New Amiga 4000! - But what about the battery?

[LordSpunky]

Today I picked up my new Amiga 4000, with Cyberstorm MK2 68040, Picasso IV & IDE Hard Drive & CD-ROM Drive. It is boxed with Workbench 3.0 and came with a Citizen monitor. I know there is a battery leakage issues with these big Amiga's, my A1500 suffered with it. It all works, and the owner didn't take it apart to check. I have just done that and checked and found the following picture......do I remove this ASAP? There will be more questions soon! EG what kinda RAM can I stick in and upto what? blah blah.....

Thanks

Tris

[amigadave]

Yes, remove that battery as quickly as possible and clean the board with a solution to neutralize the decomposing battery "Fuzz" from spreading further and continuing to cause damage to the motherboard even after the battery is removed.

Check the Internet for how to prepare a neutralizing solution.  You can probably max out your motherboard RAM by contacting AmigaKit in the UK.  If they don't have the RAM in stock, they can get it for you.  Maximum RAM you can install on the motherboard is 2mb Chip RAM and 16mb Fast RAM.  Since you have a Cyberstorm Mk2, you would be better off to put your Fast RAM on it instead of the motherboard.  It can take up to 128mb of Fast RAM.

[LordSpunky]

When I removed the battery from my A1500 it broke the pins, is this likely to happen on this board? And please can you tell me what solution that is? I assume this goes also for my riddled A1500 board......thanks

[save2600]

If you're careful and assuming the legs aren't all corroded, you shouldn't be breaking any legs on the battery. Simply heat up your soldering iron (make sure you've got a nice sharp tip), sneak a small flat blad screwdriver under the battery (or just use your fingers), apply the iron to the end with only one leg and carefuly lift that end of the battery up and out. Using the iron again, heat up one of the remaining two legs on the other end and lift her up a little, but don't fully remove. Repeat for the other side until the leg comes fully out of the board, then tackle the remaining leg. IF there are four legs on the battery, I'd take some de-soldering wick to 'em and try to remove as much solder as you can that way so the battery can be gently wriggled/pried out.

If you end up breaking a leg off though, it can usually be removed with a fine needle-nosed pliars while heating up the solder joint. No big whoop!

[fitzsteve]

As the others say get that off ASAP!

Corrosion has already started on the simm socket, see attached.

You need to neutralise this with Distilled Vinegar/Lemon Juice & scrub off with Tooth Brush and then clean the area with Isoproply Alcohol.

Make sure you let it dry properly before testing and keep fingers crossed there is no further damage under that simm socket like tracks.

Also, can't see behind the battery but are the chips legs covered in green too?

All the best.

Steve.

[LordSpunky]

Eep! Scared! I gotta take the motherboard outta the case for this right?

[TjLaZer]

Eep! Scared! I gotta take the motherboard outta the case for this right?

See here for more help.  At a minumum you can just snip off the legs to remove the battery if you don't want to dissasemble the motherboard, etc.  Just carefully snip the legs off and clean with alcohol.

http://amiga.serveftp.net/hardware_repair.html

[gertsy]

See here for more help.  At a minumum you can just snip off the legs to remove the battery if you don't want to dissasemble the motherboard, etc.  Just carefully snip the legs off and clean with alcohol.

http://amiga.serveftp.net/hardware_repair.html

Ditto, But be careful not to damage any of the surrounding components while clipping.  It doesn't look too bad and it aint going to get any worse in the next couple of days so there is no need for panic.  Snipping the battery off at the legs is a good interim solution.
It is then easier to snip each remaining tabs in half so that you can un-solder each of the four solder points more easily and extract them one by one with small pointy nose plyers.
Use isopropyl alcohol and a fine bristle tooth brush to kill off those crystals..

You can do the initial clipping without removing the MB if you are looking for an interim solution.

[Buzzfuzz]

Eep! Scared! I gotta take the motherboard outta the case for this right?

No, you can do this with the board in place.
Just genteelly cut it or wiggle it out.
Then do some cleaning.

[Boudicca]

No, you can do this with the board in place.
Just genteelly cut it or wiggle it out.
Then do some cleaning.

I've done 2 4000 boards neither if which I desoldered, the legs if not corroded are long enough to snip high up, clean, flux and solder a nimh compatible replacement in its place. nimh work fine. In the UK I bought mine from Maplins also Digikey/Farnell did one.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/pcb-mounted-nimh-batteries-30958?ordercode=JC85G one of these if I remember right

[Buzzfuzz]

I've done 2 4000 boards neither if which I desoldered, the legs if not corroded are long enough to snip high up, clean, flux and solder a nimh compatible replacement in its place. nimh work fine. In the UK I bought mine from Maplins also Digikey/Farnell did one.
 
http://www.maplin.co.uk/pcb-mounted-nimh-batteries-30958?ordercode=JC85G one of these if I remember right

No no no no :roflmao:
Still havent learned the trick ha ?
 
Regardless of the legs being in or out, solder wires to it and place the battery between the front metal and front case, near the leds, but not inside the case anymore.
That battery, even if it is 2032, always on the front between the metal and the plastic.
If your smart, you will use a thermoplastic connector so the red and black wire can be used again, while you solder wires also to the battery.

[smerf]

Hi,

@LordSpunky

Don't know if you know how to use a soldering iron, but plug the iron in, let it heat up, (remember this hot point -- always hold the iron by the handle do not touch anything metal at the front of the iron, this part gets hot enough to melt lead).  If it is a new iron tin the tip by putting solder on the end and remember always keep a wet sponge around so you can clean the tip by laying the sponge flat on the work bench (not software but work table) rotate the tip of the iron on the sponge, then use it on the project you are working on. When finished using the soldering iron, thin the tip with a good coat of solder and then unplug. This last sentence is very important if you want easy soldering the next time you use it.

Now that battery should be removed as quickly as possible, the area cleaned of all battery leakage and acid rot, (I used an acid brush snipped short, and rubbing alcohol on my A4000 about 2 years ago and it is still working, I went to Radio Shack and bought a telephone plug and a telephone battery, (I believe they were 3.6V if I remember right, check the battery you are pulling out) I soldered in the plug, and then connected in a regular telephone battery, this way I could make the leads long enough to mount the battery anywhere I wanted (off the motherboard area) and have easy removal to plug in a new battery when needed. These batteries when charged last a very long time without Amiga use.

Hope I included everything to make replacement easy.

smerf

Oh when using the soldering iron always make sure you place the hot iron in a safe place, like your friends seat when he gets up to use the bathroom, that way if you mess up your board, at least you will get some sort of laugh as he sits down.

If you look at both ends of the battery will see where the battery is crimped to a tab on each end, I put a screwdriver between the tab and the battery and rotated it back and forth until the tab snapped off the battery, this leaves a small piece of metal still sticking in the motherboard on the top side.

|[===]| (tab |), (battery [===]), (tab |)
|          |
wiggle screwdriver between tab and battery  |/[===]/|  (/ screwdriver) until tab breaks off battery, you will need to use a thin bladed screwdriver. The end tabs of the battery will be a little bend up and ragged, but you can straighten them with longnose pliers. Then just solder the new battery onto the old tabs, or do like I done and buy a plug for a telephone and solder in with long wires inside the case where you can mount it away from the motherboard. I have my telephone battery mounted outside the case with double adhesive.

[LordSpunky]

Sooo......lots of options, doesn't matter if I leave battery legs in or not, but mostly get that battery out and clean up the board? I have some CPU cleaner somewhere......not sure what is it in yet, still that the kind of thing I need? I like the idea of mounting the battery away from the mobo, and I have seen somewhere someone replacing the battery for a CR2032, is that a good idea and where did I see it ?
Cheers guys lots of ideas, I just need to put this into practice really. I'm not bad with a soldering iron but never working on a circuit board

[Buzzfuzz]

I have some CPU cleaner somewhere

No No No ....
 

By Zetr0;
In a nutshell - you need to neutralize the acid(s).
 
 
Whats actually happened?
 
As we know the battery leak eats the copper as it reacts with oxygen, however this leaves a cu-sulphate that reacts stronger with copper thus making a syndromic effect - the more copper that is eaten, the stronger the acid becomes.
 
 
What do we need to do?
 
To get past this you will need to destablize neutralize this acidic effect, there are many expensive methods you can use but the best would be to use an organic acid (acetic) compound like Spirit Vinigar or Lemon Juice.
 
The latter smells better, where as the former make you want to reach for the salt and ketchup to put on the chips
 
 
How we need to do it =)
 
You need to work the area with an acetic acid, this will destablize the cu-sulphates and neutralize the original battery acid. I use an electric tooth brush and have it - just dont put to much pressure on it.
 
Give this acetic acid a few miniutes to work (say about 15 minutes) and then its time for a proper clean - you should use IPA (isopropyl Alcohol) or pre-diluted car-screenwash (2.5Ltrs for £1 from pound land).
 
You have to use a little more of the the car-screen wash compaired to the IPA, but its so cheap its still on the plus side =)
 
 
Cleaning: not to do this is NOT an option!
 
Now leave to dry, for a good 8 hours in an airing cupboard (would recommend 24hours) - firstly dab up what you can with a kitchen paper like bounty - especially if you have been working around capacitors you MUST leave the board to dry properly - one day isn't going to hurt.
 
Capcitor legs will promote the capiliary action of fluids and essentiall suck them up into the electrolite. Should the caps be damp when turning the computer (even a miniscule) the fluid turns into steam and this can (and does) break the capacitor electrolite - should that this happen, you would then have to replace the capcitor.
 
This is a much lesser problem when working with more expensive acid destablizers and pcb cleaners as they are formulated to dry quickly.
 
 
hope that ramble helps.

[Boudicca]

No No No ....

What utter twaddle! or How to make a drama out of a crisis!

It's battery acid, not brain surgery!