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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Soniq561 on December 20, 2012, 10:23:17 PM
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I have an un opened a500 that's works perfect but I'm considering opening her up and removing the battery before it fails.
What do you guys think? Is this what you do?
I'm lothed to open her up really but I'm thinking it's better than it leak and eat the pcb.
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An A500 doesn't have a battery.
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Uh, it does if it's a rev 8 a500+ mobo or if it's got a 501 expansion......
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Sorry I'm a newb. It's a a500 not sure what revision it is (can I find this out without opening her up?)
Thanks
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Uh, it does if it's a rev 8 a500+ mobo or if it's got a 501 expansion......
If it's an A500 with a rev 8 motherboard it doesn't have a battery.
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If it's an A500 with a rev 8 motherboard it doesn't have a battery.
(http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/photos/a500rev8a.jpg)
You sure about that, Son. ;)
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Sorry I'm a newb. It's a a500 not sure what revision it is (can I find this out without opening her up?)
Thanks
No, but you can just open the trap door on the bottom, if it's got a card in it, gently remove it and check for a battery. If it's got one, and it's fuzzy, remove it. If it's got one and it's not fuzzy, you may want to remove it anyways. If there's no 501 expansion card, but your Miggy shows 1MB of ram, odds are you've got an A500+ board, so you may want to check it for a battery. Some had them, some didn't.
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You sure about that, Son. ;)
Yes. The rev 8 motherboard was used in the A500 and the A500+. In an A500 it only had 512k installed on the motherboard and had no clock chip or battery.
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I have an un opened a500 that's works perfect but I'm considering opening her up and removing the battery before it fails.
What do you guys think? Is this what you do?
I'm lothed to open her up really but I'm thinking it's better than it leak and eat the pcb.
First of all remove the trapdoor cover and remove any memory expansion. If there is a battery on that then remove it. If there is a battery here then it's less likely that there is one on the motherboard, but it is possible so you should check anyway.
Now you have nothing in the trapdoor slot you should use software that detects if you have a real time clock (I think sysinfo does, setclock probably is another way to check).
If you don't have a real time clock then you don't have a battery. If you do still have a real time clock with nothing in the trapdoor then yes you should remove the battery (the cr2032 batteries from amigakit are good replacements).
Only the revision 8 a500+ motherboard had the space for a battery, AFAIK they only turned up in a500 cases in countries that didn't get an a500+ launch. The manufacture date on the sticker on the bottom may give an indication of what revision it is. From memory rev 5 was 1989, rev 6 was 1990, rev 8 was 1991 (although take that with a pinch of salt).
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use a 'setclock load' command to see if its got battery. iirc, it says 'battery backed up clock not found' when there isn't one.
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If it's an A500+ open it up and remove the battery ASAP, I got one from eBay about 12 months and put it into storage, I tested it again recently and it doesn't work.
It has some weird type screws so I can't open it right away, but will post some pictures here after Christmas, expect to find a complete mess.