The Icon Bar: General: Dead A5000
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Dead A5000 |
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ulaggy (20:57 23/4/2014)
PaulV (04:52 26/4/2014)
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Alun Millard |
Message #123209, posted by ulaggy at 20:57, 23/4/2014 |
Member
Posts: 20
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Hi folks,
Apologies if this is the wrong place for it (or if I should have posted on a different topic) but I have a dead A5000.
Wanting to give The Olympics game which I recently rediscovered at my folk's house a whirl, I fired up the A5000 which hadn't been switch on for several months. After the red/blue screen business, it went to the Supervisor prompt. Typing desktop did nothing so I started googling.
I tried a few different commands like reinitialising desktop but when I'd then type desktop, it would give a different error "SWI&blahblahblah". Anyway, more Googling suggested that this was an issue relating to the CMOS battery and possible leak damage.
I opened up the A5000 but it's extremely hard (for me at least) to get at the location of the battery as there is a HD in the way. Using the light from my mobile, I was able to get a partial look at the battery and the immediate area surrounding it. It looks like it's suffered the battery leak / corrosion damage to some small sections of the motherboard. So I have a couple of questions.
1) Is it likely that this system is now a write-off? I'm assuming that at minimum it needs a new battery AND a new motherboard thingy.
2) What's the likely cost of that work, if it's possible. Is it worth doing or should I just shed a tear for my fallen A5000 and find a way to get The Olympics (which is on floppy disk) onto PC so I can try it with an emulator?
3) If it's not worth repairing (and forgive me if this is against the forum rules to ask), is it any good to anyone for spare parts? I wouldn't be asking money for it, it'd just need collecting from Nottingham (or P&P paying for - dunno how much that'd be) or should I just send it to the nearest scrapheap?
[Edited by ulaggy at 22:02, 23/4/2014] |
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Paul Vernon |
Message #123219, posted by PaulV at 04:52, 26/4/2014, in reply to message #123209 |
Member
Posts: 135
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Hi Alun,
Battery leakage in the A5000 is a common issue and is usually fixable even when there's been extensive damage.
Take a look at this page:
http://www.retro-kit.co.uk/page.cfm/content/Restoring-an-A5000/
The second A5000 on that page was a friend's and he sent me the motherboard for repair.
If you aren't happy about doing the repair yourself, I could certainly take a look for you.
You'd have to remove the motherboard from the machine and send it to me for a few days to assess but unless the damage is extreme I'm reasonably confident that it can be fixed.
It's even possible to replace the re-chargeable battery with a non-rechargeable battery that would need changing every 3-5 years but would be easier as it could be put into a battery holder away from the motherboard.
If you're interested, contact me through the Retro-Kit site and we can arrange fixing your machine.
Paul |
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The Icon Bar: General: Dead A5000 |
