daznic

Hi all, I have a problem with an Amiga A1200 trapdoor ram expansion, its a no brand 8mb board with no accelerator.
I bought it from ebay and it was working fine in my A1200 until when moving my gear from upstairs I clumsily dropped the Amiga !
The miggy survived the fall down the stairs, but when I booted it up I noticed the extra memory was not detected, the Ram board had dislodged from its socket & was only partly plugged it.
It now does not work, even after carefull re-seating, I`m not sure if it`s the Amiga or the ram board thats broken, after close inspection I can`t see any obvious physical damage on either, but I suspect it`s the expansion that`s broken.
Can anyone with good techie knowledge look at it for me with the posibility of repairing it ?
I will of course pay for this.

Many thanks.

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fitzsteve

Is it the type that takes a 72pin Memory Simm?

If so, have you tried another Simm?

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Zetr0

@daznic

take a pic buddy that way we can help better.

If you get no luck by the end of the week hit me up on PM I will see what I can jiggle =)

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daznic

I`ll take a pic of it this evening when I get back from work,
thanks guys !

daznic

Here`s some pictures of the Ram Expansion, I do not have any Spare ram to try in it, but I noticed that if I unplug the Ram & boot up, the Diagnostic screen shows for this card - it describes the status as "Defective"
If I plug the ran back in, the Amiga refuses to boot up, just a black screen.
One thing I did notice, that you can see on the pic, is that there are three legs coming off the board to a jumper - one of these legs at the board is loose - the solder joint has loosened.
It looks like this jumper is to select the Ram configuration from 2mb/4mb/8mb ? - could this be the cause ?
I`ll try re-soldering this back on first, then report back.

Loedown

First point of call would be to ensure that all the socketed chips are plugged in well.

Second definately resolder the board header pins that you said were dry.

Thirdly check the pins coming from the main connector block, those would have taken the brunt of the shock when you dropped it and it's certainly something to do with something coming loose or cracking due to stress.

daznic

I`ve had some success guys !
I tried to re-solder the jumper connections but I was not convinced it worked as it was still a bit wobbly & did not look like a clean connection ( my soldering is crap )
Then after much rumaging in the shed, I actually found an old 4mb stick in the bottom of a drawer. I changed the jumpers to the 4mb setting & booted up - the Miggy now shows an extra 4mb on the workbench & all the WHDLoad games i`ve tried work fine.

What I need to know is this extra 4mb enough to run most WHDLoad games from my hard drive, do I really need to get the full 8mb working ?

Thanks for the help guys !

fitzsteve

4mb is plenty for most games to be honest, except you large AGA/CD32 Games.

Most larger games will still run but you'll see the screen flashing whilst loading, usually this is between levels but it can ruin some games if its during a cut scene.

But for the most part you'll be fine and have the added bonus of no PCMCIA Ram conflicts

Steve.

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A500+ 2mb - A600 / 8mb - A600, ACA630/64, A604, IndiECS - A4000D, WarpEngine040, Toccata, DenebUSB, CV64/3D - A1200D, ACA1232/33, IndiAGA MkII - A1200D Magic Pack +ACA1220 - A1200T, 060/PPC330, G-RexPCI, SubwayUSB - CD32 + SX32, IndiMkII - uA1 800mhz My Retr0 Blog

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cpiac64

if you want a 8 mb fastpage (not edo), i send you at cost of expedition form italy to uk

daznic

Thanks for your kind offer, but from the comments above, it looks like my 4mb will be ideal for me, especially since I use a PCMCIA CF card adaptor a lot

cpiac64

ok

Zetr0

@daznic

Thats a simple fix to be honest looking at the awesome pics =)

I could build you a simple switch for you to mount externally on the chassis so that you can select 4MB or 8MB when you wanted - you would need to turn off the machine when you do though.

bit busy at the moment but with a bit of luck next week I could fit this 5 minute job in.

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daznic

Thanks for the offer of the switch Zetr0, for now I`m happy with it working in 4mb mode, I think my 8mb stick may be duff & 4mb is all I need for my games, Offer appreciated though dude !