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Submitted by: dunno source via Submit a Kludge!
Nice try but it still won’t run Crysis. – Ms. Fix-It
Favorite Comment(s!): Fixer ilmuprogramming says, “[insert Mac vs PC post here]“
AND: Fixer kg333 replies, “[insert retort extolling the virtues of Linux here]“
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i would be surprised if this would work. a lot of the numbers won’t add up. voltage, amps, watts, nothing will add up.
No; that’s where you’re wrong. Those CMOS batteries are 3v. Two AA’s in parallel run about 3v. Beyond that, the wattage draw is up to how hungry the circuit is, so there’s no danger of overpowering it.
Err, sorry, in series, not parallel.
The RTC and CMOS RAM will drain a 2032 in about a decade. These alkalines will go bad before it finishes discharging.
When I said “power up” your computer this isn’t what I meant…
HI BEN! <-This guy fixed my computer from 2,000 some odd miles away.. long time ago but still appreciated. .. it's Jessie by the way.. ya might not remember me.
[insert Mac vs PC post here]
[insert retort extolling the virtues of Linux here]
[insert general statement of agreement here]
[insert brains here]
[insert over 9000 joke here]
[insert C-C-C-C-Combo breaker joke here]
Hah, with that kludge that box is certainly running Linux. Probably Gentoo!
Definitely. With Linux, you’re free to use any battery you consider fit for the purpose. It even allows you to assemble your own batteries from a pencil core, a strip of zinc raingutter, lemon juice and a marmalade jar.
[Insert joke about Linux users here]
Being a Compaq, the BIOS settings will probably last many times longer than the motherboard itself.
Compaq power supply, but i dont think its a factory compaq unit…. the motherboard is out of a laptop or at least designed that way…. a tower would have a taller heatsink (big black box with spikes at the bottom, too wide and short for a tower), and the ram slots are side mount like a laptop, not stand ups like a tower (white slot in the upper left)
Or then again, its possibly like a dell and just soo messed up its a kludge in itself and thats why the user MADE a bios battery, whose going to pay $50 for a battery shipped from Compaq, for a Compaq
It used to be that ALL memory slots were slanted. My 386 machine was like that, not due to space constraints, just because those type of memory sticks were designed to mount that way (the retaining clips depended on the stick being pressed in from the side, the same way modern laptop memory does).
Even after the sideways style had started to go away, some of the “pizza-box” style machines as pictured continued using it to try to save space. This would also explain the compact heatsink.
Have you ever seen a SFF (Small Form Factor) desktop computer? Apparently not, but you’re looking at one now. Which came from the factory just like that, save for the batteries.
The SODIMM slot is for upgrading the video controller memory.
Correct. This is a Compaq Deskpro SFF with a PIII chip. I have several that I still use for servers because they’re absolutely bullet-proof. And to prove the above posters right, they run Linux.
It would have taken more effort to rig this up than to run to a nearby drug store (presuming they don’t live in the boonies) and buy a couple of CR2032s for like a buck though so I agree with Wewtsauce… this is just lazy! Interesting, but lazy.
Yea i have one of these hidden away for the future too. Nice machine in all, but i cannot understand why this thing is so picky about it’s HDD’s
Ok, let me try: A laptop is a computer you can carry around. Usually with a battery inside. Usually big enough to actually start the OS on. Usually with the screen and keyboard attached to the central unit. This is TIFI, so the last 3 are not just optional but quite unlikely. Heck, around here, a Cray could probably show up duct taped to something for portability. So this is a perfectly normal computer, nothing to see, moving on…
They’ve kludged a battery replacement for the normal round battery on the mobo.
I’m guessing that the original type of battery is no longer available.
When is the last time you saw a speaker mounted in a case like that? Wow.
CMOS battery replacement. Yup. And I have several PCs with speakers mounted like that
Correct. They have kludged a replacement for the CMOS battery
The kludged the Battery with … wow, two batteries? I think this is what bob_super meant. Obviously, he is used to a higher class of kludge. The should at least have included a hamster wheel and accu as power source.
Most motherboards (at least up until the last time I bought one two years ago) use the same CR2032, 3VDC battery. The two batteries pictured look like AAs, which are 1.5v each. This one is a practical kludge that, at least by appearance, works.
The number of batteries is irrelevant, as long as it puts out the right voltage.
Well, it also needs to handle the current draw, but in this case the draw is practically nothing.
It’s always a CR2032.
Except when it isn’t.
and in this (SFF) case, it isn’t. It’s a CR2430 on this model
Nah, the kludger is lazy. You can get 5 of these batteries for a buck.
This is actualy a pretty common replacement for a lagacy system’s CMOS battery that we still employ here to this day. Some “Coin Batteries” are not available anymore that will fit the slots we use, or is too expensive to order. This setup normaly lasts about 18 months for us and we use rechargables.
Cheers.
Anyone else like that fact that they aren’t even name brand batteries? Better yet, they are the off brand that has the same syllables and a slant rhyme to Duracell to make you feel like they are worth it…
Actually they are a brand specially made for hard discounts like Lidl. I think the photo is from Germany, or Europe anyway.
You mean they have other brands in other countries?
I have a couple old Macs with a similar setup in them. They require 1/2 AA batteries that are 3.6V and slightly annoying to find at reasonable prices. Three 1.2V NiMH AAs wired up and connected works nicely.
How do you get half of a AA battery without getting battery acid everywhere?
That’s the battery spec. It’s a 20 dollar battery USD at Radio Shack. I have an eMac that needs one myself and had considered doing this to it.
Mac People ….
Check your local camera shop or electronics store (NOT RADIO-TRASH!) or call your local Apple Service Provider. You can usually find the PRAM battery for $3 to $5 from them. (For the Camera or Electronics store, take the battery with you, or explain its a 3.6v that looks like a half AA battery)
http://www.newertech.com/products/pram_3_6v.php
And 5 dollar for a B-brand name on eBay, cheaper still if you’re willing to buy a Power Blossom or Golden Spring or some equally prozaic Chinese battery.
He means they’re half the length of a standard AA, and the same diameter. Not sure what the electrolyte is, they aren’t alkaline dry cells.
Problem with NiMH batteries is that they self discharge over the course of a month or so, so unless you are recharging them (which seems like a hassle) alkaline or lithium is probably a better choice.
Are we still talking about backup batteries?
Yes.
Those 1/2 AA cells are 3.6V 1/2AA Li-SOCl or Lithium Thionyl Chloride cells. Where I am they sell them at RadioShack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory
Looks like the plastic seat that the battery is supposed to sit in has been broken/removed.
If you asked me, I’d say the battery type is still available, but whoever pulled this one was a little on the lazy side and went for the quick kludge. Probably time to junk that dinosaur… Those batteries
usually last quite a long time. (whoops! truncated post)
An anonymous tip eventually led to the capture and arrest of this abused computer’s owner. He was charged with two counts of battery.
Ahem… That will be enough of that…
Sounds like an abuse of power.
…and the only thing he’ll be seeing is the inside of a cell.
Yessh mashtah *step drag* *step drag*
“My father used to work for your father, you know.
…
The prices have gone up.”
“Certainly. You take the blonde, and I’ll take the one in the turban.”
“Wait a second, wasn’t your hump on the other side?”
“What hump?”
I wish I’d been able to do this on one machine we have at work. It’s a very expensive PC that does broadcast graphics. $20,000, yet there is no way, no how, to replace the battery that is under the card cage. No way can it be done.
Sounds like an Apple product…
screw the igors go buy oompa-loompa’s http://verydemotivational.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/129115956651689844.jpg
I remember back in the day you used to be able to get an external battery pack that would connect to a header on the main board. Then again (Around the 486-P1 era) You would have the battery actually soldered on to the motherboard. Sort of reminds me of that. Being said I wouldn’t consider this an “epic” kludge I have done far worse to systems.
while the concept is valid the implementation is Uuuugly. I say it’s still a kludge. At least use some heatshrink and wire ties.
actually, the computer would work. if you look where the batteries are connected to, you will see that it is attached to the slot to power up your pc’s internal clock (look riiiiiiiiight there at the bottom right hand corner. see the clock? good) . the batteries that is needed is a simple 3v battery also used for watches. see, paying attention during lectures actually do help
This looks like one really old dinosaur of a computer.
Note the HUGE (but yet thin) heatsink that covers a large portion of the MOBO. Also note the old PC Speaker on the right side, they stopped using PC speakers that look like those quite a few years ago. The fact that he appears to have an IDE HDD or CDROM also points out that this computer is at least 3 years old as well.
The battery holder itself does not appear to be damaged, well, best I can tell from this photo. He could have easily went down to the store and bought a CR2032 for about $2, if that. CR2032s have been standard in mobos, even way back in the 486 days.
I worked on Compaqs like those 10 years ago…
This huge heatsink is for CPU (AFAIK Celeron 266-PIII550). The speaker is not PC speaker, but built-in soundcard’s speaker (with TDAxxxx amplifier on mobo).
And the battery is not CR2032 but CR2450 – larger, more expensive, harder to find in some areas.
I’ve got a 2450 from a Compaq sitting on my desk that’s still at 3 volts. They’re about $6.
@Duber, the sordid details are in my blog but it is an Inscriber (then Leitch, now Harris) IncaCG 2U box. As you suggest most of the cost is indeed licensing–it’s about $8,000 in hardware at most.
The only proprietary parts are the SDI card, possibly the pro audio card, and, most importantly, the enclosure. The motherboard is a regular everyday Tyan 2895 dual Opteron with a regular nVidia chipset and LSI SCSI controller.
The battery’s even a regular CR2032. Getting at it, um, you’ll just have to see the pictures to believe it.
I read your blog, and I sympathize. Talk to a surgeon about helping you out, just tell them you need a “laparoscopic organ replacement” done.
This is not actually a fail at all, but a common practice. Contrary to popular belief, CMOS batteries do NOT in fact recharge- they’re lithium, not lithium-ion. The draw of the CMOS chip on the battery is very miniscule, so they typically last for years even without power. However, they do run out. Many commercial PCs replaced the CMOS battery with cheaper solutions, such as AAA’s and AA batteries. IBM and Motorola based macs used a D-cell for quite some time before moving to Intel. Alkaline batteries (and also ‘heavy duty’ or ‘general purpose’, which are zinc-carbon and zinc-chloride respectively, NOT alkaline, and hold onyl 40-60% the power respectively) provide power for much, much longer than the coin cell batteries do, and do not contain toxic lithium. They are also typically much cheaper per-watt (about $0.25/watt-hour as opposed to $12.60/watt-hour).
Additionally, some motherboards use different types of coincells, especially in the Pentium2 and earlier days- those cells are no longer manufactured. But since they operate at 1.3v-1.5v, any standard battery can do just fine (alkaline operate at 1.55v full down to 1.15v empty, and zinc-based are 1.7v to 1.15v.
Since when you need a good bios battery to run crysis..
I absolutely did it.
On i810 board which was defective and would drain the normal battery in a matter of days.
The sad thing is, those batteries and the pig tail used to attach them cost much more than the correct CR2032 cell would have.
Actually… this could work. the amount of current is irrelevant as it looks like its only purpose is to provide power to the cmos. normal button cell batteries last years, but apparently he wanted it to last longer, or just didnt have a button cell battery handy.
haha Aerocell batteries from LIDL!!!
Similar operation I did performed countless times on same this Compaq Small Form Factor power supplies. Linux Rulez
I actually had one of these up until a few years ago.