# Blankity, blank engineers.....



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

My 'new to me' laptop started not holding bios settings. No info on internet where its cmos battery is located. Did find out it uses a 3V lithium battery. Its fancy quarter size coin battery with leads soldered on that they want nearly $20 for delivered. 

So I take laptop apart and I had to COMPLETELY disassemble it to get to area where battery was. There wasnt the slightest effort by the manufacturer to make this at all convenient. If anything, they went out of their way to make it so difficult the average consumer isnt going to try it. Not wanting to spend $20, I solder leads to a battery out of a desktop motherboard and wrap it in tape. Its 3V lithium, just smaller diameter. I even drill a hole in bottom of laptop so I never have to disassemble it again just to get to this stupid battery. Put it all back together and just as I am trying to install keyboard (next to last thing) the stupid plastic connector where ribbon from keyboad fastens breaks. Its built into the motherboard. I jam ribbon into slot best I can and tape it hoping for best. Computer wont boot. GRRRRRRRRRR! I mean how much would it have cost for manufacturer to include a little access panel on bottom of computer for the cmos battery? These laptops when sold new were well over couple thousand dollars. Another 25cents (probably less) to make an access panel doesnt seem unreasonable. When I am calmer, will take it apart again to check all connections, but think I now have a not too effective doorstop due to its light weight.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

and i thought proprietary, non-consumer friendly computers were cherished on this board.


good luck hermitjohn


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

I had an HP laptop here with a faulty ribbon cable which went from the motherboard to the LCD display. While trying to repair the cable, I damaged the cable socket on the motherboard. The hard drive had to be removed for me to get at the video connector, and I damaged the hard drive connector to the motherboard. Not fun. Needless to say, I pulled the drive, the memory and scapped the rest of the system.

Laptops are built to be light, and as a result, some of the internal components are somewhat delicate - and expensive.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

MELOC said:


> and i thought proprietary, non-consumer friendly computers were cherished on this board.
> 
> 
> good luck hermitjohn



Funny I havent found any non-proprietary, consumer friendly laptops out there. Perhaps you could suggest one that also sells for the $23 I gave for this one? Little difficult moving a desktop computer around in a wheelbarrow, then finding a plugin for it....


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

OntarioMan said:


> Laptops are built to be light, and as a result, some of the internal components are somewhat delicate - and expensive.


No kidding. If I can grab another one of these laptops cheap, I have all the missing parts now and know where to cut an access hole to get to the cmos battery without disassembly. 20-20 hindsight and I would have just learned to live with resetting bios every time I boot no matter how annoying. 

You'd think some geek would start a website with collection of info as to where cmos battery is in various laptops. The manufacturers, even if they are still in buisiness seem to think its top secret.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> Funny I havent found any non-proprietary, consumer friendly laptops out there. Perhaps you could suggest one that also sells for the $23 I gave for this one? Little difficult moving a desktop computer around in a wheelbarrow, then finding a plugin for it....


I think he's referring to the 'small profile' PCs recently discussed in another thread.

In all honesty I STILL do not understand the reason for disliking them. Once upon a time they used to be a royal PITA....now, the small profile PCs are much less proprietary. I know, because I service about 50 of them regularly. They have slightly smaller power supplies, but that's about it - the motherboards and the cards are all same size, as are the floppy drives and CD-ROM drives.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

A lot of the laptops coming out now have 1way screws in them. you can only turn the screw one way. The head is cut to keep you from taking it apart. The factory drills out the screws and replaces them when they make repairs.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

I hear opportunity calling - a dremel attachment which fits over the screw head and cuts a "slot" in the screw - allowing you to easily remove it with a straight bladed screwdriver. We'll make gabillions!! 



Gary in ohio said:


> A lot of the laptops coming out now have 1way screws in them. you can only turn the screw one way. The head is cut to keep you from taking it apart. The factory drills out the screws and replaces them when they make repairs.


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## Teresa S. (Mar 2, 2006)

OntarioMan said:


> I hear opportunity calling - a dremel attachment which fits over the screw head and cuts a "slot" in the screw - allowing you to easily remove it with a straight bladed screwdriver. We'll make gabillions!!


Im getting in on this!!!!


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