[X4U] PRAM Battery Research & Test

[Jon]

Hi-

It appears there are concerns about the PRAM battery. In an
effort to find out for myself just what would happen when the
PRAM battery died, I did some research and then conducted
a test.

Please remember that PRAM battery is unimportant once any
Mac is up and running. Also note that while the PRAM battery
will keep the system clock running during shutdown, if the Mac
is connected to the internet and correctly set up, it will auto-
matically reset to the correct time a few seconds after a
boot. (So no need to worry about banking connections, etc.)

I have a 1.33GHz 12 inch PowerBook running 10.4.11 (that's
not really relevant here). Checking Apple Support, I found this
tech article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58445
which notes that no 12 inch PowerBook has a separate PRAM
battery. A small capacitor retains the system date long enough
so you can swap batteries.

The test in my next post.

Jon