Amiga 4000 Restoration to remove the bugs
Welcome back to another project machine that I have been lucky enough to be the custodian of.
This is another machine from the barn find. I have posted about the Amiga 600 a while ago and here is the Amiga 4000.
The future still has an A2000, A1200 and an A500. This was a pretty good sized collection of Amiga items all very dirty and in need of some love.
 |
Oh my where do we start? |
I think this is the most yellowed Amiga I have seen and is the most of any that I own. I currently don't think I am going to do anything about the orange as it is just how she aged and still looks beautiful.
The back looks pretty dirty and if you look closely has a dead bug hanging off the back which is just a sign of things to come...
 |
The back of the poor Amiga |
In the upper slot that is an Emplant card. This allows MacIntosh emulation and has some MacIntosh ports as well. Emplant Amiga Book Hardware
So far I have not tried this card but it is one I do want to try out. I have some fond memories of playing WarCraft II and would like to see if I can make that work. If anyone has a copy that supports the m68k please let me know as I would like to acquire it.
The lower card here is a PAR card that is used for video work. It allows video capture and playback like a VCR among other neat video things.
Another great project to learn about this card is in my future as well.
 |
Next we will open her up and see what is inside! |
I had a little bit of an idea of what to expect inside as my friend Rich picked the collection up for me to ship back to my house.
After he picked things up we did a YouTube video where we opened everything up to take a look at what we could learn prior to shipping.
Check that out here Highshelf Rich
I knew the capacitors and the battery would need attention as they are both known for leakage and this one was no different.
I did see the battery was once replaced to my surprise. Sadly there was still some leakage but I am guessing it could have been a whole lot worse.
I was quite puzzled by why there was so much dirt on the motherboard and what turned out to be a mud dauber nest inside!
 |
Chip Corrosion |
Even though the battery was replaced the chip to the left of it seemed suspect. I have not done much with hot air at this stage so decided to cut the chip legs off and remove it as those chips are still available.
I am glad I did as it was a tad dirty and messed up under there.
 |
Chip Cleanup |
It took a little bit to get that cleaned up and see what pads survived. Luckily most did so I had only a little bit of work to do.
|
Motherboard Cleanup |
She didn't turn out too bad after the cleaning and inclusion of the bodge wires to get the clock circuit working again.
All caps on the motherboard were replaced and even corrected the orientation of the ones on the CPU card.
 |
Fan |
I wanted a little bit of extra airflow within the case as it gets pretty hot in there. I made this bracket to hold a noctua fan around the bend of the expansion riser card and the CPU. I hope this will improve the airflow. Worst case, it makes me feel better...
 |
Re-Assembly |
There are some additional things here.
I replaced the PSU with a SFX ATX power supply and then purchased an adapter for the A4000.
I printed a SFX Bracket for the powersupply.
I then printed a little shelf to so that the 3d printed power button would work as expected and not go all over the place.
I made both the little shelf and power button rod as a quick thing in Tinkercad.
 |
Running |
This was a good amount of work to get her all restored and running. While this is not the same Amiga I had when growing up it is the same model so it has a special happiness to me.
I may think about trying to do something about some of the yellowing but am not sure. This is just how she aged and while she had a bit of a harder life she is still working.
In retrospect I may not have had to replace the power supply. With some further research the A4000 power supply requires a load to work correctly. I didn't know that at the time and never went back to try it out.
Useful webpages
Til next time
This has been another great project and am very happy to have this Amiga in my collection!
This is another project that Chris Edwards videos have helped me get across the finish line for sure. I learned quite a bit getting things cleaned up and working again.
Thank you for following along and hope this brings a smile to your face as much as mine.