Amiga 1200 with 1221lc won't start anymore

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Hello,


    I bought the 1221lc 2 years ago and from the start it's been finicky on if it would boot the Amiga 1200. I had to angle it in a specific way and then the Amiga would start.
    At the time the A1200 and Amiga 1200 power supply were not capped yet and I was using a DB23 -> Scart -> HDMI setup.


    I've recently had the 1D4 Motherboard recapped, got an indivision ACA MK3 and a CA-PSU. Fitted everything together and again the 1221lc was finicky to work. BUT, i managed to run it for a few hours yesterday (like 6 or so?) I just let the Amiga turned on after I was done with it. But then suddenly I had a yellow screen. Turned off the Amiga and reseated the 1221lc. I probably should not have done that immediatly, because no amount of reseating now gets it to power the Amiga on. Power light goes on, I see the individual screen for the mk3 but then no boot to hdd or harddisk lights turning on, it does show some graphical lines like something is amiss.
    Removing the 1221lc and powering the A1200 up again, immediatly boots and everything is fine.
    I've read quite a few forum posts and this is what i tried already:

    Reseating, leaving 1mm, 2.5mm, comibination of clearance for the 1221lc but no luck.

    I removed the motherboard from the casing

    Cleaned the edge connector on the motherboard with isopropyl alcohol and a microfibre cloth.
    Connected with just the power and hdmi cable and the 122lc, I again tried some alignment.

    The edge connector doesn't seem camfered, although I'm not sure what to look for.

    The 1221lc doesn't seem to have bent pins, but I also don't know if they are retracted too much inside the connector.

    I've been looking at the 1234 accelerator before, what are the chances that that one will work if this one doesn't?
    My other A1200 is not capped yet and is an older model (2B, Kickstart 3.0). I don't really want to remove the mk3 from this Amiga (does it even support removing?:)) and try it on an not recapped older board, which doesn't have the timing fixes.

    Thank you in advance

  • The "recently" term for acquiring a CA-PSU is used a bit loosely - the CA-PSU has been sold out for many months now (sometime early last year if I remember right).


    Anyyway, did you try removing the RTC module and checking the battrery? We've had cases where a leaking battery has damaged the chip on the acceperater that's directly underneath.


    Other than that, cleaning the slot and pulling it back should make it work. The edge of the board does look a bit chamfered, so that shouldn't cause any trouble.


    Jens

  • Sorry Jens,


    With recently I mean the CA-PSU was sent to me almost 2 years ago (12.04.2021) but I never really used it, because of the scart-hdmi adapter not playing nice with it.
    I removed the RTC and then the battery from it, which looks really nice. No leakage, also not on the chip that's underneath it.
    With the removed rtc i inserted the card again, wiggling it little by little, shutting off and on in between, but same results, sometimes red screen, other times artifacts, or just black. System won't go through with booting. (double mouse buttons to bring up the menu also don't do anything).
    With card removed, everything s fine again.

    I've not tried cleaning the slot of the accelerator with isopropyl alchol yet, but I did it with the edge connector and no grime came off.
    Any tips on cleaning the connector?

  • Alas, no change. We save old tooth brushes , so that part was easy. Although the connector looks ok anway i think. I can't really compare it and the slot is kinda narrow, I can't really see the metal properly


    I also tried my Commodore PSU, which was recapped at the same time. The guy who recapped it, said it was pretty light, but did work with an 030. accelerator + cf card.
    But my results are te same. I'm sticking the card in, slowly removing it turning it off and on again, sideways both ways, and then back in again. I can't get it to work.

  • My ACA 1231 yellow screens occasionally. I believe the ACA cards have ingenious memory addressing techniques that might cause it. Sometimes my A1200 takes a few cycles to boot or even need a soft reset if that helps.

  • Well I'll give it another go, I've spend hours (no joke) in getting it to cold boot and fiddling with the position of the card. I'll try soft resetting, In the current state. the A1200 is useless, there's not much I can do with it without at least some extra memory.

  • I've had a case last month where the A1200 board was screwed down really tight without the lower shield installed. This has led to the A1200 board to be so close and tight to the bottom half of the case that the accelerator connector was pressed against in such an unlucky way that the machine would not work.


    In other words: Please try loosening the screw that's near the trapdoor edge on the mainboard of the computer. If that makes the computer with with the accelerator, please add a washer under the A1200 board in that position.

  • Hello Jens,

    I've had the mainboard removed from the A1200 case and on my ESD workpad without any casing and it did not boot with the 1221lc board in it.
    I did this in order to clean the edge connector on the 1D4 on the bottom side. When it was like that, I also had a check on the capacitors that might need to be removed (timing fixes), but none were present (like recommended).


    So the setup i tested was a CA-PSU, Mk3, 1221lc and buffered IDE with CF from icomp setup on my 1D4. (no floppy/gotek).

    In the meantime I was given the opportunity to test the 1D4 with a Terrible Fire 1230 and that works fine.

  • Since you've reported that it worked "sometimes" and then got worse, I still believe that it's a mechanical error. The cross-test with a TF card confirms that the fault must be in the ACA1221lc - you can now continue to try cleaning the connector, inspecting it closer, maybe post a better picture. The one you've sent is unfocused, has bad lighting and is taken from a too-high angle.


    I haven't checked where you're from - would sending the card back for inspection cross a customs border?


    Jens

  • Hey Jens,


    I'll try to clean the connector more and shoot some new pictures tomorrow in the daylight.
    I'm in the country next door (The Netherlands), so there would not be a customs border crosssing.

    Also I'm planning to buy a keyrah v3, I dunno if that helps with the return of the 1221l card after inspection to me, or is just an administrative hassle

  • Well it's working again! Thank you Jens!


    It took a day longer, because with this weather, It's pretty dark in my work/hobbyroom and I did want to get good pictures to show.

    I did see some dirt and chafing on the plastic inside the connector. Some pins don't look positioned like the others to me, but that's probably from all the wriggling.
    So i thorougly cleaned it.. tried it, failed.
    I cleaned it again and it's working now. Board is fully inserted, no funny business with leaving some space or not. I removed the board and inserted it again and it seems to keep working.
    So thanks for being persistent in the cleaning. After that red screen that showed up last time I had it running for a few hours, I was afraid it was the CPU on the board.

    Photo's from before the cleaning are attached for posterity :)