Nothing is worse than a Mac that won't boot! It could be a dead clock battery...
Booting up the trusty old G3 normally initiates familiar sounds -- the hard drive spinning up, and the monitor buz and crackle -- things you get used to after working with your computer every day. Well, this day was different. As the drive spun up, the monitor gave a single loud click; its pilot light turned from green to amber, and the drive promptly spun down.
After trying different monitors and a series of other 'quick fixes' my brother suggested I open the box and check the battery. After all, the old beige was a 1998 model -- about five years on the battery. We popped the battery out and headed on over to the Radioshack where the battery checked out perfectly. I bought one anyway.
After installing the new battery the old Mac booted up and I was back up operating normally. Well, almost normally. Through all the attempts to restart and correct the problem, some things got corrupted -- which will always happen when repeatedly crashing the Mac.
If you have start-up problems not indicating an OS problem, check the battery -- particulary if the machine is more than four years old. Don't trust an old battery even if it checks out. There may not be enough on-demand juice to kick off a start up. Instal a new battery before the recommended five year end of life.
The battery supplies a small amount of current to keep the clock and calendar up, but also maintains the all-important PRAM and other areas to make sure everything, including the monitor, gets what it needs to start up.
Additionally, when the battery is dead, or you remove the battery for a minute or so, you've "zapped the PRAM" and you'll need to reset all your system preferences. It might be a good idea to back up your preferences to a safe media before removing the battery. Then just put them back, and replace the newer, empty preferences files created during restart.
As seen above, that little battery can sometimes cause lots of problems. Every Mac has a little battery that maintains the clock and the PRAM even when the computer is off. Most Macs use a 3.6-volt round, short lithium battery. Usually around $8 at Radioshack, Batteries Plus, or another technology-aware vendor. But not always. (See details below.)
In a 3-to-5 year old Mac bizarre, unexplained behavior should alert you that the battery may have reached its end. The tell-tale sign is the clock stamping files as created or modified in 1904 or 1957. Symptoms may also include the clock not keeping the proper time, network or printer settings reverting to default and monitor settings going haywire. In some cases a dead battery prevents the Mac from starting at all. (I've recovered Macs from the Landfill because some bureaucrat thought it was dead when only the battery was dead!)
Open your Mac's case and you should be able to 'see' the battery. Some are red, some are green and others are green and purple. Some will have a black retainer cover on the circuit board, which easily snaps off. Our G3 Tower's battery is blocked by the AV card -- forcing us to remove the card.
Pop off the retainer and install the battery in the same orientation as the original. Snap the black cover back on (if you wish) and you should be good to go.
Most of the later Macs use the 3.6-volt round, stubby lithium battery -- Radioshack part 23-026, Apple part number 742-0011, Maxell model ER3S range between $8 and $10. The pre-G PowerBooks have a flat oval battery ($29) and many of the pre-G desktops and towers had a cube battery with a power cable. The LCs used 4.5-volt batteries with a pigtail harness connector. Macs before that used a double-A, 3.6-volt battery.
The easiest way to see what kind of battery you need is to open the book and look. However some people get a bit squeamish when it comes to PowerBooks and other hard-to-open Macs.
A shareware program called "GURU" lists every Mac model ever made, and provides other details about type and installation locations. You can also check Apple's Technical Knowledgebase if you've got the time to weed through all that mess. If you have to go to an Apple technician, they'll probably hit you up for up to $50 or so.
Keeping the battery fresh is just one thing you'll need to do to get continued service and happy functionality out of your old mouse. In an upcoming edition, we'll talk about the ramifications of the PRAM, and a sure-fire trick to save lots of OS preferences related headaches.
Until next time, happy mousing.
Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher UG Net News
Fred Showker is co-editor of "MUG Info Manager" and the User Group Network News service, and a founding Apple User Group Advisory Board (UGAB) member. He was an original founder of the User Group Forum on AppleLink Personal Edition, and America Online where he was AFA for eight years. Many MUG (Mac User Group) members know him for his work with the Mug News Service (MNS), National Home & School Mac (NHSM), or his many speaking appearances at NAUG, NAUGSAW and Macworld Expo and others. Today, he's a familiar name in many user group newsletters around the world for his 60-Second Window, published each month since 1990
This column was started in 2000 to provide short, interesting articles to Macintosh user group newsletter editors, and the Macintosh computer community at large. Each edition focuses on a single aspect of using the computer in a more productive, beneficial way. Some editions will look at ways to help older hardware continue to perform a useful service. Others will focus on software tips and tricks that the end user can put to work right away without expensive purchases or add-ons.
If you have tips, tricks or questions you'd like to add to "This Old Mouse" just send them along. We welcome your questions, problems, tips, tricks and input. Registered Macintosh User Groups are invited to use this column in their newsletters, but please register first, and then let us know, okay!
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