Corroding A4000 clock battery

We all know that the internal clock battery in the A4000 is prone to corroding, which if the battery leaks can lead to damaging the motherboard and the simm sockets.

When I was using my A4000 regularly the battery continued to work fine, holding the time properly, but this week when I set it up the time was gone and the battery is not holding a charge any longer. But that is to be expected from a machine nearly 14 years old!

I opened up the system to check the battery, worried that the battery had leaked, but I was glad to see that it hasn't. But it does have a very slight sign that it could start to leak at any time as a very small amount of corrosive furring is evident at one end.

I looked on Amikit and they have replacement batteries for the A4000, but the only problem is that it is soldered to the motherboard and I don't own a soldering iron, and worse still is that I don't have any soldering experience! So I don't want to ruin the A4000 by trying.

I've read some posts on other forums that recommend just cutting the battery off from the motherboard, but would it be OK to do that? Would the A4000 still work fine with the battery missing?

Also does anyone know of a guide to replacing the battery with a CR32 style battery as used on a PC motherboard? I might be able to get a friend with soldering experience to help me out to do this.

I'm not sure about the A4000 specifically, but I think Amigas should work without the battery, but obviously not holding the times etc.

If the battery is held on in the same way as it is in the A500, then cutting it should be fine. I don't think it should damage anything as long as you are careful to cut the right parts.I know it is possible to replace it with a newer type of battery on some amigas, so the 4000 shouldn't be an exception. I suggest you have a look at amiga.org as I seem to remember there being some discussion of batteries there.

The simplest way to fit a newer type of battery would probably be to solder two wires to the A4000 PCB where the battery was, then solder the other ends of the wires to the new battery holder, and then put it out of the way. This would only be necesary if the new battery holder didn't fit into the space for the old battery. And if you just cut the old battery off, you would need to remove the tags from the motherboard which held the battery in place.

The problem with the A4000 motherboard, from what I've read, is that it has three connections with the motherboard, and you need to add a resister when replacing the battery with a battery holder style one, but I can't find details on what is needed.

I'm not really that bothered with the system keeping time as I can quickly reset the clock when i use it, that's not a problem. I just want to make sure that if I remove the battery from the motherboard that the system will continue working.