Stepping back in time

[Whiggie]

Thanks Daedalus, but I believe the motherboard is ok. When next I take the cover off, I will take a photo, but it looks good to me.

Annoying about the keyboards not being compatible, but deep down I think I knew that already. Things are never that easy in Amiga-land

Cheers,
Steve

[idrougge]

You can use your A2000 keyboard with your A4000 using a plain, passive PC AT->PS/2 adapter.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by idrougge

You can use your A2000 keyboard with your A4000 using a plain, passive PC AT->PS/2 adapter.

Sorry, I completely missed that one! Yes, an excellent solution - those adaptors can be had for a couple of quid on eBay as they're standard PC fare.

[Whiggie]

Thanks idrougge, looks like that is the best solution.

I will get one from ebay.
Steve

[Whiggie]

Hi all,
I ordered a keyboard adapter from ebay which arrived this morning. So when I get back this evening I will power up the a4000 again and see what happens.

It should be fascinating to see what's on the hard drive - I was at college when I last used it, so there should be a whole load of historical stuff there.

Assuming all is well, what is the best way to take these documents off the old machine? I could copy them to floppy, but I can't read floppies on my PC any more (even if the format was compatible).

Is there a reasonably priced USB card for the 4000? Or can I do something involving an sd-card and the hard drive controller, which I think is IDE?

As usual, any help gratefully appreciated.

I used to know these machines inside and out, and am gradually getting the hang of them again. The AmigaForever emulator is a great bit of software! If only the real thing was as easy to use!!

Thanks again
Steve

[ajk]

You might get away with a simple serial linkup from the A4000 to the PC (may need to borrow a USB-to-serial adapter for the PC). It's going to be slow, but files can be transferred that way.

[Whiggie]

Hi, got home connected adapter to keyboard and booted, and all seems reasonably ok. For some reason when I boot from the hard drive I get a recoverable error, press left mouse button to continue, but when I press the left mouse button (Amiga+Alt as I have no mouse) it seems to work.

My modulator is playing up and I can't get a stable image, so I think my next purchase will be an amiga=>scart lead.

I didn't make a note of the above-mentioned error number, but I am not going to worry about it for now. The next step is to get the scart lead.

The saga will continue when I get it. Or maybe I will try out the CDTV!
Cheers!

[Whiggie]

Hi all,
I have my scart lead, and the amiga 4000 seems to work wonderfully well.

I still get a recoverable error when I boot from the hard drive, but it goes away by itself after a few seconds, and everything seems fine after that.

I think the 4000 is OK. A bit discoloured, but that is probably to be expected.

I am putting that back in the cupboard as a working unit.

I shall get back to the 2000 later on.
Thanks

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by Whiggie

I think the 4000 is OK. A bit discoloured, but that is probably to be expected.

Good news! How was the battery in the 4000?

Also, I know it's already been mentioned, but really you might want to to consider a recap if those are still the originals, or things might not be so pretty next time you open the cupboard - those caps will be over 20 years old already, and Commodore weren't known for using decent quality ones in the first place.

[Whiggie]

Hi there,
The a4000 battery had started to go a bit furry at the ends, so I whipped it out. Luckily it has not leaked onto the motherboard so it would appear I got to it just in time.

I know the capacitors should be replaced, but me - with a soldering iron!! You might was well give it to the cat...

As for sending it anywhere to be done - what sort of cost are we looking at? Any ideas?

Does anyone know of anywhere local to south London where I can take it?

Cheers,

[indigolemon]

Ha, I know what you mean about the soldering, I'm very much the same! Ideally you want someone with a hot air soldering system anyway. Rob (Daedalus) on here maintains this list of repairers, might be someone local(ish): http://www.robthenerd.com/amiga/repairers

[Whiggie]

Hi indigolemon, thanks for the info, but they are all a little far away.

I will have a go with the cdtv tomorrow - that will be fun!

Cheers!

[Whiggie]

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in updating, but I have finally set up the cdtv (inc keyboard, mouse, floppy and hard drive) and (amazingly) everything works!

I am really happy about this, because I felt sure the hard drive would be dead, but no - it all works fine.

I do, however, have a couple of minor issues:
1. The right-arrow on the remote controller doesn't really work very well. It moves the cursor diagonally right and down, but not horizontally across.
2. Four of the keys on the left side of the keyboard have no travel. By which I mean they work, but when you press them, they only move down perhaps 0.5mm whereas the rest are 'full travel'. I think something must have been resting on that side of the keyboard while it was in the cupboard (for 20 years!)

Any ideas on how to fix either of these issues?

Please?

Thanks,
Steve

[ajk]

New remotes are still available, check Amigakit or Vesalia for starters.

The keyboard should probably be opened to examine the issue. If the keys sit low, maybe the springs have been compressed for too long and no longer spring up. While CDTV keyboards are kind of rare, they are the same as other Amiga keyboards apart from the colour, so replacement parts can probably be found.