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Hello from Northern England

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 2:43 pm
by In_focus
Hi all, bringing down the Xmas decorations from the loft came across two old Amiga machines, an A500 and A500 Plus stored for many years. The A500 Plus was working when last used but now sadly both are faulty. I'm hoping to get one or both back into a usable condition and introduce my young Grandson the wonders of the Amiga. Work background was AV repair and have test equipment although my 'scope may not be up to the job.

Hoping to come across to some knowledgeable people who can assist.

Re: Hello from Northern England

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 3:22 pm
by intric8
Welcome, In_focus! Thanks for joining the site.

Very cool idea of yours to introduce the Amiga to your grandkids. Hope you figure out what's going on.

(Did you have any trap-door expansions with Real Time Clocks (RTC) in there? If so you may have a battery that's done some damage.)

How do the machines look? Were they safe from UV light all those years? Feel free to post some pics.

Cheers

Re: Hello from Northern England

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 5:35 pm
by obitus1990
Welcome, and, cool story!

The 500 PLUS is probably dead due to the onboard battery leaking on the motherboard and destroying traces or other components around it.

As intric8 said, the 500 might have had a memory expansion in it that leaked, killing the expansion, and possibly making its way onto the mainboard. If you have one, remove it and see if the miggy boots.

Also, make sure all your socketed chips are seated all the way. Open them up, and push them all down into their sockets, then power on and see what happens. You might get lucky, since this happens frequently with stored Amigas.

If you scope is at least 50MHz, you're probably fine :)

Re: Hello from Northern England

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:21 pm
by In_focus
Hi and thanks for the warm welcome. Well after initial inspections the A500 Plus had indeed suffered from extensive corrosion from the back up battery, goes all the way around the edge of the PCB up to the display circuitry but it does seem to have some signs of life i.e. clicking of FDD. The A500 board is clean and in very good condition but will only boot to a grey screen with occasional blocks of darker grey corrupted graphics so I'm going to concentrate on the Plus first.

The top covers have yellowed but are not too unsightly but I'm not too bothered about it, I'll be happy if I can get one or both up and running :D .

Thread to follow on the Plus .

Re: Hello from Northern England

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 2:24 pm
by McTrinsic
Yes, please keep us posted!

I really love it when the old machines get some love.

Re: Hello from Northern England

Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 5:43 pm
by rjd324
Hello, I am from north england myself. Was wondering if you ever made any progress?