User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:22 pm

Hey Folks, I found in one of my local stores an A1000, looks to be in pretty decent shape, with the front loading RAM upgrade in it, for $150, it didn't come with a keyboard or a mouse and I don't know how easy those are to source for the A1000 so I didn't buy it.

AM I CRAZY?!?! Should I have just bit the bullet and bought it? the casing looked in really decent shape, the little cover that covered the sidecar port was still intact and for all intents and purposes looked in better shape than my A2000 does, but they didn't have the correct equipment to test it out (no monitors that accept RGB or the kickstart/workbench disks)

Help save my sanity!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:43 pm

Man, that would have pretty danged tempting had I seen it under the same circumstances. But I probably would have dragged some gear over there (if they were cool with that) and hooked it up. That little plastic cover for the side car is so hard to find... Personally I think $150 is too high for an unknown quantity without a keyboard, though.

I'll put it this way. I've bought an A1000 in "perfect" condition visually, with a functional keyboard but without RAM, and spent $200 on that. Granted it came with a lot of disks and an external FDD and a few other odds and ends. But I found out later that the motherboard was indeed dead, unfortunately, and it had no front expansion RAM. Buyer beware.

But at home I had a really nasty looking A1000, yet it worked absolutely perfectly. I wound up gutting the working machine and putting it into the visually perfect (but dead) machine's case. I then had what looked and acted (and is) like a mint A1000.

I did have two keyboards now...

I'd offer them $100 cash. If you can't source a keyboard, I'll pay for the shipping. ;)
or the kickstart/workbench disks
Even if you just hooked it up to a monitor via composite, you should get the Kickstart request screen in crappy black and white assuming the MB isn't toast. You don't need disks to see if the MB is alive or not. If you got to that screen, the only real unknown at that stage would be if the FDD worked or not.

If you did snag it for $100 and it still didn't work, all you'd need to wait for is a butt ugly one that does work and do the swap-a-roo. Man... too bad it doesn't have a keyboard.

FWIW the original mouse is not easy to find in good condition. But it can use any Amiga mouse until you source one.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:29 pm

I would be tempted too. But I think I am with intric8 on this I would offer them less since it is unknown. One thing I have done in the past to sort of test if there is any life is to just plug it in and listen. If you hear after a few seconds the floppy drive clicking regularly like it is waiting for a disk, then it is a good chance that it will work.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:19 pm

All good points gents! (and thanks for the chat intric8!) I wasn't able to head back today to take a look again at it but I think most likely Wednesday if it is still there i'll take in the needed stuff to see if :

a. it'll throw a signal out of the mono composite - an 8inch Sony PVM will come in handy!)
b. See if the floppy drive works - I'll try to grab a 1.3 kickstart and 1.3 workbench disk which will allow me to see if;
c. See if the RAM upgrade in the front is still working.

I'll probably see if the folks there will go a little lower due to no included keyboard or mouse but I'm a little worried to get another Amiga already when I have not completed my A2000 rig to my satisfaction yet.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:54 pm

So I went back today to check it out and alas it was gone from the shelf it was on on Friday, disappointed I grabbed some ZIP250Mb Disks and headed to the counter, where lo and behold there it was! behind the counter! apparently some other Amiga aficionado had been by looked at it but also balked at the price, I told them that I too wasn't willing to pay the $150 they had it stickered at as it was missing the keyboard, so they asked what I would be willing to pay and threw down the $100 number, they accepted and I waltzed out there with my new addition to the collection.

I know it has the 256Kb expansion in the front already (checked that out in the place) But I don't know what revision motherboard it is or if it has anything funky about it, I'll be opening it up for cleaning and more photos tonight!
IMG-0661.JPG
IMG-0663.JPG
Now all I have to get are:
A1000 Keyboard,
A1000 Mouse (hopefully, if not I have a spare tank from my A2000)
Amiga monitor (1080 would be nice to have just to complete the overall 'completeness' of the system)
Amiga External Disk drive (preferably the official disk drive at that)

I would also move to add one of those 8Mb boards and maybe even the Accelerator board that Intric8 has been showing off!

User avatar
EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:38 pm

Great find! Looks like it hasn’t yellowed a bit.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:05 am

Whelp,

It may be a great looker but she has no brains :x managed to fire her up this morning and while the TV was able to find some sort of signal coming in it was blank and I got nothing beyond that, no request for a kickstart disk, no drive clicking.

the PSU was AMAZINGLY quiet however, really makes my A2000 PSU sound like a freakin' 747!

User avatar
EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:14 am

I wouldn't consider it a lost cause. These issues are usually somewhat obvious once you have a look at the board.

Start swapping components, let us know what you find!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:05 am

@leigh it's so true about the fan noise. The 1000's fan is unbelievably quiet. I remember the first time I turned one on, I obsessively shoved my head behind the machine and felt the wind softly blowing in my face. I couldn't believe it.

I have swapped out a fan on my 2000's PSU which really helped a ton, but it's still not as quiet as the 1000.

User avatar
leighb2282

Posted Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:52 pm

IT WORKS!!!!!!!

I went ahead and took it completely down, removed and re-seated everything, visually checked all components (even in the PSU) so it is apparently a Revision A board, PSU has a manufactured date of January 86.

One HUGE source of happiness is that the composite out is COLOR! which is awesome in my opinion! especially as the A2000's composite out is mono!

Anyway, onto pictures.

The SWEETEST (only) kickstart screen i've ever seen!
IMG-0676.JPG
And that glorious Workbench 1.3 color scheme!
IMG-0679.JPG
And now some decent sized images of the motherboard, so clean after 32+ years! (more in the next post)
IMG-0671.JPG





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