Warning!! Your Amiga may be dying right in front of you! Check the battery!!

[redrumloa]

It can not be said enough, so this is a friendly reminder.

[color=FF0000]Check your Amiga RTC battery!![/color][/b]

Many a Amiga will die from this common problem. These batteries WILL LEAK, it's not a maybe, they WILL!!! They will destroy the motherboard.

If you are not comfortabe with a soldering iron, bring your computer to someone who is.

This has been a public service announcement :-o

[4pLaY]

Your right its a BIG problem ive been buying / selling used Amigas for a few years now and 80% of the big box Amigas that ive got (quite a few) have needed to change it ASAP some to late also.

[redrumloa]

@4play

Exactly, i see the same thing. Every single oneI have seen has furry batteries and usually major leakage. I just got 2 A2000s and immediately had to do surgery to remove badly leaky batteries. I think I saved them in time, further testing will tell...

[4pLaY]

The batteryes usual start leaking when the computer ends up not beeing used for a while (a few months) and you will usualy see the problem with A2000s as most of the time you will get these from people/companies wich have fased them out a good while ago its a big problem for people thinking "nah id rather collect it in the closet then sell it" before that is done people should really remove the battery! a while ago i was thinking of macking a small hack to make them able to use coin shapped batteryes but the market and interest for bix boxed Amigas/and amigas in general  have dropped (at least here) so now instead i remove them and sell them without batteryes.

[alx]

Where should I look for the battery on my A1200?  The accelerator board?

[4pLaY]

Your lucky this problem is only for Big Boxed Amigas A2000/A3000/A4000! there is a few ram cards for A500/etc that use these barrel shapped batteries but its far from a problem! worst case scenario the ram card dies but if you have one just check it out! as for owners of big boxed Amigas you should really check the motherboard even if you use it daily.

[PMC]

The standard A1200 has no battery backed up clock, so you'll find it on the accelerator.  There was an expansion that fitted to the clock port (logically enough), but these are very rare.

[SlimJim]

You are referring to the "barrel-type" battery I presume (don't
know what RTC stands for though). Luckily I have a "coin" variant in
my A4000 - it's still in there even though it is long since used
up. I put in a replacement battery years ago - it is attached
with velcro on the inside of the case, having a wire connecting
to the right plug-in on the motherboard.
.
SlimJIm

[4pLaY]

if you have the coin shapped in your A4000 you are one of the lucky few that have the last rev A4000 mobo where they finaly realised that the barrel shapped battery was no good and replaced it! i have an A4000T (escom) and these also use the coin shapped ones.

[RussellB]

I'm sure RTC stands for Real Time Clock.  I used to own the clock module for the 1200 I bought it in 1993 but sold it about a year ago.

[alx]

Yes, it's a coin-shaped battery on my accelerator - thank you, ACT :-D

---edit---

Although somehow one of the 7 screws on the back has disappeared (not into the Amiga, just somewhere else) :-?  :-)

[Vincent]

I've been inside my A1200T almost everyday keeping an eye on my accel (due to an fpu problem) and the battery is fine, thank god :-)  I'm soon getting one of the new Viper 1260 boards, if PowerC ever get them in, so I'm getting rid of this one (someone's already bagseyed it, so don't expect to see it in the classifieds).  So it wouldn't really matter to me if the battery started to go, but I don't think Blomberg'd be too happy ;-)

@redrumloa

Hope you're checking all your recent good buys for problems, and I hope you don't have anymore serious ones like this.

[SilvrDrgn]

Regarding this topic for those rechargeable, barrel type batteries that start to leak after a while.  When I replaced the battery in my A4000T (converted from a desktop machine), I had my dealer desolder it from the motherboard and solder jumper pins to the appropriate holes in its place.  Wires with a plug to connect to the jumper pins were soldered to the new battery.  It was then velcro'ed to the bottom of my A4000T's case as far away from the motherboard as possible.  If/When the current one starts leaking, it will not kill the motherboard and it will be much easier to replace again.

[amigamad]

I not long ago got an a4000 motherboard off of amibench that has had the batery taken off the motherboard and connected by 2 wires , it does not look like it is leaking but the wires at battery end ar green which cant be good.Im going to remove the battery anyway at least it is still not onboard where it could do damage. :-)

[4pLaY]

If its green it has leaked a long time ago ;-) and no its not good so do remove it and try and get all that "green stuff" away if there is some on the mobo a tooth brush is a nice thing to use :-).