A500 - busted graphics chip?

StevenMarshall · 27 December 2011, 12:48

Just bought A-500 off eBay. As soon as i started Workbench, i've noticed something was wrong. First thing was an empty line that would occasionally appear below the free memory area.

Then when running preferences or just moving windows i would sometimes get strange artifacts on the screen, such as those two "boxes" shown below. Running preferences once made my Amiga freeze.

Sometimes it would work for 20 minutes ok but then then the screen would turn blue and everything would freeze. Two times when i was formatting a Floppy disk everything stopped and frozen. The picture was completely gone aside from something that looked like thin white horizontal lines on black background (as if someone was playing with a video output).

Anyone ever experienced anything like this?

Notice: All the cables are ok. Monitor is in perfect shape.

FOL · 27 December 2011, 12:56

Carefully remove all chips, then reseat them.
A1000, A2000, A500 etc etc. All have a common problem of over time.
Sometimes they develope dirty contacts on the IC's.

Give that a go first.

StevenMarshall · 28 December 2011, 16:29

Thanks! I gave it a cleaning with glass-fiber pen. Didn't helped.

Seller decided to send me a new motherboard. I hope it will be a working one this time.

cosmicfrog · 31 December 2011, 13:55

don`t forget to reseat the ram card as well
it might also be an idea to get a memory checker of aminet

27 December 2011, 12:48	#1
StevenMarshall Registered User Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: EU Posts: 53	A500 - busted graphics chip? Just bought A-500 off eBay. As soon as i started Workbench, i've noticed something was wrong. First thing was an empty line that would occasionally appear below the free memory area. Then when running preferences or just moving windows i would sometimes get strange artifacts on the screen, such as those two "boxes" shown below. Running preferences once made my Amiga freeze. Sometimes it would work for 20 minutes ok but then then the screen would turn blue and everything would freeze. Two times when i was formatting a Floppy disk everything stopped and frozen. The picture was completely gone aside from something that looked like thin white horizontal lines on black background (as if someone was playing with a video output). Anyone ever experienced anything like this? Notice: All the cables are ok. Monitor is in perfect shape.

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27 December 2011, 12:56	#2
FOL PSPUAE DEV Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Wales / UK Age: 45 Posts: 6,043	Carefully remove all chips, then reseat them. A1000, A2000, A500 etc etc. All have a common problem of over time. Sometimes they develope dirty contacts on the IC's. Give that a go first.

28 December 2011, 16:29	#3
StevenMarshall Registered User Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: EU Posts: 53	Thanks! I gave it a cleaning with glass-fiber pen. Didn't helped. Seller decided to send me a new motherboard. I hope it will be a working one this time.

31 December 2011, 13:55	#4
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	don`t forget to reseat the ram card as well it might also be an idea to get a memory checker of aminet

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