Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Jaycebot on February 14, 2012, 02:29:44 AM
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Ive had my amiga for about 6 months now. Anyway I had some friends come over yesterday, and i was showing them my various antiques and vintage stuff. When i went to power up the amiga 2000, all i got was a yellow screen with rapidly moving diagonal black lines. The harddrive light didnt come on, and it wont respond to a floppy disk in the drive. What in the world happened?
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Strange. Open it up and carefully reseat any cards or socketed chips. Also check for battery damage and make sure your power supply is healthy.
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could be 68000 cpu needs cleaning plus socket needs cleaning. battery leak???
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Well I think I found the problem.... The battery leaked and some of the acid got on the pins of the processor, and it's all corroded. So that's going to need cleaning. Where can I get a replacement battery?
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The most common solution for a leaking battery is to remove the bad one and don't replace it at all. A battery isn't necessary on the Amiga. If you insist on having a battery, look on ebay and get a kit to install the common "coin" shaped battery.
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Well I think I found the problem.... The battery leaked and some of the acid got on the pins of the processor, and it's all corroded. So that's going to need cleaning. Where can I get a replacement battery?
You only need the battery if you want the 2000 to keep the date/time when it's turned off. If you have any other Amiga's make sure you remove the battery before it destroys the motherboard.
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Well I think I found the problem.... The battery leaked and some of the acid got on the pins of the processor, and it's all corroded. So that's going to need cleaning. Where can I get a replacement battery?
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=A500%2B+%2F+A1500+%2F+A2000+CLOCK+BATTERY+%28Ni-MH%29
Firstly i would remove the old battery and clean up the mess and get it working again. The A2000 will work fine without a battery. I had removed mine before it leaked and never bothered replacing it. My A2000 works fine.
Make sure you really clean out the mess using a good PCB cleaner. Then they say it is also good to use some sort of lemon juice or something to kill the corrosion.
Get a DMM and check the traces to make sure none are damaged. I had an A500 Plus where the battery leaked and damaged a trace. Managed to fix it by soldering a wire from one point to the other.
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Ok, thanks for the info! I'll just remove the battery and clean the PC board. The clock feature doesn't really matter to me.
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I would also carefully remove the processor and clean the socket and pins using the PCB cleaner. And maybe use some lemon juice to neutralize the acid.
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Well, I took it apart, removed the battery and cleaned the cpu pins and socket. I used lemon juice as well to get rid of the acid. It still doesn't work...
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Well, I took it apart, removed the battery and cleaned the cpu pins and socket. I used lemon juice as well to get rid of the acid. It still doesn't work...
You used a ph 2.3 acid to clean up acid damage?
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Do the tracks look damaged ?
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You used a ph 2.3 acid to clean up acid damage?
Haven't you learned yet?
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I would check the tracks / traces around the area were the battery acid leaked using a digital multimeter to check for continuity. If any are damaged you could try bridging them using single core wire. I had to fix an A500 plus that way after its battery leaked.
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I checked the traces, theyre fine. However, this morning, I powered up the amiga, and now im getting a green screen.
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I checked the traces, theyre fine. However, this morning, I powered up the amiga, and now im getting a green screen.
Iirc a green screen is an indication of faulty ram.
Did you try disconnecting all the Zorro cards?
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I checked the traces, theyre fine. However, this morning, I powered up the amiga, and now im getting a green screen.
check the vias as well. (the interconnections(sp) between the top and the back of the PCB)
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Yes, i disconnected all the Zorro cards, I get a white screen when they're removed.
Where are the vias located on the board?
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So it was working and now its not and remarkably by mucking around with items that you had not messed with before the things going to work. The clue here was the leaky battery and the fact that it had finally eaten enough of the board to bust it. Cleaning and removing won't solve the problem, no matter how thorough you are. If you are serious about the board then get it checked and the traces repaired cus that's the problem. Otherwise you will be likely to damage even more of the 2000 pulling stuff out and shoving it back in. Its an electrical issue and so get the board checked. The kit is old.
For me I tend to track down a working motherboard. Always works.
For anyone with old Amigas then do check them for battery leak and really always remove them if they are the barrel type. There are many ways to do this. I just rock them very gently backward and forward until they snap off. I use vinegar to clean and neutralise with baking soda
Amiga4k posted this some while bag on the forums..
The best way to neutralize the battery leak
(1) Remove the board
(2) Clean by either method with toothbrush, brushing in the direction of traces, NOT across them
(a) Spraying with vinegar
(b) using a 3 part Baking Soda and 1 part distilled paste
(3) use different toothbrush to rinse and brush with distilled water
(4) Use litmus paper to test for alkalinity. When the red paper remains red, the solution has been neutralized
PS I have had repaired boards sprayed with circuit board lacquer.
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Yes, i disconnected all the Zorro cards, I get a white screen when they're removed.
Where are the vias located on the board?
the vias are all over the board. The ones you need to check, are the one surrounding the offended area ( vias are that little round silver like things .... they are like bridges that interconnects traces between the 2 faces of the PCB and can be affected/corroted by the acid)
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Haven't you learned yet?
What, that alkalines (above ph7) neutralize acid (unless the battery was an alkaline)?
What chemistry classes did you attend?
(I was trying to make the point humourously that it wasn't acid being cleaned up)
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the vias are all over the board. The ones you need to check, are the one surrounding the offended area ( vias are that little round silver like things .... they are like bridges that interconnects traces between the 2 faces of the PCB and can be affected/corroted by the acid)
Ok, Thanks! I'll check em.
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What, that alkalines (above ph7) neutralize acid (unless the battery was an alkaline)?
That acid battery bull begins to irritate gradually - the only acid batteries an ordinary consumer meets are lead batteries in a car/motorcycle/whatever vehicle. All the others are alkaline by nature.
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That acid battery bull begins to irritate gradually - the only acid batteries an ordinary consumer meets are lead batteries in a car/motorcycle/whatever vehicle. All the others are alkaline by nature.
I'll leave the humour to the experts in future. ;)
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Well, I checked the connections around the battery area. They're all ok.
What if the problem wasn't the battery leakage?
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When i went to power up the amiga 2000, all i got was a yellow screen with rapidly moving diagonal black lines. The harddrive light didnt come on, and it wont respond to a floppy disk in the drive. What in the world happened?
Hi there. Does the rapidly moving diagonal lines look anything like my rapidly moving black diagonal lines on my Amiga 500? (See my avatar image) I have a plain 500, so no battery damage. As explained in my thread http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64775 I also sometimes get a green screen on boot, so maybe we have the same problem? Did you manage to fix Your Amiga?
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The A2000 is a tank and if a leaky battery ruins it, the leak was really bad as they are mostly the only big box Amiga to survive a leaky battery. Sounds like it needs traces and or sockets replaced. I would suggest you use the board for spare parts (the chips) and just get a nice working undamaged A2000 motherboard. Make sure you always check the NiCad batteries in the Amiga's that have them! As this will continue to happen if it hasn't already....
I recently got a A2000 for free, that was sitting in someones shed. The machine looks unused and was complete in box. It looks brand new. Battery leaked and ruined the motherboard. I tried so hard just as you did to resurrect it but in the end it did not want to work. Bought a replacement Rev 6 board off a forum member for $60 and all is good... Not even worth it unless you are an expect in such repairs!
(http://blog.a-eon.biz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/A2000_Battery-300x211.jpg)
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@Jaycebot
If you're in the UK I may be able to help as I do some repairs of this sort of thing (just resurrected a battery damaged 1500 a few weeks back).
As it's a company thing I would need to charge £50 though if I successfully fix it I'm afraid! PM me if you want me to have a crack at it.
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Green screen is supposed to mean an error with chip ram (sorry I missed the second page). Could be component damage from the acid. Check the power supply outputs (if you have a volt meter).
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Green screen is a Chip RAM error, yes... but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the Chip RAM, it just means that the CPU can't talk to it properly. It could just mean Agnus needs reseating, or (more likely) a trace that you think is ok actually isn't.
How did you check the traces? Remember that just because a trace looks good doesn't mean it is - you need to check with a multimeter. Also remember that the pins of the CPU next to the battery are the data lines. That means they're connected to more than one thing (the kickstart chip and the rest of the board in the other direction).
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Unless you are good at working on PCBs, and Amiga 2000, I would just track down a replacement motherboard. If you have a version 4.x motherboard, it will be a great upgrade to put in a 6.x board.
I like to tempt fate - I still use a Ni-cad (original) battery. BUT I have re-located off the mothrboard, and keep a very close eye on it.
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Curious...can these dead boards be fixed and sold again in eBay, thus constantly recycling Amiga motherboards or you think it should be thrown?
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Curious...can these dead boards be fixed and sold again in eBay, thus constantly recycling Amiga motherboards or you think it should be thrown?
I hope nobody would ever throw away a board like this! The parts (from even lowly RAM chips to the custom chips) can be used to rejuvenate other motherboards - Even a trashed board will have a mine of useful ICs on it.
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If you want to neutralize an acid, you use a base, not another acid. IDK how that got on these boards or that the composition of the battery is yet, but this piece of advice irks me.