Monday, March 13, 2006
Long Live The 486
BLOG READER E-MAILING ME
Hi - I got your email address from your blog. I am going to make an assumption that this is Jonathan, the same person who posted this message at computing.net several months ago:
Interesting
I am not so surprised to find this thread, but I am surprised to find it from October 2005.
Even more surprising is that I am wanting to replace the exact same battery in the same month - weird.
Anyway, looking over the PB450 motherboard on this particular machine reveals that the BR1225 is soldered on.
It looks like there are 2 metal leads coming off (one top, one bottom) that suspend the battery above the board.
My question now is how do I go about replacing the battery. Do I need new leads or can I clip and use the old ones? Can I use any hunk of metal if I need new leads?
There is also a way to disable the on-board battery and plug an external battery right onto the jumpers of the board. Can I just plop some wires down on the + and - side of the battery and plug them in?
Any help would be appreciated.
It's weird that so many people are having this exact same issue at the same time - still a lot of love for 486's I guess. I keep mine around for retro-gaming purposes, but have now run into the dreaded battery problem.
Did you wind up fixing yours? At first I thought it would be a delicate soldering job, but it looks like, as you said, it may be as easy as plugging in a new external battery.
Here is a picture of our PB450:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8774/mother/pb450.gif
The actual lithium battery is soldered to the right of J30 (Battery) in the diagram - the unlabeled gray circle.
Anyway, I was hoping that you had fixed this problem and could give me some pointers. I don't really know anything about putting an external battery on - except that it's going to somehow attach to J30. Do I actually have to "disable" the regular battery, or if it's dead it's dead?
=========================================
CONT
Wongo,
I think that I've figured out most of the battery
issue I previously
e-mailed you about. This battery should work with
the external port:
http://www.cablesnmor.com/lithium-battery.html
Does that look right to you?
Thanks,
John
=========================================
MY RESPONSE BELOW
Yes, that looks almost identicle to the one I made myself except that you're getting a lithium battery there and I just used alkaline AAA's.
Its funny, I posted that on my blog figuring that someone would end up there with a similar probelm. I'm glad that I could help.
I think that I did have to move a jumper on the board to indicate that I was using an 'external' battery, but you may have figured that out by now. A few weeks ago, I checked the links I'd been using for my Packard Bell motherboard diagrams and some of them had been taken down, but I bet you can find a diagram and description of the various jumpers by going to this site, http://rtgo.hopto.org/th99/ and looking for the PB450.
Good Luck and keep the retro gaming alive. I've personally had a lot of fun playing "Starflight 2" recently.
Check it out on The Underdogs Here if you've never heard of it.
Hi - I got your email address from your blog. I am going to make an assumption that this is Jonathan, the same person who posted this message at computing.net several months ago:
Interesting
I am not so surprised to find this thread, but I am surprised to find it from October 2005.
Even more surprising is that I am wanting to replace the exact same battery in the same month - weird.
Anyway, looking over the PB450 motherboard on this particular machine reveals that the BR1225 is soldered on.
It looks like there are 2 metal leads coming off (one top, one bottom) that suspend the battery above the board.
My question now is how do I go about replacing the battery. Do I need new leads or can I clip and use the old ones? Can I use any hunk of metal if I need new leads?
There is also a way to disable the on-board battery and plug an external battery right onto the jumpers of the board. Can I just plop some wires down on the + and - side of the battery and plug them in?
Any help would be appreciated.
It's weird that so many people are having this exact same issue at the same time - still a lot of love for 486's I guess. I keep mine around for retro-gaming purposes, but have now run into the dreaded battery problem.
Did you wind up fixing yours? At first I thought it would be a delicate soldering job, but it looks like, as you said, it may be as easy as plugging in a new external battery.
Here is a picture of our PB450:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/8774/mother/pb450.gif
The actual lithium battery is soldered to the right of J30 (Battery) in the diagram - the unlabeled gray circle.
Anyway, I was hoping that you had fixed this problem and could give me some pointers. I don't really know anything about putting an external battery on - except that it's going to somehow attach to J30. Do I actually have to "disable" the regular battery, or if it's dead it's dead?
=========================================
CONT
Wongo,
I think that I've figured out most of the battery
issue I previously
e-mailed you about. This battery should work with
the external port:
http://www.cablesnmor.com/lithium-battery.html
Does that look right to you?
Thanks,
John
=========================================
MY RESPONSE BELOW
Yes, that looks almost identicle to the one I made myself except that you're getting a lithium battery there and I just used alkaline AAA's.
Its funny, I posted that on my blog figuring that someone would end up there with a similar probelm. I'm glad that I could help.
I think that I did have to move a jumper on the board to indicate that I was using an 'external' battery, but you may have figured that out by now. A few weeks ago, I checked the links I'd been using for my Packard Bell motherboard diagrams and some of them had been taken down, but I bet you can find a diagram and description of the various jumpers by going to this site, http://rtgo.hopto.org/th99/ and looking for the PB450.
Good Luck and keep the retro gaming alive. I've personally had a lot of fun playing "Starflight 2" recently.
Check it out on The Underdogs Here if you've never heard of it.
