Amiga 500+ with black screen but who's dead?

Remember when I put the Amiga 2000 EATX together and when it didn't work I definitively proclaimed the culprit to be Agnus? Well, that might not have been so accurate after all.
I start off in this video with the full intention of trying to repair a faulty Agnus but rather its the man amongst the crowd letting the side down. We give it a go, try to clean it, have a look at possibly is the problem then take things to the extreme.
CRG twitter - / yt_crg
CRG patreon - www.patreon.com/user?u=139190...
Music - Modspire by NaokiS ( / naokisaito )
Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:04 The Symptoms
02:01 Completely unnecessary AGNUS torture
03:55 Maybe it wasn't so heavily corroded
04:55 Bit more testing
07:35 If its not AGNUS then who is it?
08:35 Take 2
09:00 Gary's turn for a clean
11:35 Testing with the logic probe
14:47 Anyone need a dentist?
16:44 Making sure its dead
18:14 Conclusion and credits

[@esc2dos]

Seeing inside that chip was terrific. Great video.

[@CRG]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I wasn't able to show it on the video but under a microscope I was able to make out some writing on the die. Nothing more than a few numbers but cool to see.

[@MarkTheMorose]

+1 vote for calling the new Gary chip 'Gary Numan'. That was a fascinating peek inside an Amiga custom chip, I never realised it would be so small inside.

[@josephphillips9243]

Fascinating troubleshooting! That was good seeing you do that. The autopsy of Gary. I mean its dead and none of us would ever have done it.

[@CRG]

If it wasn't dead it most certainly is now lol. But that's what he gets for being sneaking in the first place 😆

[@CobraTheSpacePirate]

I repaired a buddy of mine's A500+ last year. I thought that it was the AGNUS as a saw what looked like corroded contact in the socket. My second guess was GARY and when I took GARY out there were like 2 contacts in the socket that were completely gone! I replaced the GARY socket and it booted right up! It was funny, he was really frustrated with it and I had been giving him help diagnosing it for weeks. He express mailed it to me and I checked it on lunch break and shipped it back to him in the evening. He sent pics of his daughter playing games on it the next morning! LOL! In my experience, 95% of the time, the sockets always go before the chips.

[@bruwin]

This is actually a good lesson in why blindly chip swapping doesn't always fix things. Logic probes are cheap and easy to use. So this is still a very useful video, and you did save an Agnes from the trash even though it meant Gary was bad. It's still very much a win.

[@CRG]

Absolutely as my blind swapping of parts while building the EATX almost had one perfectly good AGNUS in the bin. If it wasn't for the fact its such an expensive chip I might very well have binned it at that time.

[@MrLukealbanese]

Brilliant Glen. Have a great Christmas mate.

[@CRG]

Thanks, you too!

[@stephenbruce8320]

It's always nice to see someone else do things so I don't have to. Yea, I don't blame you for trying as time goes by the chip supply will dry up which means FPGA Replacements will become even more important. I am not a purist I own my fair share of Classic Amiga Computers which I have kept alive over the years. They will all dies one day its just a matter of time but kudo's to those who spend the time to develop FPGA Solutions which is not part of your video but when the chip supply dries up FPGA solutions will become ever more important.

[@brostenen]

Just a heads up... New keycaps have just been released by a1200. None of the big amiga news sites have mentioned it. Basically, we have to spread the word between us in the community.

[@Chris-tx9ou]

you took the lid off Gary - enough said never seen that before fantastic work

[@renepedersen7141]

Worth a try. Thanks for showing :)

[@robwebster7406]

Thanks for the vid 👍 my A500+ I got on eBay was bad, so I fitted everything onto an A500++ pcb and apart from forgetting the drive select jumper, works well 😊

[@MichaelEhling]

The point of the video? Fun. It's a good hero's story: man wants computer fixed, man thinks it's one thing, but it's not at all, so man looks deeper and uncovers the chip, er, truth.

[@ArmpitoftheGiant]

Loved the naked Gary, awesome stuff!

[@alanhaynes4576]

Good to see what is under the lid. Question is what will replace the Gary when he dies, and none are left at any price? Great video, thank you.

[@CRG]

Only after making this I learnt of a replacement available on the A1K forums. I've ordered the replacement chip but I'm tempted to get the new replacement and build that too.

[@2009numan]

I would have been wearing latex gloves while using the fibreglass pen

[@ctid107]

Definitely, if one of those glass strands gets into your skin you'll be chewing your finger off to get relief ! An emery board is a lot safer.

[@stevenbrentson8]

Gary owes Agnes an apology. He could have come right up and said something, but he didn't. Gary's new name is Chad.

[@jimmihenry]

Take vinegar concentrate 25 percent, than neutralizer like backing powder solution, than rinse it very good.... 80's chips are very sensitive to electrostatic damage/ death.

[@theamigademolition5868]

Agnus needed a wash anyway... 35 years without a bath 🛁 nice job 👍

[@GadgetUK164]

Great job =D If that was all that was wrong with that IC you could re-create those missing OE control lines with a 74 series bodge! I typed that just before you removed the top totally lol =/ EDIT: To be fair - it would have probably needed a few 74 series to fix that 1 pin.

[@CRG]

Thanks. It might be a bit beyond saving now lol. It's impossible to know if it was only that one pin which was bad plus it's not the most expensive chip to replace. I just thought it would be interesting to see the silicone. Wasn't able to show it in the video but looking at it under my son's microscope you can make out some text.

[@GadgetUK164]

@@CRG Yes, it was interesting to see inside and how thick those connections are on the DIP chips there too - ie. that lead inwards to the die. On the PLCC chips you tend to find the traces go much thinner much quicker - for obvious reasons!

[@herdarkshadow834]

Soon as I read the title I thought ‘That’ll be Gary’ as I had the exact same problem with a couple of 500+ boards. One of the few occasions I was right. 😉

[@YogSothoth1969]

I enjoyed it very much!! o7 ;-)

[@stephenwhite506]

I believe that it was still NMOS. That is one of the reasons Commodore failed. After purchasing MOS they didn't keep pace with the rest of the industry. That is why when you get to the 1200/600 there are VLSI and HP chips as Commodore couldn't make CMOS chips large enough.

[@PaulinesPastimes]

Poor Agnus, wrongly accused again! That sneaky Gary must have been having a joke a Agnus's expense but it looks like he got his just deserts, the rotter. 😄

[@Tjuwantjutju]

we all love a good vinegar bath

[@dominicdemarinis8467]

what kind of tower case are you using for the A2000, and what did you use for the back plate?

[@CRG]

It's a deepcool ck500 case. Bear in mind though that my 2000 is a modern remake in an eatx form factor so all the io is laid out for the typical io slot of a modern oc case.

[@miked4377]

good one....gary surprised me as well.....

[@envoycdx]

Never have I heard my name uttered so much in one video.. 😁

[@MrFixiit]

lol glen absolutely coved in the remains of gary at the end there nice attempt. :D

[@CRG]

Lol yeah, I did my best to dust it off but it was everywhere.

[@bartekantoniewicz5005]

hi, I have amiga 500 chicken lips unfortunatly i have problem with floppy disc station i have change it and its still the same doesn't want to read disc. There is hand with the floppy disc but it doesn't want to read. Can u tell what can be wrong ?

[@CRG]

The floppy drives are known to suffer bad capacitors so a simple recap might solve your problem.

[@bartekantoniewicz5005]

if change floppy disc station from that broke amiga to good one and it works so its not the floppy disc station. Like something would be with the mother bord. I have alsow change Gary and its the same hand with disc and nothing, station dosn't want to work. do u have some idea what can this be ?

[@bartekantoniewicz5005]

do u have fb or email ? I have fotos of broken one and good one this is rev 3 but there are some diffrents

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

Yeah with corrosion "behind the legs" it's likely seeped inside by capillary action. Then gets vaporised again by operating heat and can advance to the silicon.

[@CRG]

Sounds plausible. At least this chip is easily replaced although perhaps if I had cleaned it better in the first instance it'd still be going 🤔

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

@@CRG nah good work that machine was a battery massacre😭

[@2009numan]

there isn't a bettery anywhere near the agnus chip

[@larsenmats]

What a relief that it was not the overpriced 8375 that was at fault 😊

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

Eventually the supply of the CustomChips will run out as people scavenge them for repairing their Amigas. The winning question is: how far along is the community with reverse engineering these and providing FPGA CustomChip replacements, like ARMSID has been done for the C=64 SID?

[@CRG]

There is apparently a new version of Gary available over on A1K.org. One thing I'd love to see is a new version of AGNUS so we could all have the 2MB chip ram at a reasonable price!

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@CRG isn't a revision 8A motherboard required for that as well?

[@CRG]

@@AnnatarTheMaia good point the 8375 is not pin compatible with the earlier boards.

[@Jkauppa]

freedom! :)

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

We need a replacement for Gary.

[@cackoocacho1629]

15:34 Sounds like some old C64 sounds effects or something. lmao