486x wow. 29 year old battery, that's a battery a bunny could really cheer for. Most of my 20+ year old desktop PCs all arrive with dead batteries. Thankfully they are easy to change. On Fri, 21 Oct 2022 at 22:15, Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On Wed, Oct 19, 2022 at 07:58:04PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
Almost all PCs have settings that they want to keep while the computer is off or even unplugged. Ones that they don't want to keep on disk. Things you set up from the firmware setup screen.
Furthermore, they have a realtime clock that runs when the machine is turned off or unplugged.
These are all powered by a lithium coin cell.
Eventually, that battery runs down and you have to replace it. Five or ten years of lifetime seems normal.
When it runs down, the computer will forget the date, time, and all its setting when it is turned off. This is annoying: every time you start up you have to fill in the time and other settings.
Luckily, for most computers it is easy to replace: it is in a socket in the motherboard. The battery can be sourced from Dollarama or Amazon for a buck or two. Just get the size right.
For (some? all?) notebooks the coin cell battery isn't used if there is a charge in the main battery. So you may not notice that the coin cell battery is failing.
I flattened my notebook's main battery somehow (left it sleeping for a week?). When I powered it on, it had no idea of the time nor what to boot.
Upon investigation, I find that I have to completely disassemble my computer to replace the battery! They placed it on the top of the main board whereas access is to the bottom. If you care, you can read page 50 of <https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/xps-15-9560-laptop_setup-guide_en-us.pdf>
Sheesh that's dumb. Of course I had to disassemble my wife's compaq laptop many times years ago to resolder the power connector that kept breaking off the board. Terrible crap.
It looks as if I will need some new thermal grease since I have to remove the heat sink from the processor. And the coin cell assembly is not generic -- no Dollarama battery. < https://www.amazon.ca/LeFix-Replacement-Battery-Connector-Precision/dp/B082G...
I was recently playing around with my 486 (from 1993). Much to my surprise the CR2032 is still keeping the settings just fine. Says Sony and made in japan on the battery. I guess they made good batteries. Good thing it uses one of those rather than those horrible varta batteries that leaked all over the place that were common in the 1980s. I am impressed at the battery still working after 29 years.
-- Len Sorensen --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk