[X4U] How much can it cost

[Jon Marett]

On May 30, 2008, at 5:58 PM, Daly Jessup wrote:

>> On May 30, 2008, at 7:48 AM, Randy B. Singer wrote:
>>
>>> but often the first sign that the battery is dead is that your Mac  
>>> won't startup.
>>
>>
>> kind of a side note, but does this strike anybody else here as a  
>> kind of dumb design?
>> having to re-set the date by hand bcs of a dead pram battery is one  
>> thing, but having a whole computer rendered inoperable by something  
>> so small...just seems stoopid to me.
>>
>> I had 1 pram battery go bad on me in my life...was the DP G4, but I  
>> could still fire the thing up at least.
>
> It doesn't strike me as stupid at all. After all, every other  
> battery-driven device I have dies if the battery dies:  CD players,  
> radios, phones, everything. Why not the computer?

I respectfully disagree. A desktop computer is not a battery driven  
device. I believe the sole function of the PRAM battery is to keep  
power flowing to the PRAM so it won't loose it's settings while the  
computer is powered down. If the battery does die, the PRAM should  
just revert back to the factory settings (and force the user to  
manually set the clock), not render the machine useless.

If the 9v battery that keeps my alarm clock running in the event of a  
power outage happens to run out of juice, I expect my alarm clock to  
keep working while plugged in.

jon