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Recap guide

Recap the Commodore Amiga 2000

Power supply electrolytics and the battery can both damage an A2000. Two Jan Beta videos cover a PSU recap and a battery leak repair with recap.

Open the interactive checklist Tick off each capacitor as you replace it. It saves in your browser.

Worth a recap. Reports say it is a common and useful fix on this machine.

Which board do I have?

Boards changed during production. These notes come from the linked sources, and many are only partly documented, so check the board in front of you.

  • A2000 rev 3.x (German design, to 4.0) (Medium confidence). How to tell: German built, derived from the A1000, 512K chip RAM on the board and 512K fast RAM on an expansion card. Capacitors: No electrolytic list per revision found; sources only cover RAM layout and chipset. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A2000 rev 4.x (US design, 4.0 to 4.5) (Medium confidence). How to tell: A500 derived with 1MB soldered on (512K chip, 512K fast); one owner reads the revision from the board marking. Capacitors: The leaking RTC battery is the documented hazard on a rev 4 board; no cap values given. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source
  • A2000 rev 6.x (6.0 to 6.5) (Medium confidence). How to tell: All 1MB as chip RAM, ECS chipset with Kickstart 2.04, green and orange LEDs on ECS machines. Capacitors: Battery near the CPU socket leaks badly onto the board; a rev 6 replacement board shipped with a remote coin cell. No cap values given. Capacitor list differs from other revisions: not known. Source

Where to start

We did not find a clear list of what fails first on this machine, so we are not guessing. Read the guides below, check the board for leaks, and replace what you can see.

Tips, tales and maybes

Found in write-ups and forum threads. These are other people's reports, not tested by us. Check part references and values against your own board.

  • Story: Battery fallout that looks mild (Medium confidence). A write-up on an A2000 with a leaked Varta battery found a black screen, broken traces and a degraded CPU socket despite the board looking not too bad. The author neutralised with white vinegar then alcohol, tested the socketed chips in a known-good Amiga first, and used pin headers in place of the ruined socket. Source
  • Watch out: Battery leak damage hides in vias and sockets (Medium confidence). A Rev 4 A2000 repair found corrosion around the CPU socket with broken pads, traces and disconnected data and control lines. The author bridged pads with thin wire, tested vias against the CPU slot, and fitted a new socket. Remove the clock battery early, whatever the capacitors look like. Source

Before you start

  • Boards changed during production. Check your board number against the guides before you order parts.
  • A mains power supply can hold a dangerous charge. If you are not trained to work on one, have a professional do it.

Guides we used

This page and the interactive bench are built from these. They have the photos and the full detail, so please read them and support their authors.

The capacitor list

We have not checked a capacitor list for this machine yet, so none is shown. Follow the guide above for your board, then add the capacitors in the interactive checklist and it builds a shopping list for you.

Skip the sourcing

While you are in there

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links only search by name. Disclosure

Steps, tools and safety

The steps, the tools in top, middle and budget picks, and the safety list are the same for every machine, so they live on one page: How to recap, step by step.

Values are shown as published in the guides above, and boards changed during production. Check the board in front of you. A recap involves hot tools and, on some machines, dangerous voltages. You do it at your own risk.

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