Leaky nicad battery

From: Mark <mark_k_at_iname.com>
Date: Fri Apr 30 05:51:17 1999

Hi,

A few days ago I posted about an old PC board which had a leaky battery. I
followed Allison's advice and neutralised the stuff with lemon juice. The
fizzing/bubbling that happened when I did this suggests that cleaning with
alcohol alone (say) is not really adequate.

Anyway, after cleaning it up I checked all affected PCB traces with a
multimeter. It turns out that none of them were corroded all the way through,
so repairs weren't necessary.

Cleaning the board didn't solve the problem that this PC has. On power on, it
says (something like) 2A Keyboard failure. I can boot the machine and get into
the setup menu by pressing Alt-Esc. However, the cursor keys and space bar do
not work. At the DOS prompt, typing letter keys causes them to print twice
(ddiirr, and so on). This is using a known good keyboard to test with.

Does anyone have an idea as to what the problem might be? If it's in some
custom-programmed keyboard controller or other custom chip, obviously the
prospect of repair is slim. But the majority of chips on the PCB look fairly
standard (PC is made in 1989 or 1990).


-- Mark
Received on Fri Apr 30 1999 - 05:51:17 BST