Just three more Amigas to repair

[RobertB]

I'll have to ask him who his RAM seller is so I can buy more RAM to max out the other A1200's.

He gave me the link to his seller.  However, because of other January costs, I might have to delay the RAM purchases until February.

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
         The Other Group of Amigoids
         http://home.comcast.net/~togausergroup/index.html
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org

[RobertB]

At the December TOGA meeting, Duncan handed back the now-fixed A600...

The A600 is giving problems again.  The video colors are all wrong with what looks to be interference across the screen.  Duncan thinks that the internal video connections need resoldering.  However, because he has 2 jobs now, he has no more time for any repairs.  So, any more of his Amiga repairs have been postponed indefinitely.
     Though Ray Carlsen is not an Amiga repairperson, when I see him in the summer, I'll try to convince him to repair an Amiga 1000 keyboard from a SCCAN member.  From what I know, to repair the keyboard is a time-consuming, detailed process of desoldering and cleaning each keyswitch.

          FCUG celebrating 33 years,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          July 18-19 Commodore Vegas Expo v11 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

I'll have to ask him who his RAM seller is so I can buy more RAM to max out the other A1200's.

I bought two sticks of RAM, but when I opened the package, I found out it had the thicker RAM chips and not the thinner ones.  So, these RAM sticks would not fit the Blizzard '060's with the slot that lays flat next to the O60.  Not all is lost... perhaps I can get them to fit in the slot for the Blizzard SCSI board.

          Need to take apart the A1200's for that,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          July 18-19 Commodore Vegas Expo v11 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

The A600 is giving problems again.

Because Duncan has no time for repairs and because I'm going to England on June 17, I was thinking that I should bring the A600 in my suitcase and then mail it to AmigaKit when I get over there.  They could repair it for me, and when Matthew Leaman of AmigaKit comes for the Amiwest Show in October, he could return it to me.

          FCUG celebrating 33 years,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          July 18-19 Commodore Vegas Expo v11 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

    I arrived in England on Thursday, but at the AmigaKit website, it says that Chris the repairperson won't return until Monday.  So, on Monday I will call AmigaKit.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          July 18-19 Commodore Vegas Expo v11 2015 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

     I've been back from Europe since July 1.  Just before I left, I posted the A600 to AmigaKit for repair.  No word back from them since then, but I hope they are working on it.

          Prepping for CommVEx,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          July 18-19 Commodore Vegas Expo v11 2015 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

     A few months ago at a SCCAN meeting, I brought in the A2000 Video Toaster system that was first worked on by Duncan M. perhaps some 10 years ago.  Unfortunately, it would not boot up!  Why does it always happen at a meeting?    Well, we non-repairpersons tried to reseat the boards and tap the primary, 4 gig. hard drive back to life but no go.  We thought the old SCSI hard drive had frozen.
    Yesterday I brought the A2000 VT to Duncan, and he reacquainted himself with the system - VT board, TBC board, a Personal Animation Recorder board with secondary SCSI drive, a Commodore 2065 Ethernet board, a SCSI board with 8 megs of RAM, a PP&S '040 board with 32 megs of RAM, and a MegaChip giving 2 megs of Chip RAM.  A nice system... when working.  Without even connecting the A2000 to a monitor, he powered the system on and off while observing the drive activity lights in front of the Amiga box.  After cycling the system several times, he figured out the non-boot problem!  It was the PP&S '040 board!  That is diagnosing!    There seemed to be corrosion on the teeth of the board.  However, we didn't have time to fix the board.  The goal was to get the A2000 running again.
    Fortunately, I brought along the Blizzard 2060 50 MHz. board that I bought at the Amiwest Show a few years ago.  He plugged that into the system's CPU slot, and the Amiga booted up normally!  Hurrah!  He connected the system to a monitor, and we looked at the screen.  With all the Fast RAM slots on the Blizzard filled up and fully-populated SCSI board, the Fast RAM total showed to be 134 megs!  Sweet!  Also the Chip RAM was up at 1.9 megs.  The only thing that bothered Duncan was that it was still running OS 2.x.  Also the primary hard drive was going through the SCSI board instead of the faster SCSI on-board the Blizzard.
    He got down to work.  He redid the SCSI cabling and connected the primary drive to the Blizzard.  He put the PAR hard drive on its own board.  He rewired the LED lights to the front panel of the box.  He stuck in a 3.1 ROM, replacing the 2.0 ROM.  He installed OS 3.1 on the primary drive.  Taking time for lunch, dinner, and searching for parts at HSC Electronics, 10 hours later he was finished for the time being.  Whew!
    The system still isn't perfect.  The newest CD-ROM driver needs to be installed for the CD drive he had put in the box 10 years ago.  The old WHDLoad has to be replaced with the newest version.  More games and productivity apps have to be added, especially the latest Video Toaster 4.3.  The Blizzard needs some more tweaking with the latest '060 drivers.  And as soon as the CD drive is functioning correctly again, perhaps OS 3.9 can be installed.  We joked that he could be updating the system during the May Maker Faire (the A2000 is planned to be part of the Classic Computers exhibit at Maker Faire).

        Why can't I play on the Amiga?  Because it is being updated...  
        Robert Bernardo
        June 10-11 Pacific Commodore Expo NW -
        http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex
        July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo v13 -
        http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex