Back again: Old Newbie (A2000 Battery Corrosion)

[textory]

The basic facts: 36 years old and live in Munich, Germany. I bought my first Amiga (A500) in 1991. In 1994 I bought an A1200. Well, and than I got lost in the race for more MHz to run programs no one really needs, first on a i486, later on a K6-3 400 and now on a Duron 1.8 GHz (with W2K und Debian on two partitions). At work I only use Windows PCs and Macs, and so I soon forgot my old Amigas...

While visiting my parents last month I found in a corner of the attic my old A1200. I switched it on ... and it worked. Some days later I was offered a A2000 and I bought it for 20 Euros. And it was fun to set sail again with Microprose's Pirates!

The reason I registered for this Forum because my old Amigas really need help.

For example: The battery on the A2000 Mainboard is losing liquid. Can I replace it with another battery (eg. a small flat one like on todays mainboards)? Except for carefully soldering and the appropriate voltage/ampere: Are there any things to note? Who can give me some tips?  

Thanks
textory

... and sorry, my english skills seem a bit clumsy ... I'm working on it.

... and I swear I'll pay more attention to my Amigas and never hide them again in the attic!

[Argo]

Welcome back into the fold.

Yeah, that battery really need to be removed pronto. There are a few on here that know the proceedure. It's also been discussed rather recently, dealing with a variety of models. A search should turn up what you need. Don't be afaird to ask if you need help.


Amiga 2000 Battery Fix Photo

[textory]

Thanks a lot! I found many helpful postings in the forum.

I hope my soldering skills are still good enough. I haven't used the solder for ages...

[Holley]

[BoingBoss]

Hi textory,

After you have carefully removed the battery, I recommend that you do NOT replace it.  The Amiga 2000 computer does not need a battery.  The files really do not care about what day or time it is.  If YOU need the correct day or time, you can always enter it in manually at startup.  Then as long as your Amiga 2000 is on it will keep the correct date and time.  I have four (4) Amiga 2000 Series computers and have removed the batteries from all of them.  They are much happier now.   :-D

[Azryl]

If you follow these simple instructions you can replace the nicad barrell style battery with a small coin type quite easily on an Amiga 2000

If your Amiga 2000 has a harddrive, then you DO need a battery installed to keep the filetypes/file structure secure and all happy smiling etc

http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/aminet/hard/hack/index.html

the file your looking for is LithBatt.lha

if your soldering skills are approx average then you really should not have any problems, take your time and carefully clean up the old battery mess first then tackle the conversion.

best of luck, I've done it a few times now on different A2000 motherboards. Its not that scarey

[TjLaZer]

I performed this exact mod on my Professional Amiga 2000HD Computer.  It works great!  It unfortunately suffered from severe Battery Leakage but everything works fine!  I was shocked because two other 4000 computers had very minor leakage and both suffered from RTC damage (Would not save time).  I guess the larger PCB area of the 2000 came in handy, where on the 4000 the board is smaller and prone to other damage in the surrounding area.

[BoingBoss]

Hi Azryl,

If your Amiga 2000 has a harddrive, then you DO need a battery installed to keep the filetypes/file structure secure and all happy smiling etc

You are wrong about this.  All four (4) of my Amiga 2000 Series computers have the batteries removed and have hard drives installed.  They work just fine.  I have NEVER had any problems with them.  FACT IS:  The Amiga 2000 does NOT need a battery.   :roll:

[BoingBoss]

Hi TjLaZer,

I guess the larger PCB area of the 2000 came in handy, where on the 4000 the board is smaller and prone to other damage in the surrounding area.

No, that's not it.  An Amiga 4000 motherboard is the lower quality SMT type, whereas an Amiga 2000 motherboard is the higher quality thru-hole type.  Remember that Commodore lowered the quality on all of the Amiga models after their Flagship Amiga 2000 Series.  The Amiga 3000 and 3000 Tower still retained much of the Amiga 2000s design, but you can really notice the drop in quality when you examine the Amiga 600, 1200, 4000, and 4000 Tower.  I had all of these Amiga models, like new in boxes and sold them after seeing them for what they really are- low-quality junk!  TjLaZer, if you remember I sold my boxed Amiga 600 to you.  I sold my boxed Amiga 1200 with 68030 board and two (2) hard drives right after that.  Right now I am looking for an Amiga 3000 Tower, like new in box. :-D

[Azryl]

boingboss, whatever

The Amiga file structure has a time/date stamp embedded within for file creation and file last modified if I remember correctly

when checking your harddrive for errors etc, you do not want to be sitting there pressing ok to requesters hundreds of times just because the check says 'file set to future' of some such report from the likes of Amiback tools or Quaterback, maybe even good ol' Dave Haynie diskSalv

If you wish to keep your amiga file system all happy and smiling then you do require a battery

QED

[BoingBoss]

NO YOU DO NOT!!!!  My Amigas are very happy.   :-D

[Ilwrath]

The Amiga file structure has a time/date stamp embedded within for file creation and file last modified if I remember correctly

Correct

when checking your harddrive for errors etc, you do not want to be sitting there pressing ok to requesters hundreds of times just because the check says 'file set to future' of some such report from the likes of Amiback tools or Quaterback, maybe even good ol' Dave Haynie diskSalv

Naw... It's only a warning.  There's no harm in having a wrong date on a file.  And there's a box to turn off the "improper file date" warning, anyhow.  And, really, you probably don't want to be using those tools except in very controlled circumstances anymore, anyhow.  Things like SFS have (thankfully) made them redundant.

If you wish to keep your amiga file system all happy and smiling then you do require a battery

More Amigas were originally sold without batteries (A500,600,1200) than with (A2000,3000,4000).  There doesn't seem to be a rash of problems on those machines.  (shrug)  

The A3000 is a slight exception, as it also uses the battery to store some information about the SCSI configuration of the machine.  (Though under most circumstances you want to run in the default configuration, anyhow...)

All-in-all, the replacing the battery is quite optional.  The important thing is that you get the old one out before it leaks.  :-)

[Argo]

Okay, End of Discussion on weither a computer needs or does not need a battery. The guy asked about changing his leaking battery for a new one. Please stay on topic.

[spirantho]

Should we not be able to put forward alternatives though?

For myself, my A4000 had a batteryectomy a year or so back, and it's running fine without... I use a little program which nips off to one of the net time servers and grabs the correct time as soon as it boots up (I'm on an ADSL connection so it's always on). No need for a battery then!

[textory]

Sacre bleu! I like this place! You guys gave me more information than I expected.

At the moment my A2000 has no hard disk (but a 2088 bridge with an additional 5 1/4 floppy). Anyway I'll keep this discussion in mind for the moment I install a hard disk.

Yesterday I bought a new battery. First I try without. If there are problems I'll put the new battery in. I guess the A2000 doesn't react like a usual PC mainboard which forgots its bios settings without battery...

But now I have to turn to other severe problems: a disk chewing monster df0! It destroyed 3 floppys during formatting... grrrr. Think it's time for a new one!

@Holley: You're right! Soldering is like riding a bike. Once learned you'll never forget ... at least the blisters on your fingers...

Thanks for your postings. You were a great help!