#Periodic Monitor Outage
7 messages in this thread
Very recently, my stock Amiga 2000 w A2620 (purhcased 1987 – WB1.3) has been
experiencing periodic monitor black-outs. Sometimes, they are of very short
duration; other times, they last as much as 1/2 hr. So far, they have always
gone away in time. They seem to crop up after the machine has been running a
short while.
I am not sure whether any actions of mine have had anything to do with
breaking it out of its stupor. However, it has sometimes apparently responded
to "SAY" commands triggering the voice synthesizer. And, getting the modem to
send it an OK on an ATZ command may have helped once or twice.
Before I take this in for servicing, I would like to know if anyone can tell
me what is likely to be wrong. If it is a big expense, I shall not be able to
attend to it at once and may have to disappear for a while. This is especially
true if this becomes part of my upgrade to WB2.xx which will feature fat Agnes,
hard drive etc. Anyway, one is naturally curious to know what is dying. Any
clues would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Tom Stevens
Tom,
Is your problem with the monitor or the computer? The monitor going out
sounds more like a broken monitor… The things that sound most likely to
me are
1: Broken monitor- the 1084 series monitors frequently break their solder
joints at the flyback transformer. (Well, that's the most common problem I
see…) This causes the monitor to black out. Sometimes they are heat
sensitive- after the monitor warms up, it breaks & blacks out. When it
cools, it starts up again. It can also be mechanically sensitive- rapping
it makes it come and go…. It's a fairly inexpensive repair.
2: Loose chips – They do work lose sometimes. Frequently, just pressing
down with a thumb on the socketed chips will do the trick. Agnus, Denise
and the ROM would be my first guess..
-Jim
My monitor is a 2080. Is that in the 1084 series. It does seem to be helped by
cooling down (switching it off for a while with or without the computer still
running. Thanks for the hint.
Tom Stevens
A 2080?? Don't think I know that one. There's a 1080 – that came with the
Amiga 1000, in fact it's what I'm using. There was a 2002 for a while.. Or
is this a PAL monitor? In any case, the broken joints at the flyback
problem can occur with any monitor, I've just seen it more times on the
1084's than any others.
Jim
Check the monitor's cables to make sure they have not come loose.
//
\X/ Amiga or bust! Gary Bonnstetter, Bonnsoft
I did that before putting in the message. Thanks for the suggestion.
Tom Stevens
My experience is with Jim's suggestion. I have a 1080 on the closet
shelf that I had a problem with a little over two years ago now. I
proceeded to troubleshoot the dickens out of the thing. I narrowed it
down to a problem with the flyback transformer. After unsoldering the
transformer and removing it to allow resistance checks of the individual
windings, I soldered it back in since I could find no indication of a
fault within the transformer. The monitor worked fine until I replaced it
with a PanaSync a couple months ago. As far as I know, the only reason it
doesn't work now is because I don't have a monitor cable long enough to
reach from the AMI to the top shelf in the closet. 🙂
// daniel on autopilot in paradise
\X/ powered by intel and motorola