Should I fear battery leakage on a A1200?

[ptek]

Hello,

I have an Amiga 1200 model from 1991 if I remeber properly.
Are A1200 also potentially affected by battery acid leaking problems?

If so, I can try to figure out details about its model.

Thanks

[slaapliedje]

I'm not an expert, but I thought the A1200 didn't come by default with a clock battery, and if it had one, it wasn't the leaky kind.  If you open it up and you have a barrel shaped battery, then yes it'll potentially leak.  If you have a coin, then you are golden.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=132  That's the type of battery that will eventually leak.

Even though I had a new one in my system, I decided to go ahead and swap it out with a coin battery.

As per this post, http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9943

"
The 1200 motherboard doesn't have a battery.
If you have an Accelerator/RAM card, it might have a battery on that card."

slaapliedje

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The A1200 doesn't have a clock battery built-in.  Several different styles of expansion exist to add one.  Most mount in the trapdoor slot.  It's as easy as popping the cover and checking the board (assuming you have one).  Most are coin cell style (which don't leak).  The other way of adding a battery to an A1200 is via the clockport header on the motherboard.  Obviously examining this location will require opening the machine up.  AFAIK the only type ever made for this header used coin cell batteries.

[Ral-Clan]

Hello,

I have an Amiga 1200 model from 1991 if I remeber properly.
Are A1200 also potentially affected by battery acid leaking problems?

If so, I can try to figure out details about its model.

Thanks

No but dry capacitors are an issue with A1200s.

[ptek]

I'm not an expert, but I thought the A1200 didn't come by default with a clock battery

True, I totally forgot that. I have an accelerator, I will check its battery then. I know the battery is dead, as the time is not kept anymore, so the best action is to remove it/replace it.

[ptek]

No but dry capacitors are an issue with A1200s.

Oh, that's the other issue I was forgetting about. How much years does it usually take for the capacitor problem to start to reveal itself?

Is there anyone doing the 'recap' services on the Netherlands? Belgium or Germany would be an second option too.

[magnetic]

Oh, that's the other issue I was forgetting about. How much years does it usually take for the capacitor problem to start to reveal itself?

Is there anyone doing the 'recap' services on the Netherlands? Belgium or Germany would be an second option too.

Dont fix it if it aint broke.

If your 1200 is working fine dont touch the caps.

[amiga1260]

In the Netherlands you could let it recap by ADN : Amiga Design / Rework / Repair.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ADN-Amiga-Design-Rework-Repair/1385568108330608

@Magnetic: Could you tell what the reason is not to recap when it's not broken?

[spirantho]

Dont fix it if it aint broke.

If your 1200 is working fine dont touch the caps.

The first you will know about a capacitor leak is when your machine stops working because the cap has eaten the track.

Change the caps NOW before it leaks too much and causes real damage. Prevention is better than cure.

(I say this having just fixed an A600 whose caps had been left. It had destroyed one track and damaged many solder joints). The first symptom of the failure was the floppy drive motor not working, by which time surgery was required. If the caps had been changed before, it would have been far simpler than tracking down the broken track.  Incidentally the track that was broken was one of the data lines between the CIA under the drive and the rest of the board.

[Lurch]

I'd do the caps, didn't notice that I had a sound issue on my A1200. When I got the caps replaced the volume was louder and crisper, I was amazed.

[ptek]

Thanks for the tips!

[stachu100]

Dont fix it if it aint broke.

If your 1200 is working fine dont touch the caps.

If we are talking about A1200 (and all 25+ years retro electrionic in general) - this is VEEEERY bad advice.

[wawrzon]

If we are talking about A1200 (and all 25+ years retro electrionic in general) - this is VEEEERY bad advice.

an inexperienced amateur technician soldering mess on an otherwise still working board might be even worse an idea;)

[magnetic]

If we are talking about A1200 (and all 25+ years retro electrionic in general) - this is VEEEERY bad advice.

well stachu i cant argue with you as you are a serious expert. Its my own experience that amigas if they are working and you start to dissasemble/mess with them it can cause them to have instability. If you have a competant amiga tech to do the recap then im sure its ok. i'm just not big on fixing things that are working when its comes to amigas..

[stachu100]

Its my own experience that amigas if they are working and you start to dissasemble/mess with them it can cause them to have instability.

If you need knee surgery (example), you are not doing this by your own in your in your basement by using ordinary knife, right?

So yes I agree with you: skilled person will help/fix, unskilled will do more damage.