New old Amiga 500 :)

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

After years of searching, I finally got lucky and found an Amiga system on my local craigslist.  $40 and it was all mine, an A500 with memory expansion, external floppy, 1084S-D1, even a printer - nearly the spitting image of the A500 system I had 20 years ago!

Of course like any old system I've found it's not without it's issues.  Although I got it from the family of the original owner (who had kept it very clean, even the original warranty seals are still intact and they had all the documentation), the battery on the memory expansion has leaked pretty badly, and the system wouldn't boot with it installed.  Also the power switch on the monitor, while it worked fine the first time I powered it up, now is showing that problem of not staying in when it's pressed.

So, I'm thrilled to be an Amiga owner again after selling my 1200 ten years ago, and am having fun digging through my old disks to see what still works - first game I played, Lemmings! - Second game - Battle Squadron...    Now to see what I can do about fixing this thing up a little bit.

Any tips on if the memory card can be fixed (i.e., snip off battery, clean with something, picture attached), and how to repair the monitor switch besides bubble gum?

Thanks!
Mike

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Also the external floppy drive doesn't seem to be working.  Won't read anything, says "BAD" when I try to insert any disks in Workbench.  Spraying the inside with compressed air didn't help, what else do people usually do in this situation?  Thanks again!  

[amigean]

I don't think the memory expansion is worth salvaging - you should be able to get a working one on ebay for very little money. If you want to give it a try, remove the battery, neutralise the acid with lemon juice and then see if you can repair the damage to surrounding components. Depending on the amount of damage you may also need to fix any traces eaten away by the acid - these are very tricky. Which is why I think it's not worth it.

The floppy, you can try cleaning the heads with isopropyl alcohol.

Congratulations on the find though, she seems in great shape. Extra points for the dot matrix printer! :-)

[giZmo350]

WOW! $40.00! You Lucky Ducky! It's beautiful!
 
Ya, first snip that battery and check for any broken traces - doesn't look too bad though. As far as the ext drive, may disassemble and clean / lightly lube any moving parts points. Maybe the head assembly is just stuck on the rails. Good Luck! :razz:

[Tenacious]

I think I would start with a head cleaning floppy.

About the monitor, you could simply bypass the switch so the monitor is always ON.  Then use a power strip to switch the whole system.

Are you going to convert the trap door ram to chip or leave it stock?  Do you intend to expand it?

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I think I would start with a head cleaning floppy.

About the monitor, you could simply bypass the switch so the monitor is always ON.  Then use a power strip to switch the whole system.

Are you going to convert the trap door ram to chip or leave it stock?  Do you intend to expand it?

@Tenacious -

Right now I've got the monitor jimmied with a paperclip in the button and on a power strip, seems to be working fine.  

Found a link on Lemon64 to a Jameco catalog that claims to list the switch part #, also found this picture Cammy posted while googling, it looks like a good idea, too!  
http://www.amiga.org/gallery/images/5087/1_1084Switch.JPG

The memory card is soaking in lemon juice right now, but it looks like it's going to be toast.  Also have a head cleaning kit on order for the external drive, and picked up a cheap 1011 drive off ebay if I can't get that one working.

I realize the cost of upgrading an A500 is rediculous, even compared to A1200 upgrades, but I might throw a little $ at it here and there.  Certainly like to have 1Meg and two floppies working, beyond that maybe crack those seals and check the motherboard (SysInfo says it's got an 8372A, so I assume it's a version 6 board), maybe research how to convert the trapdoor memory to chip ram, upgrade it to 2.1 and a 68010, throw a little fast mem on side, or somesuch.   Indivision ECS seems pretty cheap, too, maybe for Christmas.    Any recommendations?

It's been so many years I forget most of what I knew, just glad most of my 20-year-old floppies still seem to work!  

[TjLaZer]

Looks like a RocTec drive.  Those are a pain to get working at this age.  I have one that is intermittent.  A disk cleaning kit helped a little but it seems to be pesky on some disks.  I found that having it read a bunch of disks has helped get it "awake" and working again.  I also read that these drives have a tendency to have the drive belt break.  Some chaps over in the UK have got replacement belts and got it working again.  (saw the thread over on English Amiga Board)

Yeah I would get a new A501 clone and put an AmigaKit Coin Cell adaptor on it so you can use a regular Lithium coin cell on it.