ScuzzBlog: Diaries September 2026
Entry 29th September 2026: Post 1: Amiga 1200 GVP Turbo - Good days bad days.
Amiga 1200 GVP Turbo - Good days bad days.
Bad days should always make you appreciate the good ones. I've had
a couple of bad days and I'm struggling to take anything positive
from it. Kinda makes me wanna avoid the kit for fear of further
problems. Gets like that sometimes.
My current woes started with a quite innocent issue with my main
Amiga in here that I use for ADF creation. The machine started to
throw up intermittent issues not recognising disks. This is a
problem cus I use the A1200 for creating ADF images of disks and
then transferring to the ZIP drive.
The machine that did use to carry out this duty was sitting just
to the side as I had brought her up from the Workshop over the
winter season.
I decided to have a look at the floppy drive and so moved the
previous A1200 into the spot. She was already set up with the Surf
Squirrel software.
First problem was I couldn't insert the Surf Squirrel. I decided
not to tax matters and take the machine to the bench to have a
look. Next problem was that the machine hung on boot. I put this
down to an archaic 2.5 inch drive that was over 32 years old and
well worn out. I didn't want to create further problems so I then
transferred yet another A1200 from the main room up here with the
Typhoon accelerator. She worked just fine and also had the Surf
Squirrel software and connected to the ZIP no problem. By now I
had burnt the best of the day and decided to regroup today.
When looking into the PCMCIA slot of the Amiga that I could not
fit the Surf Squirrel, I discovered a bent pin. Right in the very
middle of the interface. I have been plugging in and out PCMCIA
cards for over 30 years and never like ever had this problem. You
would be hard pushed to insert a card incorrectly.
I got a small flat headed screwdriver and eased the pin back into
the vertical. Still scratching my head over that one.
Next I opened the A1200 and tried gently tapping the hard drive to
see if I could get it running. The odd thing was that the drive
was actually spinning and fired up at boot but then died. It was
then that I suspected other issues. I checked the accelerator which
was warm to the touch, though the RAM SIMM modules were cold.
I decided to pull the card and like magic the hard drive powered up
and booted into the Workbench. I thought it may be the RAM though
checking the manual there seemed to be no way of disabling the RAM
save by removing the modules.
Nothing for it but to remove the memory. Sadly nothing changed.
Later on I did see from the pics that the simm wasn't seated properly
but having reseated the module nothing changed. And so the A1200
was a right off. With a dicky PCMCIA slot and no memory I was not
able to use the computer for creating ADF images. She could no
longer do the job. Chances of me finding another accelerator of the
old skool type is pretty remote. So she has been deactivated from
active duties.
As to the GVP it is again another very sad day. I purchased the
accelerator over 30 years ago from Silica in Southampton. She has
been a magic companion over the years and still maintained her
clock with the correct time. Knocked me about a bit. Difficult to
see any positives today so I may just abandon retro and become a
pirate or astronaut or not. Who am I kidding ?
I have to approach this other A1200 tomorrow and attempt a floppy
deep clean. I do not feel confident. Deep breath... Onward.
PS I did ask the Google Ai what to do with the GVP and it suggested
sticking a jumper on No 4 until I pointed out the manual quite
clearly forbids putting a jumper on No 4. Google came back with a
spot on you are so right, don't do that. My fault for talking to
myself. As to what is wrong with the card, I haven't the slightest.
I don't do electrical engineering... that's hard.
Amiga 1200 GVP Turbo - Good days bad days.
|
