Recently I got a revC A501. It tested fine, RAM and RTC, so I took it home and un-cased it, not really expecting any thrills.
Wrong! So battery was removed at once (photos 1-3) and the two caps and three resistors near it were cleanly resoldered.
Apparently mostly the ground plane has suffered, so on to scratching the corrosion away. A CR2032 socket, donated by a useless PC motherboard, was also test-fitted, and fits nicely (photos 4-5).
Some cheap nail varnish was layered upon the exposed-after-scratching areas and it was time for the socket + diode (1N4148 used) installation.
This is fairly easy on such boards because of the two bridged (+) holes. So the diode can easily be mounted inline between the socket's (+) leg and the PCB, simply by breaking the bridge (photo 6), then installing the socket and soldering the diode on the underside of the PCB (photos 7-8 ).
Doesn't really look nice (photo 9) but it still works (photo 10) and hopefully it will remain like that for a good while :smile:
Wrong! So battery was removed at once (photos 1-3) and the two caps and three resistors near it were cleanly resoldered.
Apparently mostly the ground plane has suffered, so on to scratching the corrosion away. A CR2032 socket, donated by a useless PC motherboard, was also test-fitted, and fits nicely (photos 4-5).
Some cheap nail varnish was layered upon the exposed-after-scratching areas and it was time for the socket + diode (1N4148 used) installation.
This is fairly easy on such boards because of the two bridged (+) holes. So the diode can easily be mounted inline between the socket's (+) leg and the PCB, simply by breaking the bridge (photo 6), then installing the socket and soldering the diode on the underside of the PCB (photos 7-8 ).
Doesn't really look nice (photo 9) but it still works (photo 10) and hopefully it will remain like that for a good while :smile: