Location of internal backup battery on a Dell Inspiron 1100

[mikey100tv]

Help! I'm tearing my hair out here.

I've got a 10 yr old Dell Inspiron 1100; OK, I know it's not that old, and it still runs like a dream...but it's a brick, it weighs a ton, and it's really old-fashioned by modern standards...so in my eyes, that makes it a "vintage" little darling...and I love it!

Now then, all you clever guys and gals; somebody MUST be able to come uo with some kinda answer to this question.

According to the owner's manual ('cos we've had it from new (!)), it uses, quote "a lithium-ion battery and a reserve battery.....the reserve battery is a long-life battery, and it is very possible that you will never need to replace it", unquote.

Now I know I'm preaching to the converted here about elderly technology, and hey! if it ain't broke, why fix it?...but I suspect most computer manufacturers don't even WANT to think about somebody continuing to use their products for 10 YEARS (horrors!!!)... It's a fast-moving industry, and they want all the good little geeks to trot on down to their dealer every six months, and shell out a small fortune for the next new piece of kit...HAH! You can tell I don't like the fact that if it's more than two years old, they HATE providing tech support...it's OBSOLETE, ain't it??

Sheesh!

What, precisely, IS this reserve battery...does anybody know? Does it recharge from the system, or is it like a lithium coin battery, or similar?

I'm thinking if it's ten yrs old, if might very well NEED replacing by now. I've given up on the search engines...every attempt to use the term "back-up" or "reserve" results in entires for spare backup batteries, or cloud data backup, or everything and anything apart from what I actually WANT to know...

So come on, boys and girls...PLEASE help me out here. SOMEBODY must have heard of, or come across something related to this at SOME point...surely?

Please help an old geezer keep what's left of his hair! Any information would be VERY much appreciated...I can't be the ONLY person who's ever attempted to sort this one.

Cheers!

[johnorun]

The "reserve battery" is most likely a coin type CMOS battery that keeps your time and date available for boot up.

This tutorial might help you replace it:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6121561_replace-cmos-battery-dell-laptop.html

and here's a video tutorial for a related Dell model that will show you the steps to replacing the battery underneath the motherboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIEF2_fcvZU
Good luck.

[gg1978]

here's dell's pdf for service manual

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-1100_service%20manual_en-us.pdf

[mikey100tv]

Well, thank you VERY much, young man. I've had a look at both the eHow article and the YouTube video tutorial; very helpful indeed, and the replacement process looks pretty straight forward.

Of course, if I'd known the damn thing was called a CMOS battery, I could have probably found the information myself! Thanks once again for the assistance; it goes to show just HOW new my interest in this techie stuff really is. Dell appear to be unique in calling it a "reserve" battery; everybody else seems to call what it is...and Dell themselves are worse than USELESS at giving out any information on obsolete systems. They want me to shell out lots of hard-earnt dosh on a new one, don't they?

Some of us actually like the older equipment...

I'll have a go at the replacement process, and I'll let you know how I get on. Once again, many thanks for your help. Cheers!

[gg1978]

looks like maybe it's soldered directly to the motherboard.. :-/ It's not mentioned explicitly in the service manual, and the pictures of the motherboard in the manual don't show a CR2032 or something like that..

[mavroxur]

I can confirm that it's soldered directly to the board, under the palm rest near the front of the laptop. It faces downward (bottom of laptop)

[mikey100tv]

Thank you too, sir OR madam...that's extremely useful. Very clear, and easy to follow.

Some of this stuff does actually appear in the back of the original owner's manual, but then, it was purchased back in the days before Dell started selling through the mainstream dealers...I guess they thought some owners were more likely to be hobbyists. It's the ONLY thing I will actually give Dell credit for; their older manuals did tell you stuff you needed to know!

My brother has a two year old Inspiron; not sure what model, but the owner's manual tells you how to operate it...and that's it.

Much appreciated, gg1978...thanks for the assistance. Cheers!

[mikey100tv]

That's also good to know. Now I'm aware that I'll need to fire up the soldering iron...I HATE soldering!!!

Cheers for that.

[mikey100tv]

Thanks to everybody for their assistance with this... I know this isn't really chip-related stuff, but I discovered the site only last week, got reading some of the posts, and quickly came to the conclusion that a lot of you boys and girls DO seem to know what you're talking about.

I shall know where to come for help in future...after all, real-life users DO know more about the nitty-gritty of keeping stuff going!

Many thanks.