Hi

[zedwizz]

Had a bit of a clear out in the loft today and found my collection of old commodore computers.

A1500
500
C64

I thought i'd have alook on the net a see if anyone still plays with these machines and then i found you lot lol.

So, tomorrow i will brush of the dust and find out if they still work. Any tips what i should look for before i plug in the mains?

 

[Templar]

Welcome.

 

[dwayneh]

Hello and welcome to AmiBay.

First thing to look for is a leaking battery in the A1500, and in the 500 if you have a memory expansion with a real time clock. Remove them asafp, and treat the area with lemon juice (search the website for why) and clean that with IPA (leave to dry before putting power through)

 

[zedwizz]

ok i will check out the battery in both machines tomorrow. Is it a big problem if it has leaked and if so can it be fixed?

 

[BrooksterMax]

ok i will check out the battery in both machines tomorrow. Is it a big problem if it has leaked and if so can it be fixed?

Welcome

I learned from the best about this (on this forum), you simply remove the battery - not necessary to replace unless you want to keep time.

You can clean the board using lemon juice (to counter the corrosive battery residue) if the battery leaked and left horrible gunk on the board, I watched a master at work who taught me about this

Although the corrosion may have damaged neighbouring chips like it did on my A500+ then some more serious repairs were needed.

 

[zedwizz]

ok i will check out the battery in both machines tomorrow. Is it a big problem if it has leaked and if so can it be fixed?

Welcome

I learned from the best about this (on this forum), you simply remove the battery - not necessary to replace unless you want to keep time.

You can clean the board using lemon juice (to counter the corrosive battery residue) if the battery leaked and left horrible gunk on the board, I watched a master at work who taught me about this

Although the corrosion may have damaged neighbouring chips like it did on my A500+ then some more serious repairs were needed.

oh, so i could be a big problem if is leaked then

 

[Merlin]

Hi,

Welcome! We can keep your old machines in good repair and working as they should.

 

[BrooksterMax]

I have 2 A500+s, my original machine which needed major repairs after leakage.

I got another A500+ last month and it was fine - I removed the battery and cleaned the board a little and no problems.

So two very different outcomes.

 

[zedwizz]

Hi,

Welcome! We can keep your old machines in good repair and working as they should.

sounds like i might need that if the battery has leaked lol

 

[zedwizz]

This morning i have been busy testing the old computers out (wife not impressed lol).

Everything seams to be working so far after all these years in the loft. I've still yet to power up the A1500 but before i do that i thought i'd check the battery like the AMiBay members have said. I've removed the top cover and found inside some big expansion boards which i would like identified so i took some pictures.

cover off!

Dose anyone know what they are?

some sort of PC emulator??

Some sort of memory upgrade??

Some sort of harddrive controller??

The battery

 

[Justin]

hi

 

[zedwizz]

And back together and up and running

Removed the battery which had leaked slightly but nothing bad.

 

[rkauer]

Cards:

A2088XT: a XT emulator in hardware. Not exactly useful today, but still an interesting piece of kit if you can replace the 8088 CPU for a NEC V20 CPU (then you'll be able to install an ISA network card and make it available to the Amiga side!).

Second one is an 8UP! (DIP version), actually populated with 2Mb of RAM. Too bad those pesky 1M x 1bit DIP chips are hard to find nowadays...:banghead:

I cannot identify the SCSI (or IDE) controller, but if it boots the Amiga normally leave it there or take it out in next maintenance to check the model.
_______________

About the battery: it clearly leaked severely and I strongly recommend you to clean the affected area with lemon juice or spirit vinegar prior to continue to use your Amiga.

 

[zedwizz]

Cards:

A2088XT: a XT emulator in hardware. Not exactly useful today, but still an interesting piece of kit if you can replace the 8088 CPU for a NEC V20 CPU (then you'll be able to install an ISA network card and make it available to the Amiga side!).

Second one is an 8UP! (DIP version), actually populated with 2Mb of RAM. Too bad those pesky 1M x 1bit DIP chips are hard to find nowadays...:banghead:

I cannot identify the SCSI (or IDE) controller, but if it boots the Amiga normally leave it there or take it out in next maintenance to check the model.
_______________

About the battery: it clearly leaked severely and I strongly recommend you to clean the affected area with lemon juice or spirit vinegar prior to continue to use your Amiga.

thanks for the reply.

i've removed the battery and done the lemon juice trick and all looks ok.

thanks

---------- Post added at 21:25 ---------- Previous post was at 21:20 ----------

wheres the best place to get 1M x 1bit DIP chips and what sort of cost each?

 

[rkauer]

You can ask our resident hoarders (LTAC, MadCatJR, Cosmos, among lots of others).

Simply create a wanted thread on the proper area (Want-to-buy/Amiga) and someone will jump in in a snap.:nod:

 

[Zetr0]

@ZedWizz

Welcome to AmiBay, =)


Now, the cards in your A2000 -

the one with the harddisk is a Macrobotics HardFrame I suspect the other is a ISA video adapter

 

[zedwizz]

How much do these things fetch nowadays?

 

[rkauer]

@zedwizz: we don't comment on prices in this site.

The goods have an intrinsic value, where the best is what you want for and what a possible buyer will be prepared to pay.

Said that, Zorro 2 cards are not expensive (beside accelerators) and command affordable prices.