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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Tue Sep 26, 2017 10:08 pm

This is the final system conquest I shall invest in for 2017-2018. Unless something really miraculous or strange (or free) happens, I'm done. I have more than I need at this stage to last me the next twenty years, which ultimately was my goal.

This week I found a very interesting low-light photographed pile of Amiga stuff on Craigslist.org - a rarity in the Seattle area and most others these days. It was a non-working system, so I was able to talk the seller down to a level that made sense to both him and myself. All in all we were both very happy with our agreed upon price.

The downside? I had to drive an hour south of where I live in weekday rush-hour stop-and-go traffic. Not fun. And I had to drag my kids in the car with me (they were totally cool with it, though).

I eventually got to the Starbucks parking lot where the seller handed me a plastic crate filled with his stuff. We shook hands and I headed back home.

I knew about the major items I had received, but it wasn't until I got home that it suddenly dawned on me: literally everything I was handed had NO yellowing at all.

Everything looks literally brand new! The keyboard, from what I can tell, contains no dust and if there is corrosion I can't see any between the keys. The 1000's case? I'd be shocked if it had ever been opened. But if it had, perhaps only in a bomb shelter. This thing is the absolute perfect color, no scratches or blemishes... it's uncanny. Even the tank mouse - the legendary L-connectored tank of the Amiga 1000, where there was never a reproduction or upgrade. Just the original.

I quickly plugged it into my daily 1000 and fired it up.

Perfection in all directions. I can't believe it! It does indicate bad chip RAM , but hopefully that is not a big deal to track down. If I can fix it I should have one of the most pristine stock 1000s I've ever seen in my life.

This whole thing is an incredible time capsule - with the exception of the books. For some reason they actually look their age, but I have replacements for most of them.

I'll post about the whole stash soon in more detail. For now, I leave you with this.
Attachments
IMG_1969.jpg
My latest and final Amiga acquisition (for at least the next 1+ years) in all its bizarrely pristine glory.


User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Tue Sep 26, 2017 10:56 pm

Nice CL find! Now your 1000 has a sibling. :)

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LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:11 am

That's a beautiful looking A1000! Hopefully you can get the Chip RAM fixed up and get her working again!

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:35 pm

Worse case, you pickup a nasty looking 1000 cheap off of eBay and salvage the motherboard. It's always good to have a spare machine around -- just like us, these things ain't getting any younger!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:58 pm

mattsoft:
Worse case, you pickup a nasty looking 1000 cheap off of eBay and salvage the motherboard. It's always good to have a spare machine around
Totally. But I think I may try and swap out the CIA chips first.

If it's bad on-board RAM I'll prob put my working 1000's board in this case and use my original 1000 for backup parts, along with this one's pulled board. Combine 2 into one perfectly pristine model. Save the rest for the future. Fingers crossed it's just an unseated chip or bad CIAs.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Sep 28, 2017 10:24 pm

I swapped out the CIA chips tonight as a total Hail Mary, but it didn't work. I saw a video on YouTube where Jan Beta replaced his built-in RAM and still got a green screen. It wasn't until he swapped his CIA chips that he fixed the issue - which is not on the official list of color codes. I had a pretty good idea that swapping my CIAs wasn't going to fix it, but I gave it a shot. The machine still boots to flashing green screens. It's got bad on-board RAM, which is too bad. It's theoretically a fixable problem if you're really into desoldering for days so you can solder on new RAM. I think I'll pass. But I'll be keeping the board with all of its chips as backups.

It's really a damned shame. Out of all of the Amigas I've ever owned - except for the two NOS machines - this thing is the cleanest I've ever seen. It's like it was used for a year then put away into some air-tight closest somewhere and forgotten. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to ever have cracked the case on it, too. And it didn't have any dust! No corrosion. Everything is shiny and new (looking).

I disassembled the entire thing and some time next week I will migrate my daily driver 1000's motherboard into this pristine case. My daily's fan is making a noise that sounds like it is on its last legs, so moving over to the clean machine will fix that problem, too. If all goes well and I don't screw anything up, I should have what looks like a brand new Amiga 1000 by next week.

I've noticed some very faint ghosting with this new 1080 monitor I got this week. You can see it in high-contrast situations (e.g. the Kickstart Disk request screen). It's not a big deal but it is there, just barely. I'll not be letting my 1084S go.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:52 pm

I plan on doing a proper post about this tomorrow evening if all goes well. But the short version is a managed to transplant the motherboard from my daily 1000 to the new, pristine looking's case tonight. I had to insert and remove the motherboard so many times, I'm an official Amiga 1000 assembling pro. I know how many screws it takes, which lengths each should be, and what order to go in. I could probably remove and replace a motherboard now in less than 15 minutes flat. No joke.

What an ordeal! But it all works and purrs like a very quiet kitten. And each component is near-perfection. Very cool!

I've got a huge bucket of extra parts now, too. Not a bad thing I guess, just taking up space in my storage closet.





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