Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!decwrl!wuarchive!udel!mmdf From: casebolt%esdc.span@fedex.msfc.nasa.gov Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: A500 resets itself Message-ID: <14129@snow-white.udel.EDU> Date: 16 Mar 90 16:42:23 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 111 From: FEDEX::"amiga-relay-request@louie.udel.edu" 14-MAR-1990 14:30:55.78 To: ESDC$SPAN::CASEBOLT CC: Subj: Re: A500 resets itself Received: from udel.edu by Fedex.Msfc.Nasa.Gov with INTERNET ; Wed, 14 Mar 90 08:31:32 CST Received: from louie.udel.edu by louie.udel.edu id aa06948; 14 Mar 90 13:30 GMT Received: from USENET by louie.udel.edu id aa06930; 14 Mar 90 8:25 EST Received: from snow-white.ee.udel.edu by louie.udel.edu id aa06922; 14 Mar 90 8:25 EST Received: from louie.udel.edu by snow-white.ee.udel.edu id aa05619; 14 Mar 90 8:24 EST From: Tony Klein Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: A500 resets itself Message-ID: <1961@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM> Date: 13 Mar 90 21:08:48 GMT Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga Organization: NCR Comten, Inc. To: amiga-relay@udel.edu Sender: amiga-relay-request@udel.edu In article <1291@carroll1.cc.edu> plonka@carroll1.cc.edu (Dave Plonka) writes: >My Amiga 500 has become very tempermental lately. It just RESETS itself. >very similarly to a CTRL-AMIGA-AMIGA. Mine too, and its really PISSING ME OFF. >Sometimes it will happen 5 times in 10 minutes, other times it has been on >for hours straight with no problems. >It doesn't seem to be related to heat generation, since it is just as >likely to reset just after being turned on as it is hours later. And it always seems to 'zap' right when a disk is being written..or just BEFORE writing a bunch of edits out to disk..(Murphy's Law?) I have had it to the shop (he 'reseated the chips', the cure-all for A500 problems), I have reseated the chips myself (twice), I have disconnected all the peripherals, it still has random crashes. I have checked the power supply. I eventually discovered that if I leave it on all the time, I get some relief. It says booted for days at a time! But then it crashes... [Whew. Sorry. I feel better now. Excuse me. Thanks.] [Pause while I unlock the caps and regain my composure.] Despite my wild and dangerous tone, I am not ready to smash my A500 into a little pile of silicon just yet. (soon,...) I would like to figure this out. My latest theory is that the random crashes are related to the monitor 'snapping' problem. I will look into that next, maybe get my monitor fixed, or do it myself if I can find more details. But in the long run, >WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? I see this thread come up every so often, I have talked to a coupla others with this 'random crash' problem, and I think 1) its fairly common, and 2) we are all screwed cause no one can figure it out. It's just some kinda quality control problem. We all bought lemons. Even if a monitor fix makes some difference, I have no faith in this unit. I wanna get rid of it. There is no way I would ever add a hard disk to this crumby thing, so I guess I have to get an A2000 in order to add a HD. I thought the A500 would be a nice cheap way to get an Amiga, but I guess not. It's lousy. [Why is this? Do the boards sag in the case, causing the chips to shift and come loose? Does my pounding on the keys rattle the sockets? Do the vibrations from some speed bump in West Chester keep reverberating through some etherial plane until they ping my machine? Beats me.] >Thanks for ANY help. There is little hope of help, I think we're hosed. I don't own an amiga 500 but a friend does. He was having problems with the Video being distorted and random crashes..... I worked on his Amiga 500 and found the following problems that may have something to do with yours... There is an RF shield soldered to the back of the main board. Insulating the RF shield from the board is a thin film of a mylar type plastic sheet. He too had been reseating chips on the board. I noticed that ALL of the chip leads were too long and some were sticking thru the plastic sheet and shorting at random to the back of the RF shield. I cut the leads off as short as possible. I also found a few COLD solder joints. I touched them up as well. I also found the disk drive unit was touching the edge of the keyboard. The plastic sheet had also been punctured by the sharp edge on the disk drive case. If you know anything about soldering open the case and give it a shot. I do suggest that you do this after the warranty has expired. Look for anything possible that may short out. These shorts will definitely cause strange and random problems. My friend has not had any more problems with his A500 since my repair job... Hope this helps... Let me know what you find... I would like to keep track of various problems with the A500 since several friends own one and I may just have to help out again... Richard Casebolt Senior Computer Engineering Specialist Boeing Computer Support Services Building 4653 rm 19 Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama 35812 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > plonka@carroll1.cc.edu Dave Plonka /// > plonka@carroll1.UUCP ARS: N9HZF \\\/// AMIGA -- ____/| Tony Klein NCR Comten, St.Paul, MN 612-638-7861 () \| klein@stpaul.ncr.com ...uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcce!klein