Just three more Amigas to repair

[RobertB]

     After last Saturday's TOGA meeting, during my talk with repair tech Duncan M., he asked about whether I had any more Amigas for him to repair.  I guess he wants finish the last bunch after years of my bringing him Amigas.  Well, I have an A500 which isn't outputting any sound, but he really wants to get to the big-box Amigas.  That means one more A2000 and an A3000 (not a machine he likes to work on).  Eventually, I will bring him the last ones.

          Not counting the A2000 Video Toaster nor the A4000 Video Toaster waiting to be upgraded,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

...I have an A500 which isn't outputting any sound, but he really wants to get to the big-box Amigas.  That means one more A2000 and an A3000 (not a machine he likes to work on).

The A500 and the A2000 went to Duncan a few months ago.  He repaired both, the A500 being donated to him to give to a friend and the A2000 going for the upcoming CommVEx raffle.  The A3000 went to him a few weeks ago when I gave to him at the Maker Faire weekend.  He looked at it immediately, and though it booted up, there was battery corrosion damage which was the worst he had ever seen.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

The A3000 went to him a few weeks ago when I gave to him at the Maker Faire weekend.  He looked at it immediately, and though it booted up, there was battery corrosion damage which was the worst he had ever seen.

I visited him today, and surprisingly, the A3000 was all done!  The corrosion was cleaned up, and although a corrosion "crater" had eaten into the motherboard, the machine still worked!  Duncan worked his magic by installing OS 3.1, replacing the small, slow-to-boot hard drive with a 4 gig drive, and installing his usual "profile" of games and demos for this relatively standard machine (except for the SCSI driver which was different), a profile which he also uses on standard A2000's.  Interestingly, he told me that there was a high-density floppy drive -- marked as "prototype -- in the computer, something which was uncommon in A3000's.  To top it off, he gave me an external SCSI CD burner to go along with the machine.

          Now I just need the CD burning software,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          July 27-28 Commodore Vegas Expo v9 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

    Ack!  I discovered that an A2000 which was repaired a few years ago had gone down.  At boot-up, it would show alternating, different shades of gray on the screen, and after many minutes it would finally go to the insert Workbench disk screen.  My diagnosis - the hard drive had gone bad.
   Today I brought the A2000 to Duncan of TOGA.  He immediately opened it up and looked it over.  The 1 gig SCSI drive would have to replaced.  OS 1.3 will be replaced by OS 3.1, and a 68010 will replace the 68000.  The old printer interface card broke off in his hands, and that won't be replaced (it's not a priority).  The computer already had 8 megs of RAM, so no problem there.

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

[RobertB]

     For the A2000, I'm also going to try to implement the 14 MHz. SCSI mod found here -

          http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=14706

               Truly,
               Robert Bernardo
               Fresno Commodore User Group
               http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

I discovered that an A2000 which was repaired a few years ago had gone down.

Drats!  At today's FCUG meeting another A2000 went down.  It powered at first correctly, but upon subsequent resets and power cyclings, sometimes it would come up, more often it wouldn't.  Just a blinking red hard drive activity light or a blinking green hard drive light.    I blame the 2 gig SCSI hard drive.  However, something else might be awry.  If the A2000 did start up in subsequent tries, the color of the screen would be light green, except for the upper 5% of the screen.  That upper part would show the correct color.
     If Duncan is agreeable, this machine would go to him for repair.

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

[RobertB]

     Oh, no!  At yesterday's FCUG meeting the A600 wouldn't boot up this time.  There was no hard drive activity from its 2 gig mechanical IDE hard drive.     Another one to repair... perhaps this time with something more solid-state.

          Like a CF card,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

Today I brought the A2000 to Duncan of TOGA.  He immediately opened it up and looked it over.  The 1 gig SCSI drive would have to replaced.  OS 1.3 will be replaced by OS 3.1, and a 68010 will replace the 68000.

For the A2000, I'm also going to try to implement the 14 MHz. SCSI mod...

I picked up the A2000 today.  All repaired, except for the SCSI mod because Duncan didn't get the chip required for it.  No worries... it was not really necessary.

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

[RobertB]

...another A2000 went down.  It powered at first correctly, but upon subsequent resets and power cyclings, sometimes it would come up, more often it wouldn't.  Just a blinking red hard drive activity light or a blinking green hard drive light.    I blame the 2 gig SCSI hard drive.  However, something else might be awry.  If the A2000 did start up in subsequent tries, the color of the screen would be light green, except for the upper 5% of the screen.  That upper part would show the correct color.

At today's meeting with Duncan, I also brought him this malfunctioning A2000.  After several power cycles and Control-Amiga-Amiga resets, he was not able to replicate the boot-up problem, i.e., it booted up every time.  However, he was able to see that the screen colors were all wrong.  After a short search on the Internet, he tried the first troubleshooting tip -- replace the Denise chip.  Well, actually, this A2000 had a Super Denise.  Not having a Super Denise handy, he put in a regular Denise.  Upon power-up, the A2000 displayed its screen correctly!  Problem solved!
    Perhaps I'll buy another Super Denise, just because it doesn't seem right to have that regular Denise in there.  

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

[RobertB]

At yesterday's FCUG meeting the A600 wouldn't boot up this time.  There was no hard drive activity from its 2 gig mechanical IDE hard drive.

Unfortunately, at today's meeting with Duncan, he could not easily solve the A600's problems.  The A600 wouldn't boot, because the modded PC power supply that Duncan built had failed.  When he built that p.s., he had even put a new power board inside the p.s's casing, but still it had failed.  It would show power to the computer, but it wouldn't do anything else for the computer.  With a known-working p.s., the A600 had no problem starting up.
    Just like the A2000 which had the color problem, the A600 was displaying wrong screen color, too.  However, if it's another Denise chip problem, it's not easily replaced due to chip being soldered to the board.  Duncan had another theory; when he earlier replaced most of the capacitors on the board, there may have been a bad one (or several) in the bunch.  He will have to check all the caps now.

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

[RobertB]

...the A600 was displaying wrong screen color...

Duncan has gotten the A600 fixed.  He's not sure what the problem was.  He took it completely apart, put it back together, and the problem disappeared. His best guess was that it was a short of some kind.
     Now all I have to do is pick up the computer.  However, I won't have time to go to the East Bay and pick it up, because soon I will be leaving for my European adventures.

          To visit Commodorians and Amigans over there,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          July 26-27 Commodore Vegas Expo v10 -
          http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

Now all I have to do is pick up the computer.  However, I won't have time to go to the East Bay and pick it up, because soon I will be leaving for my European adventures.

Before I left California, I found another A2000 that needs refurbishing.  When will they ever stop appearing?!  

         Leaving England for Switzerland,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group
         http://videocam.net.au/fcug
         July 26-27 Commodore Vegas Expo v10 -
         http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[RobertB]

     Rats!  At last month's SCCAN meeting, I brought my A4000 desktop, and SCCAN member Richard G. brought his PLCC puller.  He and the other members dissassembled the A4000 and pulled the old Super Buster chip.  I put in the latest Super Buster chip which I had bought from AmigaKit.com  Then we tried to boot the machine.  No hard drive activity!  After doing a bit of Google searching, I found that another component on the computer's board may have to be replaced in order to get the Super Buster working with the machine.
     When the machine is fully working with the new Super Buster, the goal is to install the ZorRAM 256 meg. board into the A4000.

          It was simpler to put the ZorRAM into my A3000,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org

[RobertB]

Duncan has gotten the A600 fixed.  He's not sure what the problem was.  He took it completely apart, put it back together, and the problem disappeared. His best guess was that it was a short of some kind.
    Now all I have to do is pick up the computer.

At the December TOGA meeting, Duncan handed back the now-fixed A600, this time with a power supply modded from an Atari power supply.  (All the labels were gone from the p.s., and when I got it back home, I put an Amiga Boing Ball sticker on it.)
    Duncan also returned an A1200 I gave to him; instead of keeping the A1200, he preferred to work on an A4000 he had.  Well, the A1200 has Duncan's upgrades - a PC power supply modded to be an external Amiga p.s., OS 3.9, and 128 meg RAM on the Blizzard '060 and another 128 meg RAM on the Blizzard's SCSI board.  This A1200 now has more Fast RAM than any of my other A1200 desktops and tower (the tower having 128 on its Blizzard '060 and 64 meg on its SCSI board).  I'll have to ask him who his RAM seller is so I can buy more RAM to max out the other A1200's.
    Once again the A2000 from my other FCUG member has gone down.  (How many times has that A2000 had problems?!)  Its old SCSI drive died.  At the TOGA meeting, I tried to give it to Duncan for repair, but he had no room in his workshop.  I will try to give to him another time.

         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

[RobertB]

How many times has that A2000 had problems?!)  Its old SCSI drive died.  At the TOGA meeting, I tried to give it to Duncan for repair, but he had no room in his workshop.  I will try to give to him another time.

I was able to visit Duncan on Friday, and he took a look at the A2000.  Memory test good, SCSI hard drive questionable.  He is all out of old SCSI mechs, and his advice is to use the solid state solution at

http://www.artmix.com/CF_AztecMonster.html

or at

http://shop.codesrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=50

Both products have proven track records, and both seem to be the solution.  However, the FCUG member does not want the added speed and reliability of SS drives!  He wants the old "feel" of a mechanical SCSI mechanism.  Ah, well, since he does not want to spend the $75 to $120 for one of these solutions, the A2000 will go back into storage.

         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