Newbie needs help!! 3000 with acid damage..

[98PaceCar]

Hi everybody,

I'm a newbie to the site, but I used to be a hard core Amiga user back in college. I had recently pulled my 500 out and started playing some of my old favorites and remembering the good times! As luck would have it, I ran across a mostly working 3000 for $20 last weekend! Once I got into it though, I found that the battery had started to leak.. Not good. I've used a mix of 50/50 vinegar and water with a small nylon brush and got most of it off. It left about a quarter size spot on the mb where the copper is exposed.

The system seems to still work, but whenever I try to boot off the hard drive, there is an assign that is failing. I'm assuming for some reason one of the two hard drives is not working, but was wondering if there is something around the battery that could have been affected that would cause this.

I've been able to boot off of a floppy with no problems. The mouse and everything seems to work ok, no keyboard yet, so I can't test that part unfortunately.

Also, is there anything special I should do to the spot where the acid ate through? I'm going to clean it again with the vinegar/water mix and see if I can get the few tough spots off. I've noticed a bit of damage under the one resistor that is on the negative side and a little bit had started to creep up the one TTL chip that is right past the resistor (can take a pic if needed).

Anyway, I'd appreciate any advice I can get. I'd love to get back into the Amiga with what used to be my dream system!

Thanks,
Darren

[98PaceCar]

Thanks for the advice guys. Do you think the vinegar/water mix has harmed anything or is the baking soda just a better solution? I don't think I'll worry about recoating the board. Hopefully I won't be spending much more time in the case and more time actually playing with it!

Hoping it is just a config problem. Not having a keyboard makes debugging a real nightmare, but I'm working on getting a hold of one as quick as I can!

Thanks again,
Darren

[98PaceCar]

I tell you, it's nice to be back! I had forgotten how much I liked my old 500 till I drug it out. Now I can't wait to get the 3000 going so I can have some real power!!

I just hit rat shack today and picked up a portable phone battery. I've done that trick on a few classic arcade games I've restored. Works like a champ there so I figured it would be fine here as well. Thanks for verifying for me!

Darren

[98PaceCar]

I'm sure hoping it's just a simple config issue. It's been a LONG time since I've looked into the setup on these things, but I've still got a set of WB 2.1 books and a lot of extra time on my hands!!  :-D

[98PaceCar]

Miles,

What kind of settings will I have lost? Anyhing related to SCSI setup or anything like that?

Fortunately, I was able to find my copies of the 2.1 WB install disks, so I should be able to boot from those. Do I need a special version of WB for the 3000 or will the disks I have work (I bought them when I upgraded my 500 to 2.04 roms with a switcher)?

Thx,
Darren

[98PaceCar]

Ok, so no vinegar or baking soda (even though it's too late on the vinegar, which did remove 95% of the damage the leak caused). What do I do then? I'm not letting the damage continue when I've got a working 3000 mb sitting here.

[98PaceCar]

Ok, I've got some isopropyl alcohol at home, so I can re-do it with that. I don't think any of the components were damaged, but until I get it all back together I won't know for sure. The damage is pretty much isolated to the negative side of the battery and the surrounding area where there isn't too much to damage.

[98PaceCar]

Miles,

It's a revision 9 motherboard and I do remember seeing 2 roms that were labeled 2.04.  So it looks like I will be ok to boot from the floppies I already have!! Hooray!! Now I just need to hold out till my keyboard gets here (it's in a fedex truck right now) and I'll be in business!

On a side note, I decided I should pull the 501 cards out of both of my 500's, just in case. Sure enough, they are furry too...  :-o

Looks like I've got some more cleaning to get done!

I'll check out your site. Thanks for the info!

Darren

[98PaceCar]

Miles,

Awesome! Some good news finally!!

There's some great info on your site. Now that I'm home, I'll have to surf all of it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I completely missed the obvious link to your page. I guess it was too obvious!!

Darren

[98PaceCar]

DanDude,

I just put some pics of the damage out on my pic site. They are kinda big, but you can see all the damage in them. If they are too big, let me know and I'll resize them.

www.pbase.com/darrenes/a3000

Thanks for your advice! I used some isopropyl alcohol on it when I got home. I've wiped it all off and am just letting it sit for a while before I do anything else. I'll probably hit it with a blow dryer on no heat to blow out anything that's left later.

Oh yea, the pics are after I used the alcohol on it.

Thanks!
Darren