My A4000 rebuild

RMK · 10 July 2011, 02:17

After seeing a number of build and restoration projects I felt it was about time I got in on the action myself. Having being lured back into using Amigas more than I had been (ok, I was neglecting them

) thanks to the release and purchase of the ACA 56MHz and an excellent CF card setup by the very helpful Fitzsteve, I thought it time to get the A4000 spruced up. So....while buying the ACA I also plunged and picked up a Deneb at the same time. With the battery removed years ago the only thing needing done was for the sound to be fixed. So from this...

The machine has a Warpengine 40MHz with 18gig SCSI HD, 72meg RAM, CV64 3d, internal Scandy scan doubler and a Deneb with nothing attached to it yet

I started the strip down. The CD drive does fit it, I just had it pulled out for some airflow in the cramped case.

Case dismantled and motherboard removed.

The sound capacitors don't look to hot to be honest

After spending too much time on Amibay I since learned about a user by the name of Hikey who does repairs so the board has been sent down for a repair and diagnosis.

More to come....

Retrofan · 10 July 2011, 02:23

... very well... and the photos?

EDIT: Ok, much better now. I like rebuildings!

RMK · 10 July 2011, 02:36

I'm new to image shack so it took me a few attempts to figure out how to like the pictures. Will try to get more on tomorrow.

fitzsteve · 10 July 2011, 12:56

Nice work mate

The boards in great hands with Hikey thats for sure and those Audio Caps will certainly need replacing and the area cleaned up and maybe even some traces repaired so defo best its gone to Hikey

Thanks for sharing ths pics and enjoy this great setup.

If you need any USB idea's check out my A4000 projects, I've been installing all sorts of USB stuff recently!

Steve.

RMK · 10 July 2011, 23:45

Cheers Steve.

Hikey reported the following:

The audio area has cleaned up quite well. I noticed that capacitors have leaked in the RS232/Parallel area and the keyboard area also which will need sorting out. There's also a couple of dry solder joints on the Alice chip.

The update is that all the capacitors on the board have been replaced and he has completely rebuilt both the audio and battery areas as there was quite alot of leakage. He sent me a picture of the board with some diagnostoc ROMs fitted that allow you to dump the output from the boot process via the serial port to a terminal which is useful if the board has problems starting up. Hikey certainly knows his stuff and I'll report more on that when I get the board back but in the meantime here's a picture he sent me

I am trying desperatley to get hold of DJBase to buy one of his battery modules so I can use coin betteries as I'm not keen to put in another rechargeable unit. No reply as of yet, so if you read this DJ please get in touch!

I scored a parcel from Amibay for a bulk buy of cards which arrived on Friday and after just now opening it up I can reveal the following...

A slightly more exciting view of it all...

I've got a Toccata, VLAB Y/C, Multiface 3 and an ISDN Link card. The Toccata and VLAB are going in the A4000 while the Multiface an ISDN will probably be offered back up for sale once I'm sure there will be no other projects

Ideally I was (still am) looking for a VLAB motion but as of yet have not found one so I will experiment with the Y/C for now.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Looking forward to trying these 2 cards out. I always wanted a VLAB setup but when these cards were cutting edge I was still at school and could only dream of having them. I'm also starting to realise that 4 Zorro slots is maybe not enough and there was once a time when I never thought I'd fill them all.

Le me know if you can see the pictures ok, still not 100% sure I'm grasping image shack fully.

fitzsteve · 11 July 2011, 00:11

Nice Cards mate

The Toccata especialy is a great bit of kit.

Not sure about the packing though

Keep us updated on the project.

Steve.

DonAmiga · 11 July 2011, 02:07

Great to see you reviving your A4000

can you not use one of those Coin Battery Holder from AmigaKit or is that something different?

RMK · 11 July 2011, 19:54

That's slightly different as you have to have a diode in there somewhere to stop the Amiga trying to charge the coin battery like it would with the barrel type. The board is ready, just trying to find a workaround for the battery.

RMK · 20 July 2011, 21:38

A quick update.

Having removed the disk drive faceplate it turns out that the drives can cather and accommodate a large amount of dust! The inside of the drive is pretty dust looking too

I was thinking about a q-tip with a little white spirits to clean the metal plate areas that are at the front and easy to get to? NOT the drive head. Any advice/suggestions are welcome.

There are also a few rust spots on the case

I'm not sure how far to go with this but I was thinking about just removing what is there and touching it up with some modeling paint and a small brush. I decided against a sandblast and a respray

Thoughts?

On a brighter note, the motherboard arrived back and it looks fantastic. Really fantastic! I've still to test it but it looks as clean as when it came out of the factory.

Nice clean capacitor area with new caps

Started to have a poke around with the Warpengine and at first look it only had a fan stuck to the 040 with thermal paste. After looking more closley though it turns out it's a fansink stuck on with thermal paste!

I was going to fit a heatsink and fan like what was on older PC's but not sure of how I would attach it, unless I just used the same tecnique as below.Worth noting that I have never experienced any crashing or overheating with the current setup.

Eager to get this lot back together and start messing around with it. Comments and suggestions welcome.

rkauer · 21 July 2011, 02:32

Most used method of heat dissipation is the heatsink's back covered with thermal paste (prefer artic silver) and one little drop of superglue on two non-adjacent corners of the CPU.

RMK · 07 February 2012, 02:36

Long overdue update on this project. It has been moved to the backburner and my recent tinkering with it has been while it has been in pieces when I tried for a couple of months to get it connected to the internet with no luck whatsoever

Rkauer,

Thanks for the tip. on securing it down.

I've been working on fitting everything in tonight though and the rebuild. On the bottom we have the CV64 3D and scan doubler, then a Vlab V1.3 Y/C, then a Tocatta and on the top slot a Deneb and an exhaust fan. I added the fan due to noticing how hot the machine was when I was running it and then opening it up after an hour. These fans are sold as GFX card exhaust fans but to be honest they don't move enough air to be of any good for a modern PC GFX card...however work wonders on my Amiga

Bought from Amazon for about £5.

The USB cables are just sitting loose for now until I come up with a better solution. Suggestions are welcome though!

....and are connected to a card reader on the front of the machine which I got new from ebay for about £5. I also bought a new FDD from Amigakit and put in an old CDROM that is considerably faster that the 2 speed unit that was there before

The Deneb is running only in Zorro 2 mode. I tried DMA but it wouldn't work and am suspecting the CV64 3D. However, anyone who has fitted one of these with the scan doubler knows what a nightmare the tast is so I decided against pulling them out to test if that was the problem.

Still a bit to go, but getting there.

Edit: Just realised that the last post by Rkauer was 21 July 2011, didn't realise so much time had passed!!

10 July 2011, 02:17	#1
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	My A4000 rebuild After seeing a number of build and restoration projects I felt it was about time I got in on the action myself. Having being lured back into using Amigas more than I had been (ok, I was neglecting them ) thanks to the release and purchase of the ACA 56MHz and an excellent CF card setup by the very helpful Fitzsteve, I thought it time to get the A4000 spruced up. So....while buying the ACA I also plunged and picked up a Deneb at the same time. With the battery removed years ago the only thing needing done was for the sound to be fixed. So from this... The machine has a Warpengine 40MHz with 18gig SCSI HD, 72meg RAM, CV64 3d, internal Scandy scan doubler and a Deneb with nothing attached to it yet I started the strip down. The CD drive does fit it, I just had it pulled out for some airflow in the cramped case. Case dismantled and motherboard removed. The sound capacitors don't look to hot to be honest After spending too much time on Amibay I since learned about a user by the name of Hikey who does repairs so the board has been sent down for a repair and diagnosis. More to come.... Last edited by RMK; 10 July 2011 at 02:26.

10 July 2011, 02:23	#2
Retrofan Ruler of the Universe Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Lanzarote/Spain Posts: 6,195	... very well... and the photos? EDIT: Ok, much better now. I like rebuildings! Last edited by Retrofan; 10 July 2011 at 02:29.

07 February 2012, 02:36	#11
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	Long overdue update on this project. It has been moved to the backburner and my recent tinkering with it has been while it has been in pieces when I tried for a couple of months to get it connected to the internet with no luck whatsoever Rkauer, Thanks for the tip. on securing it down. I've been working on fitting everything in tonight though and the rebuild. On the bottom we have the CV64 3D and scan doubler, then a Vlab V1.3 Y/C, then a Tocatta and on the top slot a Deneb and an exhaust fan. I added the fan due to noticing how hot the machine was when I was running it and then opening it up after an hour. These fans are sold as GFX card exhaust fans but to be honest they don't move enough air to be of any good for a modern PC GFX card...however work wonders on my Amiga Bought from Amazon for about £5. The USB cables are just sitting loose for now until I come up with a better solution. Suggestions are welcome though! ....and are connected to a card reader on the front of the machine which I got new from ebay for about £5. I also bought a new FDD from Amigakit and put in an old CDROM that is considerably faster that the 2 speed unit that was there before The Deneb is running only in Zorro 2 mode. I tried DMA but it wouldn't work and am suspecting the CV64 3D. However, anyone who has fitted one of these with the scan doubler knows what a nightmare the tast is so I decided against pulling them out to test if that was the problem. Still a bit to go, but getting there. Edit: Just realised that the last post by Rkauer was 21 July 2011, didn't realise so much time had passed!! Last edited by RMK; 07 February 2012 at 02:54.

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10 July 2011, 02:36	#3
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	I'm new to image shack so it took me a few attempts to figure out how to like the pictures. Will try to get more on tomorrow.

10 July 2011, 12:56	#4
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,683	Nice work mate The boards in great hands with Hikey thats for sure and those Audio Caps will certainly need replacing and the area cleaned up and maybe even some traces repaired so defo best its gone to Hikey Thanks for sharing ths pics and enjoy this great setup. If you need any USB idea's check out my A4000 projects, I've been installing all sorts of USB stuff recently! Steve.

10 July 2011, 23:45	#5
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	Cheers Steve. Hikey reported the following: The audio area has cleaned up quite well. I noticed that capacitors have leaked in the RS232/Parallel area and the keyboard area also which will need sorting out. There's also a couple of dry solder joints on the Alice chip. The update is that all the capacitors on the board have been replaced and he has completely rebuilt both the audio and battery areas as there was quite alot of leakage. He sent me a picture of the board with some diagnostoc ROMs fitted that allow you to dump the output from the boot process via the serial port to a terminal which is useful if the board has problems starting up. Hikey certainly knows his stuff and I'll report more on that when I get the board back but in the meantime here's a picture he sent me I am trying desperatley to get hold of DJBase to buy one of his battery modules so I can use coin betteries as I'm not keen to put in another rechargeable unit. No reply as of yet, so if you read this DJ please get in touch! I scored a parcel from Amibay for a bulk buy of cards which arrived on Friday and after just now opening it up I can reveal the following... A slightly more exciting view of it all... I've got a Toccata, VLAB Y/C, Multiface 3 and an ISDN Link card. The Toccata and VLAB are going in the A4000 while the Multiface an ISDN will probably be offered back up for sale once I'm sure there will be no other projects Ideally I was (still am) looking for a VLAB motion but as of yet have not found one so I will experiment with the Y/C for now. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Looking forward to trying these 2 cards out. I always wanted a VLAB setup but when these cards were cutting edge I was still at school and could only dream of having them. I'm also starting to realise that 4 Zorro slots is maybe not enough and there was once a time when I never thought I'd fill them all. Le me know if you can see the pictures ok, still not 100% sure I'm grasping image shack fully.

11 July 2011, 00:11	#6
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,683	Nice Cards mate The Toccata especialy is a great bit of kit. Not sure about the packing though Keep us updated on the project. Steve.

11 July 2011, 02:07	#7
DonAmiga Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Scotland Posts: 523	Great to see you reviving your A4000 can you not use one of those Coin Battery Holder from AmigaKit or is that something different?

11 July 2011, 19:54	#8
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	That's slightly different as you have to have a diode in there somewhere to stop the Amiga trying to charge the coin battery like it would with the barrel type. The board is ready, just trying to find a workaround for the battery.

20 July 2011, 21:38	#9
RMK Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 189	A quick update. Having removed the disk drive faceplate it turns out that the drives can cather and accommodate a large amount of dust! The inside of the drive is pretty dust looking too I was thinking about a q-tip with a little white spirits to clean the metal plate areas that are at the front and easy to get to? NOT the drive head. Any advice/suggestions are welcome. There are also a few rust spots on the case I'm not sure how far to go with this but I was thinking about just removing what is there and touching it up with some modeling paint and a small brush. I decided against a sandblast and a respray Thoughts? On a brighter note, the motherboard arrived back and it looks fantastic. Really fantastic! I've still to test it but it looks as clean as when it came out of the factory. Nice clean capacitor area with new caps Started to have a poke around with the Warpengine and at first look it only had a fan stuck to the 040 with thermal paste. After looking more closley though it turns out it's a fansink stuck on with thermal paste! I was going to fit a heatsink and fan like what was on older PC's but not sure of how I would attach it, unless I just used the same tecnique as below.Worth noting that I have never experienced any crashing or overheating with the current setup. Eager to get this lot back together and start messing around with it. Comments and suggestions welcome.

21 July 2011, 02:32	#10
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	Most used method of heat dissipation is the heatsink's back covered with thermal paste (prefer artic silver) and one little drop of superglue on two non-adjacent corners of the CPU.

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