A4000 ownership not going well

[Danoo]

E-waste avoided

[Higgy]

After checking the traces from the CIA chips and finding them good, in preparation for the next stage of repair I removed both CIA chips and added PLCC sockets. And new CIA's have been ordered.
I am not sure I would have done a good job soldering the new ones directly to the motherboard so that is the reason for fitting the sockets.

I did fit back the old ones in a swapped position (both CIA chips are identical) and I got some slightly different behaviour with the mouse and keyboard. I am hoping that this shows the issue is with the CIA's and new chips will fix this.
(Diagrom + AmigaTestKit show CIA TOD Tick has failed for both chips)

PLCC sockets added

PLCC sockets.jpg (117.96 KiB) Viewed 1863 times

[Danoo]

Nice work on mounting the sockets, hopefully the new CIA's will solve the problem.

[Higgy]

New CIA's arrived...
And it now passes CIA tests on Diagrom and AmigaTestKit

I must say thanks to @GadgetUK164 for his documenting 4000 repairs on YouTube. (I can imagine you never want to see a faulty 4000 again!)
A comment from Chris finding that 50% of the time WHDLoad games/demos would black screen on Kickstart 3.0 was invaluable. This is what I was finding and thought this would be something else for me to sort after the CIAs, but I have fitted 3.1.4. Kickstart this evening and so far WHDLoad items have loaded each time.

My PCB had very local battery damage. I reckon it was stored on its side. The caps had not leaked at all (but ive changed them), so all the other areas on the PCB were fine.

Now I have to decided if to recap the original PSU or carry on with my very quiet ATX and mod it to fit the case.
I also have a 150W PicoPSU, which will provide 6A on the 5V line.

Just hoping I've not spoken too quickly and once all screwed back together it starts playing silly buggers.
As GadgetUK says in his videos, it's once you start cleaning it can fall apart/stop working. The connections are just holding on. But you need to clean etc for long term reliability. My Fastram controller U892? Looked fine but a number of pads came away after cleaning. Thankfully the VIAs are just next to the pads to remake connections.

[alexh]

Now is the time to consider doing some motherboard mods before re-assembly?

If you're not fitting an accelerator with an integrated IDE then PIO2 on the motherboard IDE is worth having.

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=603519&postcount=40

And if you don't plan on fitting an accelerator with FastRAM then perhaps the 16MiB->64MiB motherboard mod?

http://wordpress.hertell.nu/?p=303

Of course if you're going to get a TF4060 then this is all redundant.

[Higgy]

@alexh cheers for the info.
Yep planning on getting a TF4060. I am fortunate to have a spare Rev 6 and never really expected the opportunity to get a 4000, so it would be rude not to Terriblefire it!

An RTG with scandoubler and then I think I would have my dream Amiga I wish I had 'back in the day'.

[alexh]

Get in quick as there is another batch of ZZ9000 (they might all be presold though). Without a doubt the best RTG solution for A4000 you can buy. Not just RTG, Ethernet & USB and ARM co-processor (MP3 offload etc.) + AHI with ZZ9000AX add-on board.

[Danoo]

Great news that the new CIAs resolved the problem.

[Higgy]

Probably last update from me on this topic. She's fixed and now waiting for some TerribleFire intrusion

I purchased a SFX PSU with low/0 load requirements, 3D printed a mount:

PSU Mount

SFX_PSU Mount.jpg (37.28 KiB) Viewed 1652 times

Got it all installed now and working, case is back on etc. A bit of a home wired ATX to 4000 PSU adaptor :

PSU Mount installed minus PWR switch

PSU_Install.jpg (142.79 KiB) Viewed 1652 times

I also spotted these and printed them:

3D Print cover

Molex_Covers1.jpg (16.32 KiB) Viewed 1652 times

@GadgetUK164 mentioned in one of his repair videos about those rubber covers you used to get to cover unused MOLEX connectors, so I searched and found these 3D print designs. Fit really nice and tight. Gadget - if you want to swap some covers (white or black colour) for some RTC battery holders and diodes, give me a PM

Currently got another project on the go and my 15pin dtype has just turned up, so we will see if I can make that VGA adaptor and test later...