Latest update: December 9, 2010

 

Sleepless Nights, Bringing the old beasts back from the Dead, and remembering Voodoo PC in pictures....

 

Before I dive into this weeks blog, I just wanted to "Share" a few pictures I had saved from Voodoo in no particular order. I am sure that if the ex-voodoo staff ever saw them, they will deny any knowledge of existence. Someday, I will make a slide show for You-tube -Hee hee, because I am evil!!!!

There are so many more I have, but you will just have to be happy with these,

It's pretty hard to explain an obsession.
It's almost a fever in the brain ...A voice whispering on the wind.. a Need to do it.

I will admit. I need some help. I am an Amiga (vintage computer) Junkie! I just can't help it, the need to restore these things just nags at me day and night. I know I should wait un till I have the money and order parts in, to get the job done all at once, instead of letting them sit idol for years at a time. I know I should do it properly, but the calling is so great, you skip sleeping at night, just to say you did SOMETHING on them.
This weekend was swamped with tech work. My regular job, after 3 years, has finally given me weekends off (I still am on the night shift though) and I had 2 laptops come in for Virus removal, and a CD rom swap out. On Saturdays, I still meet with the AMICUE guys for Coffee, but now I have to skip the monthly meetings, until I can work that thursday night out.
Well, after a "wasted" trip to Memory Express, I found that the LG Slim laptop DVD Burner is about a quarter of an inch too high for most newer laptops, now this week, I have to hunt down another replacement laptop burner. The problem is most Computer stores do not bother to post dimensions of their products on the web, so I have to physically take in the old burner to measure. It is no like it is an uncommon unit. A quick google search shows many different brands use the same unit.
Sunday, I had the NEED. After cleaning a few viruses of the other laptop, the calling came. I kept walking past the 2 neglected A2000's and I knew I had to do something. I need to get a lot of stuff for them, but first I should replace the ROMs and put a new battery holder in. That means waiting for about $80 to come in, to do it properly.

You must also know, that even though I love the Amiga, I almost despise working on the beasts. The design of the big box Amiga's was horrible, and such a huge pain in the ass to take apart and work on. The Sled for the power supply and hard drives is the most terrible concept ever made to mass market. I dread working on them, but there I was grabbing the one with the 2.X Roms and the open 5 1/4 drive bay.
Last weekend Craig gave me another old 1080 monitor. It was yellow and filthy with years id tar on it form the smoker who had it before. I cleared of the kitchen table and I then proceed to scrub both the monitor and crap off the A2000 case. I then found a 5 1/4 hard drive bay cover form my older A2000's that I sold a year ago, and put that up front for now, until I can hunt down a SCSI CD-drive for it.
When I had cleaned the dust out 2 weeks ago, I left everything out. I then put the Sled back in and pro ceded to hook everything back up. I decided to dig up my GVP 4008 Scsi card, as the GVP Hard card the unit had, didn't have any "On-board" RAM. My 4008 has the full 8 megs of ram and I dug out a one gig drive for it.

In a Perfect world, I would ditch the SCSI all together and put a CF drive in, but a SCSI to IDE adapter tends to go for about $150 these days, and to find a IDE controller for this is almost next to impossible these days.- GOD, I hate SCSI. I have piles of IDE crap all over, but I have to go with SCSI, because it is bloody expensive, and we all know "Cheap" and "affordable" does not go with Amiga.

I put everything back together, and even found a "Chassis rod", but I left the top off the chassis, as I have learnt form past experience, not to get over zealous and bolt everything back together until it is working properly.
I then hunted down some OS 2.04 disks. I knew I had "better" disks, as I believe this particular set of 2.04 disks came with a A600, and did not have an "Install" disk. I then popped the disk and turned everything on and.... I will finnish this gripping tale in Part 2 , tomorrow's installment.

One last thing before I go and get ready for work tonight. For those that have be wondering or asking. I DO have a Five year plan for the lounge. I am getting a professional to write up a business proposal, as I do have big, big plans for the Amiga Lounge. I plan to make it a "complete" web portal for Amiga. A history site, a professional online store with NEW, yes NEW Amiga hardware (I am already making and designing exciting new products with Craig from Amitrix. Hopefully we can get new hardware from him in January or so, but because of his real job, time is not in his favor these days..