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Anyone who has ever had to deal with the aftermath of a battery leak knows how much damage such a failure can cause. Batteries that degrade release corrosive chemicals that eat away at traces of PCBs, clog connectors, and generally leave everything looking nasty. Getting your gadget to work again usually takes a lot of cleaning, followed by patiently finding suspicious connections and restoring broken ones.
We doubt, however, that anyone has ever put in so much effort as [Lee Smith] a on his Atari 800 XL. This example was listed on eBay in a badly damaged condition, having been stored under an entire box of leaking batteries. [Lee] made a bid and, to his amazement, won the auction. He was now the proud owner of a classic gaming machine covered in a thick brown crust of battery residue.
A first inspection showed that the damage was more than superficial: even inside the computer case, it was a large pile of crispy brown waste. [Lee] first spent several hours on the plastic case, using different cleaning agents and an ultrasonic bath, and managed to make the case almost spotless. The keyboard presented a bigger challenge, however: not only did it require a thorough cleaning of every switch and key, but the keyboard matrix on the PCB had several missing connections, which needed to be restored using bodge wires.
The keyboard working again, [Lee] turned to the motherboard. This turned out to be an even bigger challenge, with several components (including a few custom chips) damaged beyond repair. With the help of a few eBay spare parts and (again) countless hours of cleaning, the motherboard began to look healthy. After a few tries, [Lee] felt confident enough to plug the whole system in and turn it on. And his efforts had paid off: the battered Atari conscientiously displayed his prompt BASIC, ready for his second life.
We’ve already seen what kinds of damage a leaking battery can cause to an Amiga or faulty caps to an Xbox. But those two drawbacks seem minor compared to what happened to poor Atari. Thanks to [Simon] for the tip.
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