Reflections on restoring a Commodore Amiga 500 Plus

As a hobby, I do occasional restorations of vintage computers and other electronics. Restoring vintage computers is my escape—like a mental jog that keeps burnout at bay. It’s also a fantastic way to “time travel” and appreciate some brilliant engineering feats from the past.

The following is a reflection on one of my recent adventures in retro.

A Tale of Two Batteries

This is a tale of two batteries. One exercises a modicum of self-restraint, while the other vehemently objects to the very idea of minimizing collateral damage.

We’re talking about GP vs. Varta. The two bitter, alkaline rivals of the vintage computing world’s Ni-Cad battery war. Many a motherboard has been laid to waste as a result of a rather unfortunate case of battery leakage.

Imagine, the thousands of incredible engineering feats etched in copper-clad fiberglass, of machines that once provided utility, joy and dare I say “companionship” to thousands of people, are now no more, forever lost to the toxic, shady wastelands of bureaucratic e-recycling processes.

So when I had the opportunity to spend some quality time this weekend repairing one of the last great vestiges of the 16-bit computing era, a Commodore Amiga 500+, I was thrilled to realize that this particular machine had the relatively saner GP battery instead of that insidious Von Varta.

You see; those Vartas, they’re often higher on the brand scale, but low on the veracity scale. They’re not only overrated, they’re overly dramatic. They give to a rather unamusing thespian streak once they decide it’s game over. And by streak here, I mean imagine the corrosive liquids inside the battery leaking all over the motherboard’s surface, components and even ports, demolishing everything in sight with no accountability and with utter impunity.

Damage Assessment

Back to our motherboard, the damage from the now-dead GP battery was contained within a small circumference and within reason. There was little collateral damage; however, the Amiga was temperamental and would power up to a light gray screen, not the expected insert-disk Kickstart screen. This continued even after removing the battery and cleaning up the area with vinegar/baking soda and isopropyl rinse.

Did all the usual fault-finding steps, including checking sockets and testing socketed chips in a working motherboard, checking for bulging/leaky electrolytic capacitor and burned resistors. Everything seemed to be in order but it would still not boot 8/10 times and never when a drive was connected. I replaced the close by C813 capacitor but that didn’t help. Then I noticed that whenever I cleaned the battery area with isopropyl and promptly power up the Amiga, it would boot up fine.

Repair

Upon further examination, the key to the repair was a corroded (but still connected) track under the battery. It had continuity but was unreliable/high resistance. I tinned it with solder and this fixed it. Just need to cover this up with some epoxy solder mask and it should be good to go back into its housing. I might do a full re-capping as well.

There can be no denying that the satisfaction in bringing to life a once-declared-dead machine is quite gratifying. Of course, in this particular instance, the resulting satisfaction was partly unhindered by higher quality, honest engineering from GP.

Restoring the Amiga wasn’t just about reviving old tech; it was about preserving a piece of computing history. Every floppy disk drive click, boot, and screen flicker—a reminder of how far we’ve come and why looking back can sometimes push us forward.