"DEJ57" wrote in message
...

Batteries were once soldered on boards because at the time the only
batteries that could do the job were of a type that required it and
computer
designers were not concerned with this issue much. With the boom in
personal computers and improvements in battery technology created the
simple
to install ones we use today. That is why they came up with the
auxiliary
batteries to allow you to supplement a computer with a dead soldered on
battery. Computer techs used to have to unsolder the old batteries and
then
solder on a new one. Not to hard on a single layer board of that era,
the
devil to do on the new boards of today.

Now you, God, Compaq (and all of the other mother board manufacturers
of
that era), and all the readers of this forum know why.

KC

Well, that sounds good--but doesn't seem to mesh with my limited
experience.
Maybe that theory holds for other clones but not Compaqs? Older pre-1996
Comapaq PCs I've worked on didn't have soldered on batteries, but had
attached
by wire CMOS batteries. Of two Compaqs I owned from 1996, the slightly
newer
one was soldered on, and the older did not (disk battery in
holder/socket).
But both used practically the same 3 volt battery, except the soldered on
one's
model number was like one digit different than the other, and had
extensions on
it for the solder points. But it was the basically the same battery.
Older
386 and 486 Compaq laptops I worked on had the same disk batteries in
holders,
not soldered on. Sorry, I don't see the thyme and reason that you do in
the
way this issue has been handled by Compaq over the years. Guess I'm just
missing the method in the madness....

The wired on batteries were an alternetive not seen much outside of
Compaqs that I know of. I should have mentioned that the majority of my
experience has been with non-Compaq machines. The lates and greatest
battery solution is the socketed NiCAD or lithium battery. Actually when
the change came to the socket, you could occasionally find a board that had
the socket, but all documentation would still show the old soldered battery.
Cost wise I have no idea. Also with the newer machines, the battery will
last longer because the newer motherboards place less demand on them.
Another plus of modern electronics that still has not extended to other
devices in the PC.

Well, if a tech has to solder the batteries off and on, or you have to buy
a
$25 aux battery rather than the user to be able to replace a $3 3 volt
disk
battery--maybe thats the wisdom from Compaqs part. Maybe a soldered on is
cheaper than a battery in a holder?

Dale