Amiga 600 Capacitor Replacement plus Bonus Mistakes!

Today I share my adventures recapping an Amiga 600. Not the easiest vintage computer maintenance job going, but a fun time was had. A few mistakes along the way to keep things interesting too.
This Amiga came to me from Paul Universal Retro Boss ( / underwulde123 ) with a black screen at boot.
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[@Mind-your-own-beeswax]

I have 2 600s and a 1200. One of the 600s was non functional and I had it recapped while it was being repaired. Turned out to be bad ram chips. The guy who re-aired it said the stink of electrolyte from the caps was brutal. So the majority of SMDs were indeed leaking.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

SMD soldering without hot air and liberal use of flux is really hard!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Flux is the key!

[@WinrichNaujoks]

To remove the caps near the keyboard connector I removed the audio sockets (which isn't difficult) and then applied the snipping method for the caps, which worked fine. I installed ceramic caps instead of the electrolytic, and for me that worked fine and gives you plenty of space to work with (though apparently the ceramic caps don't work for everybody).

[@TechMadeEasyUK]

I’m glad you faffed as much as I did with my A600 a while back. Worst board I’ve ever had to work on

[@TechMadeEasyUK]

@@martinobrien I got mine working (with Lee’s help) but it was an absolute faff. Quite a few of the caps had dissolved their pads so lots of bodge wire involved

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

It was in pretty good condition so not too many dramas. Cant wait to look inside the 1200 I have waiting here. Hope its really bad 🤣

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Yeah. Get it open and have a quick look at the pads on the caps, if they are very dull it would be a good idea to get it looked at as soon as you can.

[@josteinkallevik]

The trick is to remove the audio connectors not the keyboard connector to replace the C334 C324. And on the keyboard connector just remove the locking clip on top and tape the remaining part of the connector with captontape. Then you have the space needed to get the caps out and new in place.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Nice work mate, and taking off components around the leaky caps is annoying but no doubt good thing in the long run. Thanks for the shoutout, I foresee some more "passionate" comments for that video 😅

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Cheers Mark! I will make sure my next comment on your video is Passionate!

[@mart1nandersson]

A pro tip is to put new solder and flux on the pads after removing the leaky caps. Use this to clean the pads by moving the iron tip back and forth (without lifting the pad). Use solder wick to remove the solder. Then install the new caps. This will make it a lasting repair as it will burn off a lot of the leaked electrolyte. The alternative is to use an ultrasonic. Not doing this will allow the corrosion to progress.

[@squidjam]

I truly believe this could be something related to where the electronics where made and when. Also, I would add the GameGear to the list of "yes, change caps"

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

That could be part of it. Someone else just pointed out that the SMD caps would be going through the wave soldering machine along with all the other SMD components, exposing them to a short burst of extreme heat which could explain why the gasket gives up. And yes, why did I forget the Gamegear!

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@MoreFunMakingIt Strongly doubt that would make a difference though since the smd caps should stand up to oven soldering which would probably cause more thermal stress.

[@jimmyhillgren7479]

Quite alot easier with tweezer soldering iron. Though one cap was quite hard since one leg is on the ground plane so it requires lots of heat. That one is better to add more solder and hot air for.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

The through-hole caps in the CD-ROM drive on a Commodore CDTV will definitely go bad. And after watching both RMC and Chris Edwards Restoration struggle mightily to replace those caps since they're at the very bottom of the machine under a mass of circuit boards and connectors, I think my CD-ROM drive is going to stay non-functional. The rest of the machine works perfectly fine.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Yeah, that doesnt sound like any kind of fun at all!

[@86Ivar]

How much should i pay for an original non-recapped a600 hd?

[@BigBadBench]

How could anyone ever leave an angry comment on one of your videos?

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Nature always finds a way :D

[@Boris_Amiga1200]

Oh nice work, seen someone like you removing smd caps, its a nice way, but not easy too! This video is helpful, so thank you for showing it! 👍

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

You're welcome!

[@TheGunnarRoxen]

I like watching videos like yours because as much as I love retro computing I don't have the skill to maintain these aging machines and already have too many obsessive hobbies 😂 I still like watching and learning though.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Happy to burn my fingers for your entertainment 😁

[@Retrocatone]

Few another ones plague by smd crap from the 90’s are sega game consoles and accessories , particularly the Game Gear who can get both battery leakage and caps leakage. For smd caps, they were already crap brand new as sega cheap out on so many thing during this period

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Oh yes! Ive recapped a few Game Gears and the carnage those terrible caps cause is very upsetting.

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

I’ve just found my A600 which I’d left at my Brother’s in the late 90’s and it’s in a poor state of repair, No PSU or Floppy, Ordered a PSU and it came on for about 10 minutes and then I got the dreaded BSOD, Did some research and ended up removing the Capacitor near NE555 and it then sprung to Life, I’ve modded a Samsung PC Floppy Drive which can now read my old Amiga Floppies for the most part & I’ve ordered a set of replacement Capacitors although I’m not sure if my Soldering skills are up to the Task, I have bought a New Soldering Iron so will have 2 to use so thanks for that but I’ve only got one stand! 😂

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Good luck! They are a tricky thing to recap. Go slowly and stop if you feel things getting out of hand. Also, dont bother changing the through hole caps. They will almost certainly be perfectly fine and are actually really easy to lift a pad.

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

@@MoreFunMakingIt I appreciate the info & thanks for that, I’m going to try & find a scrap board to experiment with before I attempt to recap the Amiga and I will leave the through-hole Caps as you suggested as they all seem ok! 👍

[@Zhixalom]

Those two caps between the RCAs and the keyboard connector, why-oh-why couldn't Commodore have place them somewhere else or at least turned them 90°, right? - Yeah, it's not ideal, but do you think anyone will be able to hear the difference? - Otherwise some very nice dual wielding skills there, Lee! 👍- I have two soldering irons, don't know why I'd never thought of that. BTW, I use PATA/IDE-to-SATA adaptors now, with a "small" 120GB HDD or SSD and the PFS3 filesystem (to break the 4GB barrier). Yeah, maybe a bit overkill, but much cheaper and more reliable than those horrid old CompactFlash cards, which themselves are beginning to go extinct. Those tiny 44pin PATA/IDE-to-SATA adaptors go for peanuts on AliExpress, and then I make the ribbon-cables myself (to the correct length).

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Looking into these hard drive adapters now...

[@Zhixalom]

@@MoreFunMakingItJust sent you a link to them on your Discord 😉

[@Nukle0n]

Far as I've heard which sounds plausible, is that these SMD caps would've been dipped along with the rest of the PCB in hot solder during the wave soldering process used here, and as it turns out, this drastically reduces their expected lifespan, as the quick temperature shock degrades the gasket inside. Meanwhile the through-hole capacitors would've been fitted by hand afterwards which is why they're totally fine.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

That actually makes total sense. I believe you are right!

[@jaycee1980]

They aren't dipped, but they do go through a reflow oven which heats things up significantly. It's believed that this started a process which cases the seal to break down with time, hence why they leak. The cheap caps were worse than the good quality ones - but they do still leak. modern SMD electrolytics have solved that problem thankfully!

[@Nukle0n]

That's not how wave soldering works, which is likely the process used here.

[@jaycee1980]

@@Nukle0n The top side of the board is NOT wave soldered, the bottom may be

[@paszTube]

Which filament did you use for the gotek bracket? I want to print a replacement zorro cover for my amiga 500, not sure which filament comes close to beige.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

There's a wide range of case colours so recommending a filament is a bit tricky. The one I used is esun AC-Bone White

[@paszTube]

@@MoreFunMakingIt thanks! I think the A600/A1200 cases are a little bit paler than the A500 case. Will get the bone white

[@primokarmasilver]

My opinion is that I do everything is right and you're wrong

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Even that opinion is wrong! And that's not even how you spell onion!

[@rossbennett5069]

Another cracking vid. SMD caps are the worst. I have a personal cassette player I need to recap and it’s full of em 😢

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

I love them! Find them much more interesting to do than the usual through hole ones!

[@ChuckyGang]

noproblem with SMD caps. the caps commodore used however...

[@SonicBoone56]

A lot of later Macs have crap capacitors.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

So I've heard! Terrible to think they're dissolving in their own juice

Another great video. I didn't have any Amiga 600 my self, but I remember it as a smaller version of the Amiga 500 and I disliked it for some reason. Leaking caps was a huge problems on many PC main-board at some time, mostly because of cheap components. My first Amiga 500, had a odd problem that it when it was started up, it went on for some about 10 minutes and then rebooted and after that reboot it just run OK. I guess that it was some kind of fault on some soldering, but I learnt to live with it and sold it after I got an Amiga 2000B to replace it with. The only problem I had with my Amiga 2000 was when I was cleaning the monitor from some dust, and when I did that I had one hand on the keyboard and that electric charge from the monitor went through me into the keyboard and blowed one of the IO chip inside the Amiga 2000B. That was just before Christmas and I can tell that it pretty much ruined my Christmas because there where no where I could get a new keyboard and new IO chip to replace those that got toasted. Guess that was a common problem. After that I have always had more than one computer...

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Poor A2000!

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Nicely done and said about the capacitors! Thanks for sharing your great insight!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Cheers Rudy! 😄

[@ChuckyGang]

Thank you for not twisting/cutting of the caps.. I would however recomend hot tweezers or hotair (SMALL nozzle) so it does not damage plastics. and yeah. removing compoents around the caps and do cleanup is more or less mandatory as otherwise the leakage will contiunue killing the machine.