Newbie needs help!! 3000 with acid damage..

[98PaceCar]

Hi everybody,

I'm a newbie to the site, but I used to be a hard core Amiga user back in college. I had recently pulled my 500 out and started playing some of my old favorites and remembering the good times! As luck would have it, I ran across a mostly working 3000 for $20 last weekend! Once I got into it though, I found that the battery had started to leak.. Not good. I've used a mix of 50/50 vinegar and water with a small nylon brush and got most of it off. It left about a quarter size spot on the mb where the copper is exposed.

The system seems to still work, but whenever I try to boot off the hard drive, there is an assign that is failing. I'm assuming for some reason one of the two hard drives is not working, but was wondering if there is something around the battery that could have been affected that would cause this.

I've been able to boot off of a floppy with no problems. The mouse and everything seems to work ok, no keyboard yet, so I can't test that part unfortunately.

Also, is there anything special I should do to the spot where the acid ate through? I'm going to clean it again with the vinegar/water mix and see if I can get the few tough spots off. I've noticed a bit of damage under the one resistor that is on the negative side and a little bit had started to creep up the one TTL chip that is right past the resistor (can take a pic if needed).

Anyway, I'd appreciate any advice I can get. I'd love to get back into the Amiga with what used to be my dream system!

Thanks,
Darren

[artman]

Try using a little baking soda mixed with a little water to make a thin paste instead of the vinegar.  The baking soda will neutralize any acid on the board.  Rinse as well as you can with maybe a cotton swab and water.  Let air dry for a couple of days, or use a blow dryer on low.  I think the coating on the board is just a type of laquer, might be able to find something similar in an electronics supplier catalog.  If everything seems to work, maybe the board is ok and there is something in the startup sequence?  How you get it going real soon.  Regards...Art

[KapitanKlystron]

The previous tip about the baking soda is righton target. After the baking soda clean the board with alcohol or some sort of contact cleaner. Not tuner cleaner as it has a lubricant. The coating on the board ( called a conformal coating) is either polyurethane or an epoxy resin. If you want to recoat  there are conformal coatings in spray cans available from electronics supply houses.  I repair boards regularly without replacing the coating though.

Hope that helps.

[Tenacious]

Welcome back Darren,

  You didn't mention if you replaced the battery.  I replaced mine with a rechargable phone battery encased in plastic from Radio Shack.  The wire leads are soldered to the old battery pads (observe polarity) and the new one just lays on the motherboard.  You probably know this already, the voltage of the new must match the old, the mAh rating is flexable.
  If you check the motherboard from time to time to ensure the corosion has been halted, all should be well.

[98PaceCar]

Thanks for the advice guys. Do you think the vinegar/water mix has harmed anything or is the baking soda just a better solution? I don't think I'll worry about recoating the board. Hopefully I won't be spending much more time in the case and more time actually playing with it!

Hoping it is just a config problem. Not having a keyboard makes debugging a real nightmare, but I'm working on getting a hold of one as quick as I can!

Thanks again,
Darren

[98PaceCar]

I tell you, it's nice to be back! I had forgotten how much I liked my old 500 till I drug it out. Now I can't wait to get the 3000 going so I can have some real power!!

I just hit rat shack today and picked up a portable phone battery. I've done that trick on a few classic arcade games I've restored. Works like a champ there so I figured it would be fine here as well. Thanks for verifying for me!

Darren

[iamaboringperson]

The system seems to still work, but whenever I try to boot off the hard drive, there is an assign that is failing.

i think some of you have probably missed the probable cause here

go through your startup-sequence or especialy the user-startup and look at what might be there that shouldnt, or what might be missing

:-)

[miles]

It's that time of year again guys, check your AMiGA's battery!

A leaking battery can kill your AMiGA.

A few members here have said about AMiGAs stored away, remember to
check them too.

@Darren,

Good luck with your 3000, my battery had leaked like you describe when
I got it years ago, I cut the battery off and cleaned the motherboard
and components with a small amount of CRC 2.26 electrical cleaner on a
cotton bud (Q-Tip).

I have been without a battery since.  The A3000 does not need it to
work.  Hopefully the components are not damaged.

You will need

Aminet SetBatt

to reset some system settings that the A3000 has stored when powered
off.

For the ASSIGN that is "missing", you say you can boot off floppy.
Can you see the harddrives on Workbench?

You will need a keyboard to fix the problem though!  A A2000 one will
work.

[98PaceCar]

I'm sure hoping it's just a simple config issue. It's been a LONG time since I've looked into the setup on these things, but I've still got a set of WB 2.1 books and a lot of extra time on my hands!!  :-D

[98PaceCar]

Miles,

What kind of settings will I have lost? Anyhing related to SCSI setup or anything like that?

Fortunately, I was able to find my copies of the 2.1 WB install disks, so I should be able to boot from those. Do I need a special version of WB for the 3000 or will the disks I have work (I bought them when I upgraded my 500 to 2.04 roms with a switcher)?

Thx,
Darren

[KennyR]

There is NO acid in a clock battery! Do NOT use vinegar or baking soda on your motherboard!

[98PaceCar]

Ok, so no vinegar or baking soda (even though it's too late on the vinegar, which did remove 95% of the damage the leak caused). What do I do then? I'm not letting the damage continue when I've got a working 3000 mb sitting here.

[DanDude]

NEVER use baking soda, vinegar or any other acid substance on any circuit board!

The best thing to do is use Isopropyl alcohol to neutralize the battery acid.  Use a toothbrush to get in hard-to-reach areas.

Then rinse the board with 50/50 alcohol and water.

ANY damaged semiconductor must be removed and replaced to prevent further occurrances with battery acid.  

If you know electronics, use a multimeter to perform continunity tests.  Any bad trace is considered useless and new traces must be soldered.  If you do not know how, send the board to an Amiga repair specialist.  Yes, send the pic to me.

Hope this helps.

[KennyR]

You need to get all of the battery fluid off your components. It's soluble in polar solvents like water, but try not to use water (the water in the vinegar took it off before, not the acetic acid itself). Pure alcohol, or even better, isopropyl alcohol or circuit cleaning fluids, will take it off best. If you don't have any of this you can use a little clean water on a cotton bud. Just dry it as soon as possible.

[DanDude]

@KennyR

===ALL=== batteries carry acid except memory capacitors.  Memory capacitors are THE next best thing to replacing batteries.