I've got AHX on a floppy. I am able to open the program successfully, and then load an AHX song file. When I hit the play button, the tracker starts scrolling, but there is no sound coming out of my speakers, and after a little while I get a software error. What am I doing wrong?
Offline
New York City
If your sound chip was dead so would be part of your I/O since Paula is not only in charge of audio but also other things. The Amiga is not that simple to fix or diagnose when it misbehaves.
Maybe your audio capacitors are dead, capacitor death is a common problem with Amigas that haven't been used for a while. From the sound of your problem, you possibly have this issue. You will need to get it repaired.
If after a wile you get a software error, that's another issue. Do you have any sort of memory expansion? If yes, remove it and try again. But it could be some outdated library you have, like ASL or anything. You will need SnoopDOS to diagnose that.
Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 24, 2010 2:08 am)
Offline
New York City
Sorry I kept editing that, I should think things 3 times before hitting "reply" 
Offline
akira^8GB wrote:
Maybe your audio capacitors are dead, capacitor death is a common problem with Amigas that haven't been used for a while. From the sound of your problem, you possibly have this issue. You will need to get it repaired.
So is it just desoldering capacitors and putting new ones in? I think I can do that myself. Is there a guide somewhere?
I am SO pissed off at the guy who sold this to me right now. I already thought I paid too much, and now this.
I didn't have a way to test sound until now.
akira^8GB wrote:
If after a wile you get a software error, that's another issue. Do you have any sort of memory expansion? If yes, remove it and try again. But it could be some outdated library you have, like ASL or anything. You will need SnoopDOS to diagnose that.
No memory expansion. I'm done troubleshooting this funky old thing; I'll just wait till my IDE/CF adapter gets here so I can put ClassicWB on it.
Offline
New York City
Awol wrote:
So is it just desoldering capacitors and putting new ones in? I think I can do that myself. Is there a guide somewhere?
Yeah but there's a catch: these are all surface mounted components. It's not such an easy task.
I don't know about any guides, what you have to do is replace all surface mount caps for regular ones that are equivalent. When you do this people recommend you to just change them all, because they are gonna die at some point anyway. Be careful with not mistaking cap values though, the people I took my A600 to, changed some video caps with the wrong value and now I get wobbly video.
I am SO pissed off at the guy who sold this to me right now. I already thought I paid too much, and now this.
I didn't have a way to test sound until now.
There's a lesson to learn, my friend. you always have to test EVERYTHING.
No memory expansion. I'm done troubleshooting this funky old thing; I'll just wait till my IDE/CF adapter gets here so I can put ClassicWB on it.
ClassicWB is not always the best solution but I guess to get you started it's OK until you learn how to make your own custom install of Workbench. I wouldn't recommend it on a stock 2MB Chip RAM system, though, because it has a load of unnecessary garbage.
Offline
Milwaukee, WI
Be VERY careful if replacing the caps. Heed Akira's warning. Many an Amiga have been ruined even further this way.
Do you have any other means to test the audio? I think I remember AHX giving me the same problems even though the Amiga was fine. I'll try it again later tonight.
Offline
New York City
He did try a demo. I am pretty sure his caps are dying or dead already.
Also, capacitor faults are intermitent at some points, so don't trust the Amiga sudedenly working.
The most important thing to do is to replace caps as soon as one fails because they leak acid and can potentially damage the motherboard very badly.
I repeat: I am a soldering mongoloid and surface mounted components are scary. I took my motherboard to a professional electronics dude. My choice was a TV repair shop. Dude said he could do the job so I trusted the motherboard to him. In the end he did a sloppy job but the Amiga at least powers up and works now. I would have only destroyed it if I tried to remove one capacitor.
Even if you can solder OK, surface mount is a whole new planet.
Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 24, 2010 2:50 pm)
Offline
Ah. I've never tried soldering SMD before. There's always a first time right? I'll open up the Amiga to look at it first and decided if I think it's something I can do or not. Coincidentally, I also need to replace the caps in my TV.
EDIT: Amigakit do a cap replacement service, but including shipping it would cost nearly as much as I paid for the Amiga in the first place.
It actually costs the same amount to just buy another motherboard from them. So I might as well try and fix mine myself, and if I mess it up, buy another one.
Last edited by Awol (Sep 24, 2010 9:47 pm)
Offline
I took my Amiga apart to look at the motherboard, and I'm not afraid to try SMD soldering. I'll just need some tweezers and a steady hand.
However, nothing looks corroded and all the solder joints are shiny. Is there a way to pinpoint the problem? I want to make sure that the caps are actually the problem before I start the surgery.
Offline
New York City
Amigakit? Bah, man, armed robbery.
As I said, ANY electronic technician CAN do this. You just have to tell him exactly what to do (change the caps). Also, as I said, it is recommended that ALL capacitors on the mothrboard are changed, since they are a source of problems, so you can just take it to this technician and ask him to replace for equivalent, NON SMT components, paying attention to make double-sure the ratings are the same.
I will, again, strongly recommend AGAINST doing this on your own, but it's your Amiga after all. Just think you might pass from having a defective computer to having a very expensive and funky looking doorstep.
You tried many other softwares with audio? Did they have audio? If no, the caps are probably the problem. Now, if you have other problems too (serial I/O, floppy access, mouse) then Paula might be defective. But this is a VERY unlikely scenario.
This link might help:
http://joj.home.texas.net/amigacap.html
Here they describe the prob on an A4000, which is almost the same (A600s, A1200s and A4000s suffer the same problem with defective surface mount caps):
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41357
Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 25, 2010 3:29 pm)
Offline
New York City
Hi man.
This link might help:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=55430
This guy swapped out the audio caps. you can look at the position where they are (near the audio ports). He also mentions something about non-polarized caps.
Hope it helps.
Last edited by akira^8GB (Sep 30, 2010 11:21 am)
Offline
I just ordered replacement caps for my Amiga and TV, and also parts to make a simple audio probe.
Offline
Milwaukee, WI
You may want to check your power supply or the audio circuit with a multimeter. It's possible that your supply "works" but fucks up the audio. This was an issue with my first amiga and didn't really think of it until you said the caps were clean. There's a simple way to test for this/should be some instructions on aminet.
Offline
Los Angeles
Re: SMD soldering. It's pretty easy if you get the technique down. Check out this pdf as an example from sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Prot … Basics.pdf ... also this page has a lot more if you scroll down: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutori … als_id=107