RadioShack Lithium PRAM Battery Review
You know that little battery inside your Mac that makes the clock tick? Keeps you on time? That's what we like to call the PRAM battery. Like all batteries, the PRAM battery will fail over time. We noticed the incorrect time on our main Powermac 8600, and went out to get a new PRAM battery. That sure enough solved the problem. Here's a small review we did on Radio Shack's Lithium 3.6V PRAM battery (part number 23-026). Well here it is:
Basically, I went to the local Radio Shack store, and paid $9.99 for the battery. Went home, popped off the PRAM battery socket cover, pulled out the Mac's old Apple supplied PRAM battery (how many years old is that thing?), put in the Radio Shack Lithium battery, put the plastic cover on, and voila, done. The PRAM battery had sure enough fixed the strange time problems.
It's a good idea to keep a spare PRAM battery around, as all kinds of strangeness can occour with a failing PRAM battery, namely the incorrect time being displayed on the Mac, and other problems with memory. You can blame many things on the PRAM battery. Most "vintage" Macs by now should have their PRAM battery replaced just to make sure you don't end up with any troubles later on. If you are upgrading your Powermac with a G4 processor upgrade, a strong PRAM battery is also recommended. $10 can't usually be spent any better on your Mac these days. If you don't have a RadioShack retail store near you, you can order the proper PRAM battery from Radioshack.com, or Other World Computing.
Of course, here's the specs from the Radio Shack Lithium 3.6v PRAM battery:
Part No. 23-026
RadioShack Lithium Battery (3.6v, 850mAh, Size 1/2 "AA")
For Apple Macintosh Computers and Wireless Security Systems
For Use in these Apple Computer models:
Macintosh II series computers, Macintosh SE FDHD, Macintosh Classic (4-chip and 2-chip), Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, IIsi series computers, Macintosh IIvi, IIvx, Performa 600 series computers Macintosh LC, LC II, LC III, Performa 400 series computers Macintosh Quadra 605, LC 475, Performa 475, 477 series computers Macintosh LC 520, LC 550, Performa 550 series computers Macintosh Classic II, Color Classic, Performa 200 series computers Macintosh Centris 610, 650, 660AV series computers Macintosh Quadra 610, 660AV, 650, 700, 800, 840AV, 900, 950 series computers Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, 8100 series computers, and Performa 6100 series computers Power Macintosh 7200, 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, and 9600 series computers. Power Macintosh G3 (Desktop, Minitower, All-in-One) series computers Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) series computers iMac - all models, entire series Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics, AKA Yikes) Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics AKA Sawtooth) Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) Power Mac G4 Cube
-September 28th, 2001
Western Massachusetts Macintosh Users Group
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