Amiga 600 Hell..

[neozeed]

Ok so I'm out in the UK and I decided I wanted to get an Amiga 600 because they seem to be very common out here. I managed to score one in the EU, and one over here. Everything was cool, I got a CF card and new ROMS, then for some reason all my floppy drives stopped working.. I'd ordered an ACA 620, and now I've go this problem...

Amiga 1 from the EU has a bad RGB port (and floppy).. not sure, but on its built in composite port, the colour image is majorly distorted, then the TV switches it to a nice crisp black & white image. But the accelerator & a trapdoor ram expansion work flawlessly in this one. The MB is a 1.3 rev

Amiga 2 is from the UK, seems to work great, but the floppy up and died on it.. It ran fine, then I put in the accelerator and it crashes doing anything chip mem intensive in under a minute... but doing fastmem copies and stuff was ok.... The MB is a 1.5 Rev

So yeah it probably is a cap problem in the UK one for sure, but is there any hope on getting someone to fix the video ...? Could the EU one be a cap problem preventing any output on the RGB Port?

I hate to ramble on but which one would you see about repairing?

[demolition]

They probably both need new caps. However, just replacing the caps will probably not fix the video issue on that one. It would need some more repairs. It could be a faulty IC but it could also just be some bad connections which are more easily repaired.
Floppy trouble is either a bad CIA chip or bad tracks/vias connected to that CIA chip. All these problems can be caused by leaking caps, corroding the PCB.
If I were you, I'd disassemble them both and inspect them for any obvious damage which would be green component pins or solder points with a matte finish (they should all be shiny).
Be careful when you open it to not use force or you'll break the pins in the back. You need to unscrew 4 screw in total, the three in the bottom and the one on the left side. Then you can pry out the sides one by one (using a flat screwdriver or even better a guitar pick/fingernail) while lifting up that side. When it is loose, you need to reach inside and disconnect the connector for the LEDs in the right side. If you open it up a few cms, you can see it.
I've disassembled my A600s countless times and have never broken anything.

[amigakit.com]

We do repairs on Amigas.

[neozeed]

Originally Posted by demolition

They probably both need new caps. However, just replacing the caps will probably not fix the video issue on that one. It would need some more repairs. It could be a faulty IC but it could also just be some bad connections which are more easily repaired.
Floppy trouble is either a bad CIA chip or bad tracks/vias connected to that CIA chip. All these problems can be caused by leaking caps, corroding the PCB.
If I were you, I'd disassemble them both and inspect them for any obvious damage which would be green component pins or solder points with a matte finish (they should all be shiny).
Be careful when you open it to not use force or you'll break the pins in the back. You need to unscrew 4 screw in total, the three in the bottom and the one on the left side. Then you can pry out the sides one by one (using a flat screwdriver or even better a guitar pick/fingernail) while lifting up that side. When it is loose, you need to reach inside and disconnect the connector for the LEDs in the right side. If you open it up a few cms, you can see it.
I've disassembled my A600s countless times and have never broken anything.

cool thanks for the tips!

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by demolition

I've disassembled my A600s countless times and have never broken anything.

The first A600 you open you always break a clip, it's like an initiation!

@neozeed

Do you visit Amibay? There is a user called mjnurney (maybe he posts here too) he offer's a re-cap service for A600's

He's pretty handy with repairs too

[demolition]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

The first A600 you open you always break a clip, it's like an initiation!

I'm always very careful when taking apart new things so no, I never did.

[sneeker]

Ill second mjnurney over on amibay, he's just recapped my 1200 and modded my accelerator. Top quality work.

A600's and 1200 have cheap caps on them, my 1200 has spent the last 11 years sat in a loft and there was 4 leaking ones, even though the machine worked, its really helped with stability having it recapped.

So after a few years away from Amiga stuff, I decide to get my A600 up and running again with some new toys from IC (I have to say, the Indi ECS is fantastic!). Sadly, I was greeted by caps issues as well. Just ordered all the parts. Looks like those caps in all the old A600s have finally hit their limit

(Totally agree on the A600 clips - I broke one my first time lol)

[Loedown]

I've recently fixed three and I conclude that they are horrible little shits to work on and repair.