gratis, where abouts in London are you?

Worst case is cost of postage.

Steve.

@Boo boo,

Zetr0 was telling me its the type of Capcitor used in the A600/1200 if you use them daily they can live forever but when not used for a long time the degrade. The old A500 have different Caps and he never seen any of these failed!

Also PSU's of this age are prone to failure, best option these days is to modify an ATX PSU, probably not the best idea if being used by Children though.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Boo Boo

How come SNES and MD dont have cap problems?

Electrolytic capacitors in any electronic equipment will deteriorate.. But I get what you're saying, the Amiga seems to suffer more problems than any other machine for some reason.

[8bitbubsy]

I've had two SNES' with leaking capacitors. Yes, there are SMD capacitors on them!

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

I've had two SNES' with leaking capacitors. Yes, there are SMD capacitors on them!

That's hardly a surprise. SMD components became commonplace in the mid 80's.

When I recently switched my 1500 on for the first time in about 12 years I had a similar problem, until I followed the advice I found on here and removed the knackered battery. I've had no problems since and hopefully in the next few days I'll get round to buying and fitting a replacement.

Might be worth while looking at that hfz3

[orange]

a600 doesn't usually have battery..

[Hewitson]

stu038: Hope you cleaned the area properly too, any remaining acid will eat through the tracks on the board.

Originally Posted by stu038

When I recently switched my 1500 on for the first time in about 12 years I had a similar problem, until I followed the advice I found on here and removed the knackered battery. I've had no problems since and hopefully in the next few days I'll get round to buying and fitting a replacement.

Might be worth while looking at that hfz3

theres a battery on a memory board underneath, i've removed board but no joy, only thing 2 note is power pack makes a squeaking sound when i switch it on when its not pluged into mother board....

could be power pack or board or something else...

dying to play testdrive 2 the duel !!