>Forgive my brusqueness, but what the hell is wrong with you? > >Why are you risking your data for something that will cost you about >$11 and a few minutes of your time to fix?
Risking what data? At no time is the data on a Mac, ANY Mac, ever in danger of being damaged or lost because of a dead battery. Worst case, you have a Mac model that can't boot with a dead battery, in which case the data sits on the hard drive until such time that the battery is replaced (or the drive pulled and accessed by another computer). Some stuff may work less than correctly if the date and time are wrong, but that is fixable without replacing the battery (see below). >You say this battery's been dead for years, that your system takes a >long time to boot up and all your emails have the wrong date ... do >you have ANY idea how much trouble you're causing the recipients of >your email (and all the machines that handle it as well) by being too >lazy to fix this problem? Did you ever stop to think the person lacks the skills or confidence to change the battery? I know my parents would not even attempt such a task. Nor would many other people I know. They simply lack the ability to safely open the Mac and change it, and they know this and don't want to cost themselves even more time, money, and effort by damaging the Mac. So that may leave the person with the option of paying to have it replaced. Something I'm sure my local CompUSA would charge around $75 to do (they have a bench charge of $60, nothing, no matter how simple is less than that price. So the battery would be at least $60 plus the cost of the battery, which will likely be charged at a premium, so figure $15-$20 for the actual battery). So they might be looking at, do nothing, or pay $75 or more to fix something, that in essence, isn't really a problem. As for the email date problem, that is very easily fixable. Set the Mac OS to auto adjust the date and time from a network time server, and it should correct the date time shortly after every boot. Or just don't shut down the Mac and it should hold the correct date and time. I've had macs and pcs that were run for years without a battery even installed! It causes no harm to the computer, and all "problems" that crop up from it are easily solved in software. CMOS and PRAM batteries are a convenience item and nothing more, they are totally unnecessary for the operation of the computer*. I remember the days of running computers that didn't even HAVE batteries! *the exception to this is obviously Macs that won't turn on without a good battery, but that is an apple designed limit and has nothing to do with the actual ability of the Mac to operate without a battery. Powering off a computer that lacks a battery may force the user to reset basic settings the next time the computer is powered on... again, irrelevant to the operation of the computer, and thus why I said it is a convenience item only, it just saves the user the effort of resetting the things stored by the power provided by the battery when no other power is available. >Are you, in short, a "12:00 Flasher"?* If they don't use the clock on the VCR or the timer on the VCR, then why bother setting it? Just so it doesn't blink 12:00?!? If it doesn't bother them, why should it be anyone else's place to make them change it. Why conform for the sake of conforming?!? :-p -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
