On Fri, 28 Jan 2000 09:01:04 +0000, "Edenyard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear Mark,
> You wrote recently about troubles with your CMOS battery and that it
> only measured 3.6V when you thought that it should have been 6V.
> Proceed with caution here. There are some that run on 3.6V
> batteries and also some that run on 3V. Is your battery marked 6V? Does
> it have a part number?
> Often, people replace a failed expensive lithium CMOS battery with a
> string of 'AA' cells in a normal plastic multiple 'AA'-style holder. All
> you have to do is to decide how many you need: 2, 3 or 4. In that way,
> you don't end up paying through the nose to keep the CMOS alive. Since
> CMOS technology only draws nanoamps when in standby, 'AA' cells will
> work nicely. Usually, 'AA' cells in this sort of application fail
> due to old age before their energy has been drained.
> If you can report a battery part number, we may be able to decipher
> the proper voltage for you.
> Hope this helps!
> Ron.
Pardon me if I interject a comment here. If it is a 3.6 volt battery,
it will consist of 3 Ni-Cad cells stacked up in series inside a little
plastic tube. You can count the number of cells by feeling the number
of annular ripples around the circumference of the plastic tube. A
single lithium cell has three volts. Ni-Cad cells have 1.2 volts each.
Ron, you are right in saying that "AA" cells in this sort of application
will fail due to old age before their energy is drained. I use a 4.5
volt "AA" pack (i.e. 3 "AAs" in series) for replacing a 3.6 volt CMOS
battery. Although I have seen some computers using a 6-volt external
battery pack to replace a 3.6 volt CMOS battery, this amount of voltage
is too much, IMHO.
Remember to set the jumpers on the motherboard so as to enable the external
battery.
Sam Heywood
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