Expert: Gregory Donner - 10/31/2005

Question
Hi. I recenty bought an Amiga 500+ from a fella on ebay and I can't get it to boot up. The problem is when I turn it on, a solid green screen appears for several seconds, then a black screen flickers on for a shorter time, then back to green again. It also doesn't read disks. I recently looked through your site and found in one of your answers that the computer will show a solid colour to indicate something's wrong so I think that's what it's doing, but I've no idea what the problem specifically is. I've emailed the seller and apparently it was working fine before he sent it out, and he's not sure what's wrong with it either. If you could shed some light on it I'd be very grateful. Thanks very much!
Mark

Answer
Hi Mark,

Green is a Chip RAM error, so it sounds like the Chip RAM itself is bad or possibly just needs to be reseated. I would suggest trying to reseat it, and if this doesn't clear up the problem, it would need to be replaced. The Amiga floppy drives by now are very old (about twenty years), so it's not surprising if they're no longer working in terms of sheer age. The only three places I know that may still sell Amiga parts are:

Software Hut (www.softhut.com)
EBay (www.ebay.com, search for "Amiga")
Centsible Software (www.centsible.com)

Other than these, it's difficult to locate stores or businesses still dealing in Amiga parts.

In addition, this page describes other errors and colors in the bootup process that might be of interest to you:

http://www.amiga.org/modules/xoopsfaq/index.php?cat_id=3

I hope this helps!

Greg