> On Jun 8, 2020, at 1:24 PM, Ethan O'Toole <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I have the urge to get my Amiga’s back up and running. I’m still trying to
>> find my main Amiga A3000, but have found my A500 and my A600. The problem
>> is, I don’t remember the last time I powered these on. It’s been a long
>> time since I’ve had time. In the case of the A3000, I think it’s been about
>> 17 years. My Atari TT030 has been even longer. :-(
>
> Nice collection!
I was very active in collecting, and on this list at the beginning. I also
have a couple A1200’s that need work, and I used to have a couple A2000’s
(those went to Eric Smith probably 15-20 years ago). There is also a partial
A500, unfortunately I think it’s missing the keyboard, IIRC.
> Sooooo now for the bad news.
>
> On the Amiga A501 trap door memory expansion, there is a battery for the time
> clock that will leak. It can damage the memory board. Also, the off gassing
> of it can cause corrosion in the main computer as well.
The memory expansion was purchased new, around ’98. I just removed it and
checked it, and it looks fine.
> the Amiga 600 has surface mount capacitors that will leak and eat the main
> board. The machine will smell kinda funny, like fish or something. You will
> want to pull it apart and investigate it. The caps are in the upper left,
> upper right and middle for the most part. Have one on my bench I've been
> trying to fix for a while and it's been tough. I advice recapping before
> powering it on. And the cap job takes some work since it's all surface mount
> and the solder is funky from the electrolyte corrosion.
Sounds like this belongs in the same category as my two A1200’s, namely needing
some serious surface mount work. I know the one A1200 has an issue with a chip
that overheats. One strange thing about the A600, it’s already half apart, I’m
not sure why, as it worked just fine when I got it, and I’ve never gotten
around to figuring out how to put it back together. I’ll give it a smell later
today. :-)
> the Amiga 3000 suffers from a battery leak issue as well. Take it apart, clip
> out the battery on the mainboard. It's under the drives if I recall. Check
> the damage around the area. Look online for neutralizing it all on this and
> the A500. There are replacement mainboards that have been produced if you're
> adventurous and your board is no good anymore from extreme damage. You have
> to solder everything on and move over parts.
>
> There are some killer upgrades for the A500 that give it ~40mhz, 8MB of RAM
> and hard drive via SD or CF cards. These upgrades might run $150-$200, not
> bad compared to the flash cards that cost $120 for many systems or say, the
> CF disk only for the Apple II @ $120ish.
I’ve been aware of the A3000 battery issue, I believe that I resolved this on
the original in the late 90’s. Pulling my spare A3000 out of the box, and
checking it has been on my todo list for a long time. :-( My main A3000 has
been nicely upgraded, and was even running AmigaOS 3.9, the last time I was
using it. It’s one of two reasons I still have a 10Base-2 network segment (the
other is my DECserver). For a few years, this was one of my main systems.
About 5 years ago, I picked up a Gotek floppy replacement system, with the
intention of putting it into the A500.
Zane
