Found and Bought Amiga 3000 - Let's Fix Issues

[IvanEBC]

Hi Folks

As title says, found and bought A3000, it worked, while still having the original battery in it, so got that removed promptly.... have a few things i wanted to check.

I got the coin battery mod and found this a little odd.
I load up WB (its all in the 2.x realm). I go to prefs>time and set the clock and click save.... i leave it running for a few minutes, watching the clock keep time.... if i turn it off and back on straight away, the clock is loading up back to the time when i clicked "save". This can't be right?

Also, the machine has a GVP IV24 - when using the output (PC style VGA connector) the image is a tad broken, so i use the native connector and have the switch on disable so i believe i'm in 15hz mode (if i go to 31hz - my image breaks up) so yeah, i understand there are some issues i get to get solved, but what i founds REALLY odd was this... i decided to remove and store the GVP IV24 for now, but when removing the card, WB would load up with graphic corruption, especially if the HDD was being accessed (straight lines would be shaky)
So i put the card back in and the image is sharp and stable, even though i'm not actually using the VGA out on it? Seems a but odd yeah?

If anyone has suggestions on other A3000 things that i should do to extend the life, things to check that often should be replaced, please feel free to inform me here.

If there any known quick adapter to use a keyboard, IE will the old PC AT din to ps2 adapter work so i can use my Amiga 4000 keyboard on the A3000? I didn't get a keyboard and its limiting what i can do.

Thank you .....

[indigolemon]

Can't help with most of this, but for your final question - yes - a mini-din to din adapter will allow you to use an A4000 keyboard with it

[IvanEBC]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

Can't help with most of this, but for your final question - yes - a mini-din to din adapter will allow you to use an A4000 keyboard with it

I had ONE of those adapters left..... and yup - that worked, thanks, its a temp fix as i don't wanna be moving the keyboard back and forth, but its a win for now.

[TjLaZer]

sounds like battery leak issues, I had the same issue with the Amber chip, it was corroded. I removed it and cleaned up the area and it fixed it.

As far as the clock, sounds like a broken trace where it cannot recall the time from the RTC chip.

[IvanEBC]

Originally Posted by TjLaZer

sounds like battery leak issues, I had the same issue with the Amber chip, it was corroded. I removed it and cleaned up the area and it fixed it.

As far as the clock, sounds like a broken trace where it cannot recall the time from the RTC chip.

I'd agree, but it actually IS recalling the time, very much exactly though, so when i click "SAVE" that's the exact time it will recall when i next switch off and switch on again.

It's more like, it is saving, but the system isn't continuing to move forwards with time once the machine is turned off. Event hat isn't perfectly acurate cause if i use the system for an hour, that hour will continue on normally.

[Jope]

If you do another setclock load after an hour, will it have advanced?

[dalek]

If it's not advancing the the saved time I'd be checking the crystal next to the clock chip, maybe battery damaged. Then check connections from the crystal to the trim cap then to the rtc chip. If you have a scope you can check the crystal is working.

Also if your battery is not strong enough to power the RTC chip (like there is a diode with too large a voltage drop in your coin battery mod) then the saved time won't advance either. With the system off, check with a multimeter the Vcc of your specific RTC chip and check against the datasheet for that chip.

The running time comes from the CIA time of day (TOD) clock, not from the RTC circuit.

[IvanEBC]

Thanks for the replies guy - i don't do electronics but if we get to that, i'll pass this onto him. I have this feeling that maybe the batteries i'm using aren't the best and will find time to pick up a brand new one and see if that helps... i did also discover when i arrived next day and tried it again, the clock actually DID advance past the "save" time, its just hours behind, might mean the battery thing as suggested too, will report later.