Expert: Gregory Donner - 4/11/2011

Question
Hi, I have an Amiga 500+ that has been sat in a box for about 12 years, I've just decided to set it back up. It turns on ok, with the picture of the hand holding the disc coming up on the screen. However when I put a disc in the green light comes on, I can hear it trying to read the disc, the screen turns white for about 3 seconds then returns to the picture of the hand & disc and it gives up trying to boot.
I've tried a few different games and each one does the same thing, can all my discs be bad?

Answer
Hi David,

You guessed correctly that it could be your game(s) at fault (since Amiga disks and hardware are more than twenty years old, even if they've been sitting unused on a shelf, they may not work due to age). That being said, it could be your floppy drive.

You can check the prices of replacement internal drives and external floppy drives from the Amiga dealers below. An external floppy drive would be a good way to determine the source of the problem and also provide a bit of an expansion for you at the same time (if you need one).

* AmigaKit (www.amigakit.com)
* AmiBay (www.amibay.com)
* Software Hut (www.softhut.com)
* eBay (www.eBay.com)

I hope this helps!

Greg