aminga 500 green screen please help

[ste182]

Hiya guys, ive just got another amiga this time an a500. But when i tried to turn it on i just got the power led blinking and a green screen which sometimes turned yellow and red. Ive had alook on google and this error could be to do with chip ram ive checked the motherboard no battery is leaking and everything looks in pristine condition i dont know which chip is the ram chip and how would i be able to fix this? thankyou

[beller]

Does the A500 have a memory/clock board installed in the underside?  If so, open the trap door and remove it.  I've gotten several non-booting A500s to come up immediately.  The battery typically goes in the board and it's gone for good.

Good luck!

[ste182]

nope nothing in the trap doors, theres was a tiny bit of crap near the battery(it didnt look like a leak though) sometimes the screen has gone red and sometimes yellow ive made sure all chips are cnnected properly.

the only thing i have to go on is the little bit of crap near the batery.

[beller]

With the exception of the trapdoor clock/memory there is no battery on the A500.  Did a previous board leak inside the machine?

edit: Just had a hunch, is the leak from an exploded cap. on the motherboard.  That will take the system down but is easily replaced if you can solder.

[ste182]

no its like this big blue thing that looks like a small AA battery. i have no idea how im gunna fix this

[bloodmoney]

I once fixed my amiga by bending the mother board over my knee lol. Don't do it that way of course. It worked because it reset the loose socket chips. So just press all the socketed motherboard chips down firmly one at a time by hand.
You may be suprised

[Methuselas]

ste182 wrote:
no its like this big blue thing that looks like a small AA battery. i have no idea how im gunna fix this

Sounds like a bad cap. I don't know, though. I haven't turned on my a500 in over a year, much less opened it.

[Damion]

Maybe it's an A500+. Can you post a pic of the area?

[ste182]

it is an a500+ sorry i didnt think it was important, ive pressed all the chips down but it did nothing, i think im going to take it nback to the shop if they will take it back haha

[Tomas]

@ste182
I would remove the battery and clean up the area around. Even if it has not leaked then it will most likely leak soon. The only thing the battery does is keep the clock running anyways and you can get a cheap replacement battery from amigakit anyways.
I think it has leaked since you said there was some stuff near the battery. Any discoleration or hairy stuff is a sign of battery leakage.

[hayashi]

(Sorry to butt into somebody else's topic, but once a 500+ battery starts going hairy, is there any way to replace it, or should I just take it out (and how would I best go about doing that?)?

I'm pretty sure there was a bit of fuzz on one side of my A500+'s battery last time I looked, and the beginnings of what looked like verdigris (which seemed to have killed the first 500+ I got, also a green screen) on Gary's socket. Also, the system clock doesn't seem to be working (claiming it's some time in 1991 right now, and the date seems to be the same every day), which would suggest to me that it's dead)

[beller]

Hayashi,

Get it out as soon as possible.  Since the A500+ never really sold over here, I've not had one.  But it should operate just fine without it, you just have to manually set the time.

Get it out and clean the area if it's spilled.  I've pulled several, including my A4000 and 3000, by gently rocking the battery back and forth until the legs break.

[Iggy_Drougge]

hayashi wrote:
(Sorry to butt into somebody else's topic, but once a 500+ battery starts going hairy, is there any way to replace it, or should I just take it out (and how would I best go about doing that?)?

Remove the battery by pinching it off with pliers/cable cutters (or use the "domestic" method mentioned above). Keep the old one for reference so you can get a new one from your local electronics chain. Keep in mind that the replacement battery must be solder mounted (so get one with soldering legs), and don't warm it too long when mounting it, since it may explode if overheated.

[hayashi]

OK, the battery is off (the pins it was attached to still remain, or, at least, mostly), and the A500+, which was working perfectly before, seems to boot fine.

I'm not too sure about replacing the battery though... neither I or my father know much at all about electronics and soldering (I've only ever used an iron once, and that was years ago and only for a very brief period of time), and I've read that NiCd batteries are banned from sale in the EU for all but specialist purposes now. I read on one article that you can use a NiMH battery... is that true?