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Does the PowerBook 500 series have a clock battery?

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-23 19:31:12

Hi all,

I've tried searching here, in Google, and even tried taking my PowerBook 540c apart as much as I am comfortable, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. Does it have a dedicated clock battery or does it keep time with AC and laptop battery power? If it does have a dedicated clock battery, can it be replaced?

Thanks!

Posted by: Forrest on 2023-03-23 20:06:43

Yes, there is a clock battery located approximately under the trackpad. See pages 123-124 on this link Here

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-23 20:56:00

Yes, there is a clock battery located approximately under the trackpad. See pages 123-124 on this link Here

Thank you! I’ll definitely bookmark that manual.

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-24 13:11:05

Looks like my 540c doesn’t have one. I do t even see the outline for one as shown in the manual. The manual bag led this.

This is what I see

Checked the other side for good measure.

Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-03-24 13:16:51

Look at the top case, that’s what the photo is showing, the area you showed in your picture is the battery bay.

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-24 13:20:04

Look at the top case, that’s what the photo is showing, the area you showed in your picture is the battery bay.

Found it! Thanks!

Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-03-24 13:20:47

Good 🙂

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-24 13:28:14

Good 🙂

Now the question is, how do I replace it? Thanks again for the assist!

Posted by: Forrest on 2023-03-24 13:31:17

i think the Computer works fine without the battery - you just need to increase the screen brightness level when switching it on and set the time/date.

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-24 13:52:51

i think the Computer works fine without the battery - you just need to increase the screen brightness level when switching it on and set the time/date.

True, but I'm going for as fully restored as I can. Looks like these are simple VL2330 batteries. I can likely desolder the contacts and replace them with new ones.

Still, the clock only goes up to 2019 before looping back around to 1920 😆

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-24 14:13:14

So far so good. I used pliers to undo the little spit welds. Then used the same pliers to re-straighten the metal. Now to get the batteries and rig up an enclosure out of electrical tape. Then I should be able to do a quick solder to reconnect everything.

Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-03-24 14:13:27

There’s a fix for that somewhere on Macintosh garden, someone will reply with what it’s called.

Posted by: aladds on 2023-03-24 15:00:41

2020Patch - Macintosh Garden

Vintage Mac 2020 fixes Vintage Macs are now suffering from problems setting the date to 2020 and beyond, often referred to as a Y2K20 Bug. There is an existing solution, bbraun's free SetDate utility, which is functional, but not a familiar way to set the time on a Mac.

macintoshgarden.org

And the original site here: http://mactcp.org.nz/macos2020.html

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-03-25 18:01:10

2020Patch - Macintosh Garden

Vintage Mac 2020 fixes Vintage Macs are now suffering from problems setting the date to 2020 and beyond, often referred to as a Y2K20 Bug. There is an existing solution, bbraun's free SetDate utility, which is functional, but not a familiar way to set the time on a Mac.

macintoshgarden.org

And the original site here: http://mactcp.org.nz/macos2020.html

Thanks for that!

Posted by: croissantking on 2023-07-15 19:41:15

So far so good. I used pliers to undo the little spit welds. Then used the same pliers to re-straighten the metal. Now to get the batteries and rig up an enclosure out of electrical tape. Then I should be able to do a quick solder to reconnect everything.
View attachment 54172

Did you get a new battery working? I built a new one, but I can’t get it to work.

Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-07-15 19:45:51

I think some of the PowerBooks need a functional main battery in order to charge the PRAM battery, if these use rechargeable cells that is. Not sure.

Posted by: Powerbook27364 on 2023-07-15 20:59:04

I think some of the PowerBooks need a functional main battery in order to charge the PRAM battery, if these use rechargeable cells that is. Not sure.

They do use rechargeable cells. At least in the 145B and 280, my main batteries need to be functional to charge and without them the pram batteries wont charge at all. The exact same cells are used in all of my 68k powerbooks so far

Did you get a new battery working? I built a new one, but I can’t get it to work.

If you use non rechargeable cells, they will work temporarily but when they run out of voltage, they stop working and wont recharge. I accidentally put some in without realizing at first. If yours aren't working it could also be due to bad connections or joints. Try checking the voltage first to see if there is any charge left in them. If there is no voltage then they aren't charging properly or may not be rechargeable.

I rebuilt several more today and they are working fine and charge properly. I used a spot welder to guarantee proper connections between the batteries and I rebuilt my main batteries a while ago so they allow the pram batteries to charge.

Posted by: croissantking on 2023-07-16 02:08:50

I used the correct replacements (VL2303?) but I don’t have a functioning main battery so that would explain why they don’t work

Posted by: pipetogrep on 2023-07-16 03:39:25

Did you get a new battery working? I built a new one, but I can’t get it to work.

I did! It was a hack job of electrical tape and poor soldering but it works! How did you rebuild yours? What does it look like? I don't have a functioning main battery either but it still keeps the time.