I have a Packard Bell Legend 10CD. On boot a message 'System Battery dead - replace and run setup' appears. 1) Which battery is this? The CMOS? 2) Where is it located on the mother board? 3) Is it available (who)? 4) Other helpful items? THank you Rich

I'm reasonably certain that that old dog uses a common, ordinary "coin" battery, available from any (gasp choke) Radio Shack, or for that matter, large grocery stores. It should be right on the motherboard--where 90% of all bios batteries are located

Yes - this appears to be the culprit - an old rayovac BR1225 (hopefully available) Litium 3V job. I suspect install, reboot and run setup - is it truly that easy or do you have other caveats? Thanks! Rich

Nope, it's truely that easy. Just make sure the computer is actually off, and to be safe, unplugged when you change the battery, and that it is "in" correctly. 99% of the battery holders I've seen this means the "center button" goes DOWN towards the motherboard. Since this may "clear" or "reset" the bios settings, you may have to go through and reset some, like choosing the correct floppy drive, the hard drive, etc.

Only thing I'd suggest is to make sure it doesn't use a "floppy-based" setup (never worked with P/B's that much so I'm not sure) and if so, then have that available...

I've fiddled with some fairly old Packward Bechings, 386's, and have not found one that used a floppy based bios program.

Interesting I am not so surprised to find this thread, but I am surprised to find it from October 2005. Even more surprising is that I am wanting to replace the exact same battery in the same month - weird. Anyway, looking over the PB450 motherboard on this particular machine reveals that the BR1225 is soldered on. It looks like there are 2 metal leads coming off (one top, one bottom) that suspend the battery above the board. My question now is how do I go about replacing the battery. Do I need new leads or can I clip and use the old ones? Can I use any hunk of metal if I need new leads? There is also a way to disable the on-board battery and plug an external battery right onto the jumpers of the board. Can I just plop some wires down on the + and - side of the battery and plug them in? Any help would be appreciated.