> I've finally fished out my small remaining collection of A series &
> RISC PC, and trying to deal with the various states of battery leaks.
>
> I'm looking for some experience here before I commit lots of time to
> restoring the machines (as a rank amateur) rather than sadly saying
> goodbye to them:
>
> A420/1
> It looks like the disastrous leakage of the 2 x AA cells has been
> contained by the battery holder, so as long as I replace that, would
> there by any other long-term problems from keeping it in a cupboard
> for em.. 12 years?
>
> A3000
> Saddest story. The battery was in an advanced state of leaking, so
> I've whipped it off, and cleaned the board down with a brush. The
> underside looks pristine; the top side has some discolouration, but
> the tracks I've tested are buzzing out ok. There's some green ...

> RISC PC
> I absolutely cannot shift screw BS1 to get the motherboard off to be
> able to look at the underside - am I missing something here, or is it
> just a brute force issue?

> The topside looks fine. Should it boot
> without the battery, or is this also an ominous sign?

> Would really appreciate any experience with these issues; from a brief
> scan through the prior postings, it looks like I've probably let the
> batteries go way further than I should have done, so I don't know if
> any of the problems are past the point of return or not?

> It should boot up, but it will either have the CMOS reset or
> corrupted. You may have to do a delete power on every time.
>
> The A3000 sounds like its beyond repair.

> druck druck.freeuk.com> wrote:

>> It should boot up, but it will either have the CMOS reset or
>> corrupted. You may have to do a delete power on every time.

>

>> The A3000 sounds like its beyond repair.

>
> I'd try the delete power on first.  One of my A7000 boards has no battery
> which means I need to power on delete before anything will happen.  Can't
> quite remember the details but I don't think I get a display. I've put
> a 1000uF capacitor where the battery should go which gives me about 5 mins
> of CMOS retention, and after that I need to power on delete it the next time
> I switch on.
>
> Theo

> The A3000 *appears* to be ok; without video, I assumed it booted to
> desktop, so pressed F12 (to get a CLI), and then CTRL+G, and it
> beeped. I blind typed BASIC, then VDU 7, and it beeped again. So I'm
> guessing it's OK. But I couldn't get video out of it any which way I
> tried.

> Much to my incredible surprise, the A420 booted exactly
> as it was last used (1999), and started running the
> programme it was left to autostart. Howls of joy.
> Goodness only knows how that lasted in CMOS with two
> leaky AA batteries. So the A420 looks like a saver, if I
> can find a monitor to work with it.

> In article
> r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
> Nick Piggott gmail.com> wrote:
>

>> Much to my incredible surprise, the A420 booted exactly
>> as it was last used (1999), and started running the
>> programme it was left to autostart. Howls of joy.
>> Goodness only knows how that lasted in CMOS with two
>> leaky AA batteries. So the A420 looks like a saver, if I
>> can find a monitor to work with it.

>
> Was the clock correct too?
>
> Derek Haslam
>
> --
> Derek Haslam dhaslam atte boulsworth dotcodotuk
> Powerbase Support http://www.boulsworth.co.uk/

> NiCads are becoming rarer and are less environmentally friendly than
> NiMh which have some other advantages. Can anyone suggest a reason why
> NiMH could not be used instead?

> On 7 Jun, Stuart wrote in message
> <4fabc073d2Stuart.winsor@orpheusinternet.co.uk>:
>
> [RiscPC Battery Woes]
>

>> NiCads are becoming rarer and are less environmentally friendly than
>> NiMh which have some other advantages. Can anyone suggest a reason why
>> NiMH could not be used instead?

>
> Yes: NiMH do *not* like being trickle charged on a permanent basis, which

> is exactly what the RiscPC does. The remaining applications of NiCd are
> usually for this reason.