Scott Small 🇨🇦<p>I thought I'd be bringing my <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/Amiga" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Amiga</span></a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/A500" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>A500</span></a> home today, but, this computer is kicking my ass 😅</p><p>The keyboard membrane has been replaced with a new PCB, and broken key plungers have ben replaced as well. The switches under the plungers have been cleaned with Deoxit, and the keys themselves have been given a good scrubbing with soap & water, plus a touch of Windex.</p><p>Unfortunately, many keys are still not working - not only that, it seems that my servicing has only made things worse. So I'm not sure where to go from here. Do I replace the IC on the keyboard controller next? Or maybe I need to start looking at traces on the motherboard?</p><p>Another possibility is that some of the key switches have just failed outright and there was never a membrane problem to begin with - and the switches need to be replaced entirely, not just the plungers.</p><p>What I really don't want to do is buy a whole new replacement keyboard, because that costs pretty much the same as what I paid for this computer to begin with.</p><p>Then there's the serial port. The original one had a number of bent, broken, and corroded pins - so (after much difficulty and with Dad's help) I removed it and replaced it with a new DB25 connector. We damaged one of the traces but fixed it with a bodge wire. The pins all have continuity, but something's clearly still wrong because the test kit is unhappy.</p><p>(I bought a DiagRom too, but forgot to buy the EPROM adapter, whoops! So that's now on the way as well to get a "second set of eyes" on the hardware)</p><p>There's also the floppy drive. It was working fine before we opened the machine up. It doesn't work any more. It spins up and makes noise like it's reading disks, but then drops back to the Kickstart boot screen. Now, we didn't clean or service the floppy drive because...it was working fine before (and I have a Gotek). But I'd like for it to still be working. Maybe some dust got in there or something?</p><p>Lastly there was the recap, which as far as I know was successful (unless that's what's causing the serial, floppy, and keyboard issues?) But one gotcha was that the two new 3300uf/25v caps are much larger than the old ones, and the RF shielding around the motherboard didn't fit any more. Eventually we managed to bend the caps over so that we could get the shield back on, but they still brushed against the shield and so we coated that part of the shield with electrician's tape to prevent them from coming into contact.</p><p>Ah, the joys of <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/RetroComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RetroComputing</span></a> repair 😂 at least the darn thing still boots!</p>