Changing CMOS battery on Compaq Presario CDS 520

marks

I have a 12-year-old Compaq Presario CDS 520 desktop machine that (astonishingly) is still running after all these years - however, it's recently become highly tempramental as to whether it wants to power up or not, and I suspect the cause of this is that the CMOS battery needs replacing.

The difficulty is that the battery is solidly fixed in place, apparently soldered (or very firmly attached in some other way) to a metal clamp that's in turn very firmly attached to the motherboard. I've timidly pushed and pulled the battery and clamp this way and that, but it seems there's no obvious way of removing it without causing damage.

I've posted a photo of the motherboard, showing the way the battery is attached, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41165275@N00/157524362/

Is there any easy method of removing batteries that are attached in this way? Or do I have to get the soldering iron out? All ideas gratefully accepted...

GrayFox

marks wrote:

I have a 12-year-old Compaq Presario CDS 520 desktop machine that (astonishingly) is still running after all these years - however, it's recently become highly tempramental as to whether it wants to power up or not, and I suspect the cause of this is that the CMOS battery needs replacing.

The difficulty is that the battery is solidly fixed in place, apparently soldered (or very firmly attached in some other way) to a metal clamp that's in turn very firmly attached to the motherboard. I've timidly pushed and pulled the battery and clamp this way and that, but it seems there's no obvious way of removing it without causing damage.

I've posted a photo of the motherboard, showing the way the battery is attached, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41165275@N00/157524362/

Is there any easy method of removing batteries that are attached in this way? Or do I have to get the soldering iron out? All ideas gratefully accepted...

Since that has a pentium over drive (Overclocked 486) a new cmos battery would cost more then the pc is worth.

That said just heat it up a bit with a soldering iron at the top then pull it out.

profdlp

That looks like a soldering iron job to me.

They used to sell (and probably still do, somewhere) add-on batteries where you could solder a couple of leads to the battery cradle without having to remove the old battery. I don't see how you'd get at the bottom side of this battery, though.