A1200T shows white screen on bootup

[burns flipper]

So...I posted my A1200T via Parcelforce and this is the response:

I've just got the amiga, for some reason the screen stays on white when powered up, I've checked all connections and there doesn't seem to be anything loose or not plugged in. The parcel company had managed to knock the blizzard accelerator loose as it was rattling around the case when the postman was delivering it to me, but nothing appears to a solution, the numerical lock light is permanently on as well.

DAGNABBIT!! MY SYSTEM!!! Anyone heard of this happening? Here's what I've replied with so far:

What happens to the hard disk and hd light on the front of the case when you turn it on? If the case is open, you can hear the hd ticking quite loudly as it's being read. When you say the screen is white, are you sure this is the output from the Amiga? I plugged it into our Sony Trinitron to take the vid on YouTube and found I could only plug it into socket AV1 on the TV to get it to display, AV2 did nothing which is really odd.

If the Blizzard board was rattling in the case it's possible it's knocked one of the chips, or maybe hit one of the wires/solder points to the keyboard connector.

If you have a camera can you please take some high res pictures of the board and the inside of the case, specifically the motherboard and the connectors/leads out to the different devices, see if we can see anything damaged or loose somewhere.

and

Can you also please try booting it up, one time with the accelerator board connected, and again when it's taken out.

I'd be really grateful for any advice (apart from "Don't use Parcelforce").

[Harrison]

I've had Amiga get stuck on the white screen when the kickstart roms have come loose, that is one thing worth checking to make sure they are properly seated.

To see if it is the accelerator try to get them to run the system without it connected to rule it out. In fact it is best to get them to strip the system down and test introducing one new item at a time. First try removing just the accelerator and HDD and seeing if the system will post to the insert floppy screen.

[woody.cool]

the Amiga? I plugged it into our Sony Trinitron to take the vid on YouTube and found I could only plug it into socket AV1 on the TV to get it to display, AV2 did nothing which is really odd.

Actually, it's not odd at all
I'm assuming you're using an RGB SCART cable.
You'll most likely find that AV1 can do RGB but AV2 can't

[cassius]

hi, im the new owner of Rich's A1200T i have managed to get it functioning after parcel force re-enacted a game of sensible soccer with the parcel ! . i still dont know how i managed to fix it but it works fine, the only thing i did notice was smell of burning coming from the inside of the case and there is a scorched cable (other than the catweasel cable as mentioned on the auction page) which connect hardrive to motherboard, but this doesnt seem to affect it and whatever caused it to scorch itself has now stopped. im sure i can replace these parts out.

[Harrison]

Hi Cassius and welcome to Classicamiga.

I'm glad you managed to get the A1200T working.

I would definitely try to track down where the burning smell is coming from. The most common cause of burning smells is a faulty or dying PSU so make sure that isn't the cause because a PSU that fails while being used can take anything connected to it with it when it dies. Motherboard, HD or anything connected to them. It is far cheaper, and a lot less hassle, to replace a dying PSU before it dies, rather than letting it die and possibly take other components with it, meaning you would then have to test all parts and try to replace them all, which can be hard with Amiga's now that many parts or rare.

Other causes of electrical burning smells can be capacitors, so look carefully at them all on both the main motherboard, accelerator, and anything else inside the case and make sure non look like the top of the capacitors are buldging, leaking, or look like parts of them are melted or burnt.

Another cause can be cables too close to capacitors, cables connected the wrong way round so that any wires carrying an electrical current are sending it to the wrong connection at the other end of the cable. And also hardware connected the wrong way around. IDE cables can easily be connected backwards if they don't have the missing pin blanked on the connector.

[burns flipper]

Woohoo!! Glad it's all working. If you can provide some pics on the non-Catweasel burnt cable we can identify what's up with it. Hopefully it was just reconnected the wrong way round (I think this is how I fried the Catweasel cable last year). Also, you can check the photo's and vids in the auction to see how things are connected - there's a vid of the inside of the case which might help.

The hard disk is connected to the motherboard via the small IDE board, so make sure the cables to and from that are the right way around.

Does anyone have any pics online (or can you take some) of how to connect a 4-way buffered EIDE interface correctly?

[Tiago]

Does anyone have any pics online (or can you take some) of how to connect a 4-way buffered EIDE interface correctly?

I have an IDE interface on my A1200T. Dont know if this is the one you talking about:

Is on the CA Wiki
http://wiki.classicamiga.com/Microni...r_Case_Project

[Harrison]

Normally buffered IDE interfaces have one of the pins marked with a 1. And the IDE cable will have one of its wires coloured red or black. Just make sure the cable is connected so the coloured wire matches the 1 marked pin.