It appears to me like it was soldered in, but I never seen that on a mobo since I've been building. If you could, email me a better quality picture to get a better look. Take on of the post still on the mobo, and where you drew the arrow. When all else fails beat the $%!* out of it!!!

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My apologies, I should have looked closer at the first pictures. What I thought was a retention bracket was actually a shadow. I also should have realised that 'gently prise' could have had another meaning. This is very a unusual design. The use of button type batteries is because they can be housed in a cheap plastic clip and easily removed. Your motherboard was designed not to have the battery replaced. The simplest solution would be to solder wire to each side of the battery. Then encapsulate the battery in some heat shrink tubing. Solder the other ends of the wires to the correct points on the board (negative to the point you circled on the photo) and attach the battery with double sided tape.

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Seems like a piece of built in obsolescence by Compaq or there doing a bit of penny pinching by not installing a proper battery holder. Stuart

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No problem, Rimfire.. I will try your suggestion.

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G'day, Soldering leads to a button cell battery may be problematic if you are not very experienced in soldering. The solder may well not "take" and you will end up just overheating the cell, which will at least may make it leak, but possibly make it explode. You could try putting it into a plastic holder and then run some leads from the contacts on the holder to the points on the board. You would then need to mount the holder/battery combination somewhere in the case. Another possibility would be to get a dual AA type battery holder, stick it to the inside of the case and run some leads to the board. You could then insert two AA type batteries any time you needed to. They are cheaper and much easier to deal with. regards, Elric

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Thanks for the info, Elric. Since these risks are involved - I doubt I will attempt this. By the way -I thought that a 4/4.5 volt jumper style battery could be used to override the coin cell - like this one from Radio Shack: http://tinyurl.com/488lc Then again - I could be completly off about this. (Don't worry, I won't be running out to get one - I'm just wondering out loud in a post PC-destroying kinda way...)

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G'day, Yes,h987, that's the sort of thing I was thinking about. However, I can't guarentee that your circuitry will work at 4V5 instead of 3V: it probably will, but to be on the safe side look at these items on the Radio Shack site you gave me (I'm assuming that you have easy access to this supplier) : http://www.radioshack.com/search.asp?find=battery+holder&site=search&SRC=1&image1.x=22&image1.y=30 These part numbers will provide the 3V that your board needs. 270-389 270-408 270-414 You can use common AA or AAA batteries (alkaline or NiMH) that can be bought at any supermarket. This way, you get out of the trap of having to buy special batteries. Also, I think you can buy rechargable alkaline batteries now (we can over here in Oz) so you can get the full 3V and also charge them if they run down- keeping your costs down and saving the environment. Good luck, Elric

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