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Recap guide

Recap the Amiga 1200 and 600

Both have a lot of surface mount capacitors and are well known for leaks. A good guide to the job is the best place to start.

Open the interactive checklist Tick off each capacitor as you replace it. It saves in your browser.

Difficulty: Careful

Which board do I have?

Boards changed during production. These notes come from the linked sources, and many are only partly documented, so check the board in front of you.

  • A1200 rev 1A (Medium confidence). How to tell: Earliest production board; the Big Book of Amiga Hardware says some units had clockport pins and some did not. Capacitors: A repair article says C321 and C322 (audio filter, small non-electrolytic parts) are 3900pF on rev 1A against 6800pF on later boards, which is why 1A audio can distort. The electrolytic set per revision is not documented in sources I read. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: yes. Source
  • A1200 rev 1D.1 (Medium confidence). How to tell: Listed as a Budgie rev -01 era board with parts E123C and E125C removed from the motherboard. Capacitors: One owner recapping a 1D1 board replaced 19 caps, 15 SMD and 4 through-hole. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A1200 rev 1D.4 (Medium confidence). How to tell: Budgie rev -02 era; XR358 (470 ohm) removed and a 470 ohm added at pin 43 of Alice, and some boards carry a 16V 10uF cap at C460. Capacitors: No full cap list per revision found; the C460 10uF 16V note is the only capacitor difference stated. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A1200 rev 2B (Low confidence). How to tell: Final revision, handles both Budgie revisions; resistor 118 changed from 470 ohm to 220 ohm. Capacitors: Audio filter caps are 6800pF as on rev 2 boards. A UK shop lists 1A, 1B, 1D1, 1D4 and 2B as covered by one recap service with no per-revision cap split. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A600 rev 1.0, 1.1, 1.3, 1.5 (Medium confidence). How to tell: Rev 1.0 has an extra chip (CBM 391287-01) below Gayle and is labelled A300; later 1.x numbers are printed on the board. Capacitors: One shop covers 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 2B and 2D in a single service, removing both SMD and radial caps; no per-revision cap list in sources I read. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A600 rev 2B and 2D (Low confidence). How to tell: Rev 2D is described as about a quarter inch shorter than rev 1.0; one Thai board has soldered Kickstart. Capacitors: Same single recap service listed for all revisions, both SMD and radial caps removed; no per-revision cap list found. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source

Where to start

Clues from write-ups and forum threads, not a diagnosis. Low confidence means one thread or one repair; high means several write-ups agree.

  • Leaky surface-mount capacitors (Medium confidence). Two restoration write-ups describe the A1200 and A600 surface-mount electrolytics as especially prone to leaking, unlike the A500. Recapping the whole board is the usual advice. The counts differ by author, 18 to 19 on the A1200. Source
  • A recap is not always the cure (Low confidence). One A1200 black-screen case turned out to be reversed capacitors from a bad earlier recap, plus a bad Paula chip and a broken trace. Check polarity and traces if a recap does not fix it. Source

Tips, tales and maybes

Found in write-ups and forum threads. These are other people's reports, not tested by us. Check part references and values against your own board.

  • Story: Black screen, flashing LED after someone else's recap (Medium confidence). An A1200 that arrived recapped turned out to have nearly all the SMD caps fitted backwards, plus a loose decoupling cap next to Paula, a broken data bus trace and a bad Paula. The author's point is that a bad recap can make things worse and recapping does not cure every fault. Source
  • Story: Metal debris and solder balls on a leaked board (Medium confidence). One A1200 repair found small metal pieces and solder balls loose on the board along with leaked electrolyte near the audio and PCMCIA areas, and cheap replacement caps from an earlier job already leaking. Clearing the debris got it booting again, then it was cleaned with contact cleaner and alcohol and fitted with 18 Nichicon caps. Source
  • Tip: Removing a cap can take the trace with it (Medium confidence). A recap write-up warns one SMD cap came off easily but took the trace beneath it, and the author checked continuity afterwards with Amiga PCB Explorer and tested with Amiga SysTest. Two caps on the first board were already seeping. Source
  • Tip: A1200 distorted audio and dead floppy shared a cause (Medium confidence). One A1200 had distorted audio and a dead floppy, and the author traced both to leaky electrolytics, including the floppy logic board (a 4.7uF 25V SMD, one crusty, and a 100uF 10V radial). He recapped the mainboard with solid-electrolyte parts. Source
  • Tip: Warning signs before it eats the pads (Low confidence). A recap service page (a seller, so promotional) lists dull greenish solder around caps, leakage hidden under the cap and caps falling off as signs of failure. It says electrolyte eats the copper pads like battery acid, even on a machine never used. Source

Before you start

  • Count your capacitors and check the board revision before you order.

Guides we used

This page and the interactive bench are built from these. They have the photos and the full detail, so please read them and support their authors.

The capacitor list

We have not checked a capacitor list for this machine yet, so none is shown. Follow the guide above for your board, then add the capacitors in the interactive checklist and it builds a shopping list for you.

Skip the sourcing

While you are in there

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links only search by name. Disclosure

Steps, tools and safety

The steps, the tools in top, middle and budget picks, and the safety list are the same for every machine, so they live on one page: How to recap, step by step.

Values are shown as published in the guides above, and boards changed during production. Check the board in front of you. A recap involves hot tools and, on some machines, dangerous voltages. You do it at your own risk.

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