ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2019Entry 7th January 2019: Post 02: A1200 - "We can do this!"A1200 - "We can do this!" I had intended doing some disk salvaging today to have some fun and games with DiskSalv. However I got ever so slightly distracted at first rummaging through a stock pile of old external floppy drives. And then worse ( or should that be better ) I found this very sad and somewhat bedraggled Amiga 1200 with no hope written all over her. Sadly who ever owned her in a previous life had brutally written in magic marker comments all over the port face. There was inky black to the main cover but that was removed. The computer has a differing base to the top which is a dead ringer for a tower install. The motherboard gives further indication of tower mods, including the removal of pin 1 to enable certain 3.5" drives like the Connor. I knew the computer didn't work. The keyboard was unresponsive, there was no floppy drive or hard. It was questionable whether a hard drive would even work and I wasn't even sure about mouse action. I had made the comment previously that I should at least be able to play a game like Arcade Snooker on mouse. So that became the challenge. To play Arcade Snooker... with the additional quest to install a hard drive. First up I took the computer apart and noted not only the missing top shielding, but also the lower tray and clear plastic liner. She also had no floppy drive or any cables, internal power lines and or LED connectors for lights. So first up I checked over the keyboard. I do not dismantle and dish-wash I clean with paper and cotton buds. Very gently, removing all the dust bunnies from below the keys. I then checked the connector etc. A quick scan of the motherboard top and bottom as I recorded everything did not reveal any great issues. There were a few mods to the mobo though these I had seen before. There was a piece of Velcro on the motherboard which kept in place probably a Power Flyer. The clock port pins had been laid flat to take the board. There was also a tacky substance on the back by the connector which was tape I guess to shield an accelerator. I had a go with one internal drive and then another. This drive clicked and fired up but needs a lot more work to get ready. I found three of the external drives that I salvaged not to work but the fourth one did so the computer was fine. I did struggle finding a suitable floppy ribbon for a while, plus power connector. I reconnected the LED lights though need to solder one of the wires. I then connected additional cables for a 3.5" drive. I used an old Win95 drive and that fired up no problem when I powered the A1200. So we had activity on the screen but sadly I was not able to get any keyboard activity what so ever... well not totally true as the green caps light blinked and was on until I activated mouse control to call for keyboard usage i.e. change name of new drawer. The computer booted off the hard drive and used the external floppy albeit the internal floppy is active and clicking. The mouse works no problem. So I dragged the Arcade Snooker game to the hard drive and fired it up.... And played Arcade Snooker. That was the task. So having achieved what I set out to do I named the machine LUX after my character in League of Legends... and then I had lunch. She's working just need to sort out the keyboard. May sound odd but my tower has a keyboard adaptor for an A2000 keyboard and I am wondering if the board hasn't been hacked. I need to check. Anyway she's fine, and technically a working Amiga.... ish. She is back on the bench for tomorrow. Let's go round again !! A1200 - "We can do this!"
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Last updated 7th January 2019
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