Good way to splice connector to CMOS battery for laptop....

[aewhistory]

Okay, I have an old Acer laptop (tablet actually) that I love dearly. It still works and does what it needs to do. Moreover, because it is basically worthless it is the perfect machine for me to bring to teach my classes because if it were broken, destroyed, or stolen then it literally would be no great loss. However, the CMOS battery is dead and it is making life difficult. The problem is that the old battery connects to the MOBO using an odd connector type that I've never been able to find. I can find CMOS batteries with bare strip ends, but then I'll need to splice the two ends together and I don't want to ruin this connector..... it is literally the ONLY one I have. I have thought of the following:
1- just twist them together. Problem is that there isn't much wire to twist together and if it comes undone the battery is exceedingly difficult to get back to. I'd have to disassemble the whole damn laptop.
2. Solder the wires together- this will hold, but I'm not a great solderer. Also, there is virtually no room to spare. So I worry that if I add too much solder then the wires won't fit. I'm also worried about simply ruining the wire if everything gets too hot.
3. I also need to insulate them again and I've thought about intertwining the wires and then heat sealing them. Again though, what if this comes apart?

So can anyone offer a little advice? Thank you all, Aaron

 

[bailojustin]

Okay, I have an old Acer laptop (tablet actually) that I love dearly. It still works and does what it needs to do. Moreover, because it is basically worthless it is the perfect machine for me to bring to teach my classes because if it were broken, destroyed, or stolen then it literally would be no great loss. However, the CMOS battery is dead and it is making life difficult. The problem is that the old battery connects to the MOBO using an odd connector type that I've never been able to find. I can find CMOS batteries with bare strip ends, but then I'll need to splice the two ends together and I don't want to ruin this connector..... it is literally the ONLY one I have. I have thought of the following:
1- just twist them together. Problem is that there isn't much wire to twist together and if it comes undone the battery is exceedingly difficult to get back to. I'd have to disassemble the whole damn laptop.
2. Solder the wires together- this will hold, but I'm not a great solderer. Also, there is virtually no room to spare. So I worry that if I add too much solder then the wires won't fit. I'm also worried about simply ruining the wire if everything gets too hot.
3. I also need to insulate them again and I've thought about intertwining the wires and then heat sealing them. Again though, what if this comes apart?

So can anyone offer a little advice? Thank you all, Aaron

Just pull out the old CMOS battery, read what type it is or google it, buy a new one and put it in place of that one. sometimes you have to disassemble the laptop to ensure its working at its max, while you do it clean it out check the fans and the connections. this will help insure its life.

 

[aewhistory]

Thanks for the answer, much appreciated. I've done a lot of looking for this thing and I've either overlooks it or this was an odd connector Acer used at the time. This isn't just a battery, it is a battery with a set of wires coming off of it. I can find the battery, not a problem. BUT I cannot find the battery with a compatible set of wires and the tiny plug.

EDIT: okay, I just remembered that it is the ML2032. There are easy to find as naked buttons, but that's no good. I need a lead from the battery to the CMOS battery 'port' of whatever you wanna call it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Every laptop battery I have seen have wires out of it, you are very likely searching for the wrong thing if you can't find something for your system.

 

[aewhistory]

Every laptop battery I have seen have wires out of it, you are very likely searching for the wrong thing if you can't find something for your system.

I feel like the problem might be that the connector Used on the end of those wires in my laptop is an odd type. Don't get me wrong, it looks SOMEWHAT similar, but if you look up various CMOS batteries they have an array of connectors for the same battery. I just can't find the one for the Acer laptop (it is an old Acer Travelmate C112). I'll take another look, see if anything popped up recently, but if I can't find anything again I'm definitely doing to go the splicing route. This will be the fourth or fifth time I'll have looked over about five years. The only places I've ever found that had these batteries were all out of stock and listed them at over $60 for a crappy little CMOS battery. So I've never actually found anyone with one in stock.

EDIT:
HOLY CRAP! After searching for YEARS for this sinking battery someone has finally listed them on eBay, and they're for cheap too! I had given up looking, but I'm glad you guys encouraged me to look again. I'm just beside myself that I get my old works horses back. I know these laptops are old, but they weigh almost nothing and they're always a pleasure to use. I can't wait to get them working again....

Thanks, Aaron

 

[hang-the-9]

Glad you found one, can you post a picture or link, I'd like to see the difference in the connections.

 

[aewhistory]

Glad you found one, can you post a picture or link, I'd like to see the difference in the connections.

Gladly! When I get on a proper computer I'll post a proper pic for either the listing, or my battery, or both. For now here is the listing I found:

http/www.ebay.com/itm/251992005705?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

As far as I can recall there were two small oddities on this connector:
1. Many CMOS battery connectors had three little 'bars' running up and down to match the three pin inputs but this one had only two bars/inputs. That ruled out most options.
2. On the other side there was something else odd as well, I think another bar or indent that forced the connector into a very specific sort of slot.

Otherwise this is a very normal, nothing out of the ordinary battery that any shmuck can buy at a million places....

It was very frustrating because I could never find one that matched in the pics. I find a few that were close, but never quite had a match, or the pic was VERY bad, the seller wouldn't get back to me, they were out of stock, etc. So I am REALLY hoping that these are the real deal.

PS- please don't tell me these are like super common somewhere I didn't look. I really spent a lot of effort looking for those damn things....

 

[hang-the-9]

I have not seen a laptop battery with three pins, is the issue that the plastic connection cut-outs don't match? They should all be exactly the same unless they reversed the wires from standard. If you look at the picture I posted, two wires, which means two connection points to the motherboard and the black and red wires are in the same position as yours.

Looks like a standards CMOS laptop battery to me, nothing odd about it. Here is another random one for an IBM, connections look exactly the same. http/www.ebay.com/itm/New-Laptop-CMOS-Battery-for-IBM-ThinkPad-T21-T22-T40-T41-T42-T43-/400726595295?hash=item5d4d2a96df:g:-~kAAOSwVupTnA3s

If you tried other batteries and they did not fit, I would have bet that cutting off the ribs to make it fit would have worked fine, maybe Acer just did molded their own custom cut-outs to sell specific batteries.