Case in point, some old (even then) NEC P90 cpu laptops. This goes back
about 15 years, but it worked them.
Keeping it short, but my job involved programming and tuning
Motorollover 2-way gear. Back then, most MRSS (Motorollover Radio
Service Software) was DOS-based, and needed real serial ports.
The shop needed at least 5 laptops for this, with some spares in case
one fell out of a truck cab.
I made a deal with the IT folks to snag older laptops for this and
snagged 12 of those NEC LTs in beautiful shape, but ~8 years old.
But.. the big but.. was they all used leaded CR2035s.
After about 2 years later they all started to show the usual CMOS batt
problem, and never fails, all at once.
It may sound strange, but out of 14 "electronics techicians"; I was the
only one with gut-bucket PC knowlege. Most of them froze up with the
usual "Enter Time and Date" prompt.
I already knew about trying to solder tails on a lith cell (BDDT), and I
had a small heads-up on the prob, so I ordered a 12-pack of welded-tap
2032s from a local batt shop. Meanwhile, 5 rigs needed radio programming
ASAP.
The McGyver rulez kludge?
Strip about an inch on the wires from the wire/plug on the dead battery
(if you can get that much to spare, otherwise add some wire)
Make a circle or spiral of the bared wire on the appropriate sides of
the "plain" CR2032 and tack it town with a couple of small dots of hot
glue (mainly to hold that in place while wrapping).
Either wrap the mess with a couple of layers of stretchy tape oe
heatshrink it.
Waren't pretty, and the panel below the keyboard was a little bowed-up,
but it worked.
It worked..
--
"**** this is it, all the pieces do fit.
We're like that crazy old man jumping
out of the alleyway with a baseball bat,
saying, "Remember me mother****er?"
Jim “Dandy” Mangrum
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