Anyone who has to deal with the consequences of a battery leak knows how much damage this failure can cause. Deteriorating batteries leak corrosive chemicals, which can corrode PCB traces, clog connectors, and often make everything look annoying. Getting your gadget to work again usually requires a lot of cleaning, then patiently tracking down suspicious connections and restoring any broken connections.
However, we doubt whether anyone has ever been like [Lee Smith] Have his Atari 800 XLThis example is in a severely damaged state when it is listed on eBay and is stored under a full box of leaking batteries. [Lee] The bid, which puzzled him, won the auction. He is now the proud owner of a classic game console covered with a thick brown battery scum shell.
The first inspection showed that the damage was not just the skin: even inside the computer case, it was a pile of hard-shelled brown garbage. [Lee] First spent a few hours on the plastic casing, using different detergents and ultrasonic baths, and managed to make the casing almost spotless again. However, the keyboard brings greater challenges: it not only requires thorough cleaning of every switch and keycap, but also the keyboard matrix on the PCB lacks several connections, which must be repaired with bodge wires.
With the keyboard working again, [Lee] Turn to the motherboard. It turned out that this was a bigger challenge, and several components (including some custom chips) were damaged beyond repair. With some eBay replacement parts and (again) countless hours of scrubbing, the motherboard began to recover. After several tests, [Lee] Have enough confidence to connect the entire system and turn it on. His efforts paid off: the devastated Atari dutifully displayed its BASIC tips, ready to welcome its second life.
We have seen before what damage a leaked battery can cause to the Amiga, or what damage it can cause to the Xbox. But compared to what happened to this poor Atari, both seem to be minor inconveniences.thanks [Simon] tip.