Commodore Amiga 600 Therapy - Recap, upgrades and more

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you for watching, you can find part 1 of this series here kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJfWh3mdadCGrMk and I hope you'll join me in part 3, coming soon! If you enjoy what I do and would like to help me hit the incredible milestone of 1000 patrons supporting The Cave then head on over to patreon.com/rmcretro - We're so close now! Thank you - Neil - RMC

[@srfrg9707]

On the A600 it's important to deoxyde the audio connectors because commodore used the "cut-off when inserted" feature to switch to mono sound if the right channel is connected and nothing is connected to the left one. This is acheived by mixing the two channels when there is nothing inserted in the left channel. So it's a common failure to have a degraded sound quality because of dirt and oxydation in the connectors. Sometimes you even have to bend back the pins in the connectors to restore enough contact to make everything work as intended.

[@lexluthermiester]

Honestly? The A600 seems like a winning little system, especially with the upgrades. Looking forward to the next episode! Cheers!

[@raggersragnarsson7994]

This is excellent as always Neil and it has inspired me to plan to enrol to my local college to do an electronics course asap. I studied it briefly in 1988 as part of an IT course at the time , so it was a long time ago. I have both an old Amiga 500+ and Spectrum 48K that I would love to repair and reuse. Especially for all those 100s of classic games that I have stored away.

[@SirSmilie]

this has to be one of the coziest, relaxing, retro channels on all of youtube. love it!

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you!

[@BertGrink]

Verily, I do declare, Neil has the most soothing voice I've ever come across; should he ever take up narrating audio books, I would probably become attracted to that medium.

[@Otakunopodcast]

5:34 "And to remove the surface mount capacitors, we just use a pair of pliers." _Adrian Black has entered the chat_

[@cleetusmacfarland9453]

not sure what would happen there with 220v, but here after removing old caps we hook them to the end of a long wire run out the window then plug the other end in to 110v, to keep the kids entertained you know

[@pedazodeboludo]

"Our Amiga is now silent... even in this state, it is alleged that it sounds better than an Atari ST." True, true... not being a hater or anything.

[@richpickings2845]

The speeded up de-soldering gun sounds like a Lemming. 😁

[@XGreenThumb]

You are getting old :D (like me)

[@larsmuldjord9907]

My thoughts exactly :D

[@MOS6582]

It’s uncanny

[@thromboid]

​@@XGreenThumbCame here to make the same remark!

[@naviamiga]

Something so relaxing about watching old tech being repaired.

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Neil in 2020: "Don't ever be shy with the flux." Neil and Mark in 2021 are introduced to the CD32 FMV module.

[@TechTimeWithEric]

Here's one for your next reading comments video. Your voice is so calming. I just had surgery yesterday, and this video is so relaxing.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you, if you need more things to keep you busy while recovering then give the podcast a try! Take it easy and I hope you have a swift recovery - anchor.fm/thisweekinretro/episodes/TWiR-Episode-16---Video-Games-Make-Lots-of-Money--The-Super-Famicom-Turns-30--Capcom-Mini-Arcade--Codemasters-sells-to-Take-Two-en0ctm

[@BertGrink]

Eric, may you have a speedy and full recovery; best wishes from Denmark

[@ScottsGameAsylum]

Aww, Neil, your tip is an adequate size my friend lol.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Scott. As the expert on such matters it means a lot having your approval 😬

[@tristramcox4615]

Apparently it's all about technique

[@MrPGT]

As an Atari ST user, I don't have that problem. It is quite often found to be the case with Amiga users, however. :p

[@mac_thor]

The quit feature in WHDLoad requires an 68010 or better model. It depends on a CPU feature not present in a stock 68000. www.whdload.de/docs/en/need.html

[@christopherbaar4498]

Was going to mention this, but you beat me to it.

[@gregdunlap7538]

The quit key works on a 68000 with some games, but apparently not this one!

[@larsmuldjord9907]

2:36 How they made the Lemmings dying sound finally revealed! A sped up soldering gun! :D

[@fstasel]

That's what I thought. :)

[@luobomu9747]

It was just about to write the same thing!

[@metalheadmalta]

As somebody working in industrial electronics for 30 years now, could I offer you some pointers? The solder does not go on the soldering gun. You heat the pad with the gun, and you apply solder to the pad... and most importantly, you do not, EVER, BUTTER the solder. Let it flow onto the pad. It will settle and the solder mask will square it up. SMD components really are easy to work with, you just need a good pair of tweezers. Eventually, good job!!!

[@MattyStoked]

I feel like I could watch hours of chill soldering and desoldering. I always liked the A600 for its form factor (and the incredibly subjective fact that it was the machine I had access to). Fantastic video mate.

[@David_Phantom]

I wonder if the CPU in the PSU screen is more powerful than the Amiga it's powering?

[@fernandobernardo6324]

Most likely

[@a120068020]

I have never removed the kbd connector and audio ports like that for a recap. I surround the parts in Polyimide Kapton Tape and use a small 12w iron. But I am impressed with your approach to ensure you can recap with more space.

[@bruwin]

On the pad that looked dull when you removed the cap, that's because the solder wasn't entirely molten when that cap came off. Pads can look exactly like that when you use the grab and twist method of cap removal.

[@bobbobson4069]

What patience! Massively informative! Another wonderful video by RMC. This is professionally produced, on a par with expensive commercial TV programmes. RMC is a KZbin gem. I particularly appreciate the voice over and clear camera shots of the small motherboard. Also, thanks for the name change - no doubt both men and women are watching this channel. Keep up the excellent work! Marius

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Bob I'm glad you're enjoying it because I'm really enjoying working on this one. Thank you for the kind words

[@adriangibbons893]

Neil, you are fantastic to watch, you really do seem like the sort of person I would like to know irl. That’s the highest compliment I could give you. Keep it up my friend I love what you do.

[@RMCRetro]

That's really kind thank you so much, and I love what I do too and am very privileged to be able to share it with you all. Thank you.

[@jonh404]

I know right, he says RMC doesn't do drama, and it's true, this channel is so soothing.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Jon

[@cuttingedgeretro9164]

It's great to see old computers up and running well again :)

[@RebornGalaxy]

I can't stop watching your videos man, too many interesting stuff

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying them

[@adamkovac90]

I know next to nothing about soldering but watching you do this is just so therapeutic and calming.

[@TurboLazer007]

Your videos are so THERAPEUTIC, just pure pleasure to watch and to listen to, it really helps me in my life. Thank you for this dear sir

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you, that's really nice to hear and I'm glad I can help in some small way

[@JenniferinIllinois]

I just finished part 1 and now I get to watch part 2. I'm finally caught up and get to watch current RMC restorations. :)

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Great video again Neil. You're beginning to soften my bitterness towards this wedge of cheese. Awesome production as always, you never fail to inspire us infant channels.

[@Superhotfire846]

Neil, what you had going on with the strange reflection on the solder under your cap was evidence of the joint not fully reflowing before removal of the cap. Effectively the solder had only melted at the point of contact with the lead. This leaves an imprint of the lead on top of the solder causing this strange reflection. I'm pleased to see you wicking and replacing all of the solder, so many repair techs just reflow the old solder onto new components, not best practice. Get yourself a good set of tweezers though. Oh, and some no clean flux gel too.

[@raggersragnarsson7994]

My favorite channel. I could watch RMC all day long. Absolutely love everything about Neil and the content he produces. I wish the cave was a hotel and you could stay for days to enjoy all the retro memories once again! Great job! I wish I had the time and experience to carry out such tasks, albeit Istill retain some of the old IT knowledge for working machines at least thankfully.

[@CTFC-GERMANY]

i was so happy to see you switching on this lady and it .... works! Very nice job! I like your videos doing stuff like this. i had learned alot! Thank you very much for sharing this!!!!!! really nice!!!!! :)

[@RMCRetro]

You are welcome and thank you very much

[@fabiosolazzomusic]

My first Amiga ever, not very loved that years but now it had a revenge after the Vampire upgrade!

[@DepModMuffin]

The cut to Mark had me in stitches, mein Gott.

[@RMCRetro]

Poor Mark

[@ChEd1980]

Great episode! I enjoyed that. I spotted your ROM version and winced a bit when I saw 37.299! Luckily for me my rev 1.5 A600 came with 37.300 that does support IDE! I have it running a WB 2.05 HDD install on a compact flash card and it has a 4MB Fast RAM expansion and does WHDLoad nicely. Some games, that don't require the print screen key on the numeric keypad it doesn't have, will exit back to workbench if the author of the WHDLoad slave has altered the game to allow it to work on a 68000, apparently it needs an 020 or newer to guarantee that you can exit to WB from the game using the key. On my system quite a few games will let me exit to WB whilst others need a quick Ctrl amiga amiga :) My system boots WB pretty quick so im not waiting very long.

[@Phoenix_1982_MD]

It's just like you read my mind, I just recapped my old Amiga 600 a few days ago... Not so elegant and I used most ceramics, but hey it still works and it was really about time, electrolyte isn't forgiving... Thanks for this great video Neil, it was a real pleasure. Greetings from Germany, stay healthy!

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you, greetings to Germany and I hope you're keeping well yourself!

[@SullySadface]

That shielding made noises that hurt my teeth Cannon Fodder made noise that warmed my heart ♥

[@telemedic2000]

Absolutely loved this! Moo gun! It’s not just me that thinks this! This captured my approaches, feelings and luck (monitor switches) to the tee. Abs as I said, I had the same rom issues. Very amusing, and as always very informative. Looking forward to part three. You smashed this, Neil ;)

[@performa9523]

Beautiful piano playing sir! I didn't think Thanksgiving day here could get much better, but an Amiga recap? Oh that is sublime- rock most awesomely on!

[@williammanganaro9070]

Very nice work and chat. I also own one of those power supplies with the OLED status and I really like it. Very compact and works perfectly.

[@PaulinesPastimes]

Really good series so far. Beautiful, meticulous re-capping job. Looking forward to part 3. Cheers

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Pauline

[@loganjorgensen]

"Why you!" fist shaking, nah the ST struggled with sound. ;) Hah, soiling your own bed, great way to describe bad caps. Very cute power supply. You made Mark so sad, for shame, he even brought his Commodore Super Scope and everything. :(

[@RMCRetro]

Poor Mark :( - I promise he will be happier in part 3

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

There's no stopping the almighty AMIGA

[@tommyovesen]

Nice video. In my Amiga 600 restoration-video I replaced those caps near the audio jacks without removing any other components. It was fiddly, but no problem.

[@linuxretrogamer]

I remember my A600 coming with the 2.04 Kickstart ROM. Had jump the Tube to buy a 2.05 when I installed its HDD.

[@stevenrhodes6362]

I never knew until watching these first 2 episodes that the A600 had such a bad reputation. Unlike kids today, back in the 90's it was a case of you got what you were given. I received an A600 one Christmas (can't remember the year) as an upgrade from my Spectrum 128k. I was blown away and that A600 has so many amazing memories from my childhood.

[@MQsto]

Your piano playing has seriously improved since the Yamaha Music Computer -video.

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Mikko :D

[@thisnthat3530]

Nice, 10.5MB. The maximum possible RAM in an amiga without a 68020 or better CPU. 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast, 1.5MB 'Slow' (but actually fast in this case). I like that the CPU RAM expansion actually uses the 1.5MB space at C00000 in addition to the 8MB space at 200000.

[@BigTedsBoogieBox]

The new model A600 with its dodgy capacitors was like the "R5-D4" compared to the old reliable A500 "R2-D2". I got my A1200 out of the attic about a month ago, after maybe 17 years, and it worked fine, even the floppy disks still read ok after all that time in the attic.

[@RetroGadgetMan]

Very informative video, this and Jan betas video has given me abit more insight and confidence into doing this one day to my Amiga 600 that I just bought.

[@RMCRetro]

Great to hear, we love Jan he's a very talented chap

[@CompuforceWally]

Hi Neil kudos for this video! Another tip for using WHDload on an A600 is to modify the WHDLoad quit key, since some of the keys are on the numeric keypad [example the asterisk *, etc]...hence I set it to use one blank key the [master quit key] for all games :)

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you, yes someone told me to map $30 for quit using the blank key, I had it mapped to F10 - I really like this idea, great tip

[@Colin_Ames]

Nice work, as always. Although I have replaced lots of components over the years, I have never done surface mount capacitors, so your video is very useful. Looking forward to part three, when I am sure you will declare your new found love for this Amiga!

[@jameslewis2635]

One trick that I have seen where it comes to removing surface mounted capacitors is to simply rotate them with a pair of long nose pliers. This will essentially pull the legs away from the pads horizontally so that the legs or solder gives way while the pads stay in place. At that point a bit of soldering iron + solder braid action and you would be ready to install the new caps. I think I got this from Adrian's Digital Basement.

[@cheaterman49]

6:37 I was actually going to comment on that :-) it's hard enough to desolder stuff (although admittedly SMD is easier), you're also doing a great job at making sure we see the action very well :-)

[@Evert850]

As i was waiting for my 4mb fastram expansion to arrive i couldnt resist trying out some Whdload games and i found a way to do that. Tinylauncher has a feature called RAD wich when turned on will reboot the Amiga and launch the game before anything else is loaded into memory. I got quite a few games to launch that way :)

[@rich1351]

cannon fodder ran fine on my a600 which had no extra ram, or is that just through whdload

[@ianhrp]

Yet again trip down memory Lane and when you loaded Cannon Fodder I let out a little yay! Loved that game.

[@poshpaul55]

love your videos and just getting A600 off ebay Keep up the good work

[@thomashobbs7066]

I'm hoping you are going to make me love my A600. I bought it a few years ago for £50 as my first real "retro" computer and I've never been to sold on it...

[@Pathos312]

new follower, came from LGR. Great channel and content.

[@SomeGuyInBrisVegas]

Hi Neil, I received my copy of Retro Tea Breaks Vol 1. Great stuff. Keep up the good work. :-)

[@RMCRetro]

Excellent thank you so much for backing it Mike

[@FatNorthernBigot]

That de-soldering is so much fun to watch.

[@donpalmera]

You should shield the metal cans in the modulator section. If you get those hot they fail and the video output will be lost. And you can't get those components anymore and you end up needing to replace the video encoder with a different one that doesn't need them to get it back.

[@mozamboni]

14:54 - GIVE IT WELLY!

[@GameOver556]

Had a A600 back in the days with 80MB harddrive and 1MB ekstra chipmem. Love the formfactor. Think it look cool and modern even today

[@erinwiebe7026]

I've completed a handful of surface recaps like these and I would be thrilled if any one of them turned out as clean as your A600. I need to practice more and perhaps invest in a desoldering iron too!

[@shelby3822]

"will there be magic smoke" Proceeds to hover melon immediately above micro

[@mountainbearoutdoors]

I literally just stroked my screen where your avatar is thinking I had a stray hair on my laptop.

[@MobCat_]

Thank you for a decent walk though on replacing caps. To many people do more harm than good ripping them of the board or ripping up pads because there not patient enough. it takes time and a lot of practice. The only thing I would add is after you slide your cap into your solder puddle, solder the other side then come back to your first side and give it a little reheat to make sure that both the cap lead and the pad had the same amount of heat to solder together and you don't end up with any cold solder joints where the cap lead is under the solder puddle but not soldered to it. But over all this is quite good __

[@rikpeol3612]

The unloved stepdaughter, with today's possibilities, can be the first Amiga choice. I liked this machine from the start.. (Yes... no AGA without Vampire-Hardware) :-)

[@bennyturbo]

Small tip for whdload quit key: on your amiga with UK keyboard (like mine) you have a couple of blank keys. I mapped the default quit key to one of them so I never quit a game by mistake. To do this, go to S: and edit the whdload.prefs file, adding the line "QuitKey=$30". This will let you use the blank key beside your shift key. Since you have a 68000 most of the time it won't work, unless who packaged the game has setup special code in the slave. If you get a furia with 68020 it will work on every game. The 600 is my favourite machine.

[@RMCRetro]

That's a good idea thank you. I'm having good results with quitting so far now I have it all setup, I'd say about 90% of games quit OK which is far higher than I was expecting. I'm off to change the quit key now!

[@darkestlost]

15:40 best part of the entire video hand's down.

[@RMCRetro]

Look at his unhappy face :(

[@darkestlost]

@@RMCRetro poor thing you need to fix this in the next episode with Games!

[@spinbizzy8421]

Such a beautiful job on the caps.

[@cheaterman49]

14:29 That's actually a really good point, aren't the belts supposed to decompose into goo on these? Even though you're lucky enough that it works right now, it could still be a good idea (and a relatively cheap one) to replace the belt(s)?

[@DanielP0906]

Think you're confusing this with Amstrad drives...

[@cheaterman49]

@@DanielP0906 Possibly :-) I simply thought all belts from the era could exhibit the issue?

[@Zeem4]

A free fix for the broken switch in that Philips monitor is to just bypass it, by soldering the wires to the terminals on one side of the switch. You can then switch it off by pulling the plug out. I've done this with several Philips monitors, colour and monochrome.

[@TPau65]

That touchscreen power supply made my day, never seen something like this before! 😂

[@MorganJustGames]

Brilliant episode Neil. Your doing a fabulous job with your A600. Wish i had your soldering skills, but i am learning a thing or two here and there. Great Turrican 3 Box. I got one of those also. Got it this year, and it is my most expensive Amiga Box i own now. Cannon Fodder another classic. Im already looking forward to episode 3. I am certain your gonna be pleased with the A600 in the end. A quick question if you get time to answer. Where did you get your display stands from? Those clear Stands which hold your Consoles/Keyboards on? Anyway thanks for the video, really enjoyed it.

[@RMCRetro]

I'll drop you a DM on the socials Jamie with some details

[@CutieHoney]

Could be wrong, but I think it was the 2.04 ROM that enabled HD boot.

[@geezerdiamond]

As soon as I saw the Kickstart screen, I remembered the lack of IDE support from my original, something I sorted back in the day by upgrading to 2.05 ROMs

[@oldstylegaming]

Enjoyed that your videos are so therapeutic..... although you do remind me of Dexter when you put your gloves on :-)

[@Zentauri77]

I believe you need a 68010 or later prozessor for the quit key in whd load to work. But many .slave-files are being rewritten to work on a plain 68000 too iirc.

[@Zankuho]

Recap on the re-cap :D

[@sierraboney1394]

Nice video! I have an A500 and an A1200 up in the loft, last got the A1200 out a few years ago. Had no picture via the rf out, had to use the A500 modulator in the RGB socket. I'd like to think it's just dodgy caps causing the lack of rf out, but it's probably something else. Not that it matters much if I decide to use it with a monitor or scart lead. It'd be nice to get the WHDLoad setup going in it and maybe a few other upgrades like memory and stuff. Be good to do both the A500 and A1200 actually, got a nice number of ex-broadcast monitors to set them and my other stuff up on eventually! Pretty sure the Philips CM8833 MkII had the switch problem as well. I have an Archimedes monitor (like they used on the A3000) as well that had that problem but I think it must've been a rebadged Philips.

[@numberg8238]

I've found it to be expedient for the occasional leg that tacks back on to the side of the pad to just have a set of those fat/wider tweezers on hand saves a bit of time. You can either physically pull the pin off the side but with those fat tweezers it's often enough to position them between the pins and turn them so that the mechanical action separates the pin from the edge of the pad/hole. Obviously only for pins that are just slightly tacked on, don't do this if there is a lot of solder on there or you might damage the pad. Just my 2 cents. It does save a bit of time EDIT: Tweezers as wide as a flathead screwdiver

[@gamedoutgamer]

The 600 is a good machine nowadays considering it has the 2mb Agnus, right? As far as your (de)soldering work, I believe it is a good idea to not work right next to the last desolder point so that the heat doesn't build up too much in that location. The floppy drive has electrolytic capacitors as well. I noticed how careful you were to not remove pads, traces and barrels. Great job with the video I enjoyed it. Cheers.

[@attilaracz2034]

Great video. Amiga still rulez!!

[@Fularu]

I'm not yet done with the video but since you didn't protect the IDE connector, the black plastic melted a little bit. Easy to replace though so no big deal!

[@rokero171]

A "tip", for larger ground planes my way of desoldering is with a manual desolder pump and a soldering tip with more mass, like a knife tip you can do it really fast, actually I rarely use my 808 to desolder since I learned to use a manual desoldering pump, I only use when I have a large IC with a lot of legs to desolder, what is rare for me...

[@richardhunt1557]

Has anybody found a source for larger desoldering tips for the Duratool? It's the one thing that diminishes its usefulness for me.

[@mattsretrochannel]

Excellent video! What temperature did you use on the hot air gun to remove the caps please?

[@stevee6305]

Great video and you may have helped me when it comes to fixing Amiga joysticks - but if not are you able to answer? I have had instances where I'll fit a new microswitch and it will work fine but then stop working and then when re-soldering or using a different microswitch - basically no matter what I use, it won't work. Is that because I have fried the circuit board somehow? I didn't use Flux

[@AE-bm4no]

i can't find any amiga 600's online for sale. were they not common in the U.S.?

[@Viperante]

Ah, I used to play Cannon Fodder on this all the time. I still have the game. Also played Syndicate a lot. And a very difficult adventure game called KGB. I'm remembering a lot more now. :)

[@tooheystechgaming1977]

brilliant work i love the amiga

[@timplays6602]

My biggest fear is damaging the MB or (almost as bad) some other part failing like the keyboard - replacing parts, I noticed, are very expensive if not impossible.

[@mikedavidson1142]

in the video you said that you ordered some smaller tips for the duratool desolder gun can you please post a link as to were you got them from as im struggling a bit to desolder the keyboard connector

[@msthalamus2172]

Had that tiny capacitor actually come off, what technique would you use to reattach it? I managed to knock one off of a Voodoo 3 3000 not long ago and I have no idea how to fix it. I'm not even sure how to tell if it has a significant polarity. The card seems to work fine without it-- I discovered the loose capacitor later. I haven't been able to find a schematic to tell me its function.

[@TzOk]

There was an "A600" with 27.299 ROM, and "A600 HD" with either 27.300 or 27.350 ROM. 27.299 dos not support IDE... but I don't recommend any of the 3 available 2.0 ROMs for A600, go for 3.1 (40.063), or the Cloanto Amiga Forever ROM (45.066).

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Don't forget the Nylon screw and nut to lock that board that you put over the chip.

[@NeilusNihilus]

The Amiga was the British pride and joy. The Megadrive and Snes? The Amiga blew them away.

[@RMCRetro]

That was fighting talk in my playground

[@holleholl3057]

You have to limit the Fast Ram to 4 MB max. or you might get difficulties in accessing the PCMCIA Port... I got the Furia which extends the total Amiga Memory (Chip+FastRam) to 11,5 Megs and there is the Furia Tune Feature (or the keyboard reset combination held for 3 seconds) where you can switch to 4 Megs by software...With the total of 11,5 MB, the machine just doesn´t see the PCMCIA Port as it uses the same adress space as the upper 4-5,5 Megs of the expanded Fast Ram...

[@Evert850]

Strange. I have never had that problem with my Furia 600.

[@holleholl3057]

@@Evert850 They are hinting at this problem on the manufacturer´s website at lotharek.pl, too...

[@waxyeeratty7227]

I have Amiga 600 too! But there're two problems in the Amiga 600, the end of ribbon keyboard that plug in to the motherboard is broken damage and i can't use keyboard anymore and internal floppy drive won't read floppy disk anymore because i clean with alcohol on the reading head... So what should i do with my commodore Amiga 600?... Any help?...

[@dlfrsilver]

anyone noticed that the turrican 3 intro music was broken ? Have you RMC ?

[@RMCRetro]

I have thanks to helpful comments like this one! And it turns out it was the cable and not the machine thankfully. I have it wired into my mixing desk as I record part 3 so you can enjoy both channels

[@dalepowell743]

Neil, what heat temp were you using on your surface mounted caps?

[@RiotRetroGaming]

Once again, great video, but you don't need me to tell you this. Everybody will be on eBay now buying one 😂 I do love the footprint of the old Girl.