Thinkpads Forum

i'm considering purchasing a 600mhz P3, 256mb ram, cdrom drive, 600x for $150 from someone locally. the one issue he mentioned is that the cmos (motherboard right?) battery might need replacing. is this difficult? i'm comfortable with opening and working on electronics, but is this a very difficult thing to do? expensive? where can i get a replacement battery?

another question: can i put an 80gb 5400rpm hdd in this notebook? perhaps with a bios update?

80GB will work just fine - don't even need an overlay program.

The only thing you should do first is up the BIOS to the latest.

As to the CMOS battery, it's a snap to replace:

1. Remove old battery from computer (it's in by the memory)

2. Buy new button cell from Radio shack ($3)

3. Rip leads off of old cell and solder them to the new one. Insulate the two sides of the cell from one another with a bit of electrical tape, and install. As long as the cell reads 3V or greater after soldering, you're good to go.

Alternatively, you can shell out $10 for a battery with leads already attached.

Rob

uzibear wrote:i'm considering purchasing a 600mhz P3, 256mb ram, cdrom drive, 600x for $150 from someone locally. the one issue he mentioned is that the cmos (motherboard right?) battery might need replacing. is this difficult? i'm comfortable with opening and working on electronics, but is this a very difficult thing to do? expensive? where can i get a replacement battery?

You can get the real CMOS battery on eBay.

The part number is 02K6502.

DO NOT SOLDER TO THE CMOS BATTERY!

It can overheat and explode or leak and cause a fire, or at least a nasty burn.

Use a spotwelder. Don't have one? Me neither. You can use tape, or buy the $3 cell from Batteries Plus, and they will rip the leads off your old cell and spot weld them on the new one, and shrink wrap it, either for free or a whole dollar.

That's a lot cheaper than the $25 or so being charge for the cell with leads.