Expert: Gregory Donner - 12/6/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi I was given an A600 but I think there is a problem. First of all when I power on the computer the green power light is on but the caps lock key light stays on and I cant turn it off, secondly, I have used an RF lead for my TV and also the audio and comp sockets to plug in my TV. Something happens becuase my TV knows that something is going thorugh it. I dont see a purple screen with the disk drive showing a disk when a disk is not in the drive and when I do put a disk in you can hear the disk opening but the drive does nothing nor does the floppy light come on. Its as if there is no operating system on the Amiga. It powers on and thats as far as I can get. Im gutted please help.

ANSWER: Hi Adrian,

If you're sure the RF lead is correctly connected to your TV, and no specific colors appear after it's powered on (such as solid red, green, or blue indicating a hardware error--see the link below for a complete list):

http://www.nyx.net/~rdavis/AmigaHints2.html#BootColor

then it sounds like there's a very serious hardware problem on the motherboard preventing even the ROM from being recognized. Similar to what I recently shared in another user's situation, the only chip not wave-soldered to the motherboard is the Kickstart ROM (which is socketed). Repairing the motherboard is impractical, if not impossible, so I would suggest looking for another used A600 from either eBay.com or (if you're in the UK or Europe) AmigaKit (amigakit.com). If you're in the U.S., you could also try Software Hut (www.softhut.com).

I hope this helps!

Greg

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: But even the caps lock key stays on. It doesnt flash or anything. Your sure it cannot be repaired


Answer
Hi Adrian,

Unfortunately, the fact that the caps lock stays on isn't necessarily an indication that it can be easily repaired. However, that being said, if you live in the U.S., you could contact Software Hut and ask them how much it would cost to look at it. They're the only US-based Amiga repair facility I know of, but I haven't done business with them for a long time, so I don't even know if they still have someone who does repairs or not.

Just based on shipping costs alone (to/from Pennsylvania) you're probably going to find that buying a used Amiga 600 is cheaper in the end than trying to have it repaired. It's questionable to me as to how easily it may be repaired, plus there's the expense of tech time and parts that are added in to it. I'm not trying to discourage you, but this is a fact of trying to maintain old equipment that is no longer officially supported.

Unfortunately, what many people don't realize is that Amiga hardware is beginning to fail more often simply because of sheer age of the hardware (some is now more than 20 years old, which is ancient in computer terms). :( No new hardware is being made to replace it, so other Amiga repair hardware also falls into that category.

Greg