LCD Frisbee

[Geoff Sykes]

I have had this happen to me twice on two different desktop PC's. The first
time was a disaster in that the resulting random activity as the battery was
dying caused a lot of important system files to get scrambled. The second
time I understood the symptoms and did the swap in time. What I don't
understand is why manufactures don't put a little warning into the bios that
tells us that the battery is either low, or that it's been xx years since it
was last replaced. I'm sure we're not alone in our experience. Of course it
could also be a case of either forced planned obsolescence, or manufactures
not grasping the fact that many of us hold on to our computers for a very
long time. (- sigh -)

-- Geoff Sykes
-- Los Angeles





-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 3:57 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: LCD Frisbee



Another minor saga in the life of SuperFutz!

For years, my old Compaq laptop wouldn't run for more than 
about five or ten minutes on a battery charge, so I just kept 
it on the charger when I used it. Finally, it started getting 
strange and had a couple of minor psychotic episodes that 
prompted me to go battery shopping. A new Lithium-ion battery, 
fully charged, and it fired right up - for about a half hour, 
then blinked out suddenly. I dinked around with it off and on 
for a couple of days, then just ignored it for another week, 
putting off the revelation that it was fried for as long as I 
could. This afternoon, glaring at it as I walked past, a brain 
cell belatedly fired. *CMOS*, it said. Well, duh. So I got the 
thing apart this afternoon without breaking anything 
important, pulled sub assemblies until I found the tiny button 
cell, went out and got a replacement, and put the thing back 
together with no major parts left over. It works. Slowly, like 
it always did. You'd think as many desktop systems as I've put 
together, upgraded, salvaged, cannibalized, and resurrected 
through the years, I'd have thought of the CMOS battery 
sooner. Argh...

Ron N