A1200 Accelerator card questions

[carls]

Hi!
My girlfriend and I have recently moved and I've set up a nice Amiga man-cave in the new apartment.

I've never really been a hardware guy, and so I have a few questions about expansion cards.

1) The battery on my Blizzard 1260 (DCE) seems to have leaked a bit while in storage. The card has a battery holder that looks like this one: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/download_photos/dce1260_fr_big.jpg
The card and the battery works, and there is no visible damage on the PCB or any circuits. I'd like to change the battery all the same, of course.
Can it be replaced without soldering?

2) I also have an old DKB Cobra 28 MHz 030 card. When fitted in the computer, it sometimes boots and sometimes it does not. Sometimes the card seemingly stops working while the computer is running. No leaky battery here and no visible damage to the PCB/circuits. The card has worked flawlessly for at least ten years. Any ideas what could be causing this?

3) I have an AmiTek Hawk fast-mem expansion. The RTC didn't work so I switched the battery. Now it seems to work fine - most of the time. Although when running certain software, such as Slam Tilt, the RTC seems to lose track of time. I tested the RTC yesterday evening by switching the computer off for a couple of minutes and then booting up again, it kept the time nicely. Unless I'm mistaken, losing time or getting odd dates shouldn't happen even when running software that takes over the machine from the OS - unless it farts around with timer.device or otherwise does strange stuff, provided that the RTC battery works. Can this really be because of the software?

[carls]

First, Get that bad battery off that card ASAP! I haven't used one of those cards so I don't know about the soldering issue.
How about the battery on the Cobra? is it OK
Since several expansion cards have intermittent problems, maybe the Expansion port edge connector needs to be cleaned. I have had that problem on my old A1200.

Heh, yeah, I'll try to remove the battery... It's just that I think I'll have to solder it off and I  neither have the skills nor the tools for the job.
The Cobra battery seems to be OK, it kept the time when it didn't make the computer crash
There is no real problem with the Blizzard 1260 (except the leaky battery) - it works flawlessly. The same goes for the Hawk board except for the strange timekeeping which seems to be related to certain applications. I don't think the edge connector is dirty but I'll have a look at it.

[carls]

Update: It seems you must solder off the battery on the DCE B1260. I'll try to find someone who can do it for me
The Hawk board kept the time during all day yesterday when the computer was switched off. I went home, used DPaint, DOpus, played Lotus II and Super Foul Eggs. Watched a few demos. Still kept the time. Played Slam Tilt for 20 minutes, it lost 20 minutes. So I'm guessing the culprit in this case is Slam Tilt...

[carls]

No you don't, what you do is to snip it of with some small cutters. First the batteryleg at the end on the battery that is away from the slot connector, then carefully bend up the battery to reach the other batteryleg.

Yeah, I can do that... But to change the battery it still needs soldering right?

[carls]

I'd carefully snap the battery off by the legs first for now, but you'll need to get someone to solder the new battery holder on.

As for the DKB board not working there is a common problem these seem to have, as my Mongoose and 1202 and Cammy's Cobra all had this same problem. After cleaning the expansion edge of the A1200 with a pencil eraser you should get a sewing needle, pick up the Cobra and carefully bend the metal wire "teeth" of the expansion connector inwards so when it's connected again it will bite down harder. They seem to recede over time and lose connection occasionally, causing crashes or stopping the machine from booting.

The clock resetting itself after certain games or a bad crash is just something that happens with certain software on certain expansion boards. You can install a small utility which alerts you when the clock has been reset so you can fix it at least.

You can decide which one you like best, this is all I found on Aminet:

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/ClockCheck1_14
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/ClockChk13
http://aminet.net/package/util/time/ClockWatcher11
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/dateinsp
http://aminet.net/package/util/time/RTCheck
http://aminet.net/package/util/time/TimeSwipe

Good luck!

Thanks, especially for the info on the Cobra! I'll try fixing the connector using the method you describe.

[carls]

A few Cobras I have seen also can make contact with the A1200's RF shield where it bends down over the connector. This usually stops the card from working completely, but not always. Pay close attention to rebel CD32's comment about cleaning, and putting more spring in the contacts.
Wish you luck.

The RF shield is bent way out of place already so that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll make sure to check that, too.

[carls]

With all due respect to Brian, I'd have the battery properly replaced. Using clippers and bending battery legs is IMHO very risky on such an old board.

I've located some soldering competence so it should be fixed soon.

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated!