@A4000_Mad
That's a difficult question to answer. Only you know your friend well enough to know how he would react. But if I were in your situation I would offer to remove the batteries for him (you did a pretty good job on my A4000 ;-) ). That way the motherboards are protected from future damage without your friend having to use them himself. And maybe knowing you are working on the machines will help him to start using them too.
It's obviously very hard for him to come to terms with the loss of your friend, but I think it's important for him to one day resolve this issue, as it seems like he is fixated on the loss. Refusing to return to the hobby that he had in common sounds to me like a refusal to face the fact that he is gone, which while understandable is not the best way to deal with the loss of a loved one. You're right in that pushing him will probably have the opposite effect or maybe even make it worse.
Good luck anyway. You're obviously a very good friend to be so patient and sensitive.
[EDIT]
Corrected a stupid error - re-read :-)
[/EDIT]
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moto
