When it comes to retro hardware fixes, Jan Beta doesn’t back down easily—even when an Amiga 500 repair drags on for years and tests every ounce of patience. In his latest video, he picks up a forgotten Rev 5 board that’s been refusing to cooperate despite previous efforts. Missing footage aside, the board’s still on his bench, still green-screening, and still very much broken. But Jan’s not done yet.
After diagnosing a snapped Agnus pin, solder mishaps, and flaky sockets, he installs a replacement Agnus (thanks to Arne from Root42) and begins scoping data lines that look—at best—haunted. With TTL logic that barely twitches, Jan suspects faulty RAM or maybe something deeper in the data path. He swaps chips, replaces sockets, recaps the board, and even rewires the entire first bank of RAM with precision sockets. The green screen refuses to budge.
This Amiga 500 repair quickly becomes less about fixing and more about eliminating every potential point of failure. Bad RAM? Swapped. Loose sockets? Replaced. Logic chips? Verified and replaced with faster ABT variants. Still, the machine stays silent—no Kickstart screen, no diagrom output, just a mocking green glow and the occasional flicker of hope that fizzles out.
As he digs deeper, Jan uncovers a possible voltage drop near the Paula chip, swaps it, replaces the socket and surrounding components, and tests again. Nothing. A second RAM bank? Socketed and verified. Recapping? Done. At this point, the board looks showroom new. But the fault remains, elusive and stubborn.
Despite hours of soldering, scoping, and muttered curses, the Amiga 500 repair ends with the same screen it started with. Jan, ever the trooper, throws in the towel for now—but not before asking the retro community for ideas. Could it be a broken trace? An obscure chip failure? A haunted capacitor?
Grab a drink, sit back, and enjoy this epic two-hour saga of silicon resistance. It’s frustrating, funny, and full of retro-tinkering goodness.
