Hi all,
just got myself an A3000 after lusting after one for all these years.
she's a little battle damaged, but nothing a little squeeze with the right tools :hammer: , and a quick rub down won't fix.
it's a rev9 mainboard with a rev 7 daughter board.
now. problems.
learnt that she won't boot without the expansion board. just get what looks like chipram error green screen.

keyboard doesn't really work. no caps lock light, and open up a shell window and just get " ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' " as though a key is stuck. even disconnecting the keyboard and it still persists in the " ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' " is this a CIA problem? - scratch that, keyboard doesn't seem to be playing ball at all! XD

there are no terminator blocks in the sip sockets, yet she boots just fine with one 52Mb scsi drive, and no external devices. leave as is? is this right? going to swap out with an acard scsi/ide bridge and IDE CF adapter.

ram. got 8 zip chips in the fast ram sockets, so should see 4MB from what i figure, but can only see just under a meg at workbench. any ideas? nothing really launches at startup, as she's got workbench 2.0 installed, and when booted more than 2000000bytes chip ram is available. i've moved the zips around to see if anything changes, but no difference - update, think i figured it. i think they are 256kx4 chips, so i do only have 1 meg of fast. kind of a good thing - shows that all the sockets are working

the battery's been removed, but there is a little bit of corrosion on the mainboard. what do i do to clean it up?

other than that, ordering myself some 3.1 roms, and some more zips.

many thanks for any help

ah cool, ok, so CIA's are linked to keyboard control. good. i wasn't sure. i'll give them a swap and see what happens.

that's good info regarding the memory, vesalia website seems to show that they have some km51440az zips in stock in packs of 4. ordered 8 packs, and an indivisionECS, and 3.1roms, but haven't recieved an order confirmation email yet....

aaanyway, lets swap those CIAs

thought. if i put a 5pin din to ps2 adapter on the A3000, can i use an A4000 keyboard just to rule out what works and what doesn't?

---update---
swapped the CIA's nothing's changed. managed to break a leg on pin 9 by being a little bit ham fisted. :grr: but wedged a piece of wire in there to make the connection. still no life from the keyboard... :/

ah cool, ok, so CIA's are linked to keyboard control. good. i wasn't sure. i'll give them a swap and see what happens.

that's good info regarding the memory, vesalia website seems to show that they have some km51440az zips in stock in packs of 4. ordered 8 packs, and an indivisionECS, and 3.1roms, but haven't recieved an order confirmation email yet....

aaanyway, lets swap those CIAs

thought. if i put a 5pin din to ps2 adapter on the A3000, can i use the A4000's keyboard?

---update---
swapped the CIA's nothing's changed. managed to break a leg on pin 9 by being a little bit ham fisted. :grr: but wedged a piece of wire in there to make the connection.

The typical 5 pin to ps2 adapter works and will allow the use of a 4000 keyboard.
if you cant find zips, i do stock the 1mx4 at http://www.a4000t.com

To answer some earlier question.. the 3000 must have the backplane to boot. this is normal.

mech

cool, i'll see if i can find a keyboard adapter. sure i have one somewhere...

sorry, yes, i did mean the daughter board, and yes i do get a yellow flashy screen without it ok good, so that's normal. right. learning lots today.

ok, battery damage. taken a photo of it, and it looks much worse properly lit with a camera flash than under the energy saving bulb in the bedroom

i've tickled it with some vinager, and some cotton buds, is that going to be enought to stop it?

Mechy, thanks for the zips offer, i'll give you a shout if i get stuck otherwise

---update---

tried a 5pin to ps2 keyboard adapter. brand new adapter, the bag not even been opened. plugged it, plus a known good A4k keyboard into the 3000. she wouldn't boot.
so unplugged, let the machine boot to workbench, then plugged in the adapter and keyboard. screen went grey and no drive activity. unplugged and she rebooted.

upshot is, i've found a way to reboot without switching off and back on again... and we now know it's something on the mainboard that's not happy.

I wonder of +5v is missing on the keyboard port?

mech

ok, after double, and triple checking which pin supplies 5v, i got out my trusty multimeter... wait, no i didn't - i couldn't find it, so stripped the wires on a tiny PC fan and stuck the ends in the keyboard port holes and switched 'er on!

no movement. nothing. ... phew... in a twisted way.

spliced a wire from a drive power header to the 5v supply pin on the port. woohoo! all is working! both with the A3k and A4k keyboards!

now just a case of making something more permanent.


now, the battery corrosion. so i should be good with it like that? so need to put something on it to stop further oxidizing?

thanks again all

hi m8

Did u buy this off eBay just reminds me of one that went for £142 but it did not have the original keyboard?

hi m8

What did u use to clean the battery acid?

I was the one you outbid me on the amiga 3000 anyway well done
How much do u think amiga 2000 with a amber scandoubler a 020 fast cpu with a scsi controller with extra ram and all the manuals for the cards is worth its in good condition