What's your oldest working battery?

[3lectr1c]

I put a thread out on this last year on 68kMLA before it got taken out by the crash, today I became reminded of it and thought to restart it. I'm putting it in both places this time as well, so folks over here can respond as well!

So, what's your oldest battery that still holds charge? (enough for it to actually serve its intended function still)

Last time I made a little leaderboard of everyone's answers, one for "main" batteries and one for backup/CMOS/PRAM batteries, so I suppose I'll do that again if I get enough replies.

Last year, my oldest working batteries were the Li-Ion packs in my Dell Latitude CPi and my PowerBook G3 PDQ. Well, since then the Latitude's battery has unfortunately given up the ghost, but the G3 Wallstreet is still going strong. I've since acquired a PowerBook 3400c with 4 batteries, all of which still work (3 still hold near original charge as well!) so that's my new oldest. Well, I have a 100-series battery and 2 500-series batteries that haven't leaked yet and do still hold charge, but not enough to actually power the laptop. Well, the 500 series batteries will keep the laptop alive in sleep mode, but they won't keep it on for even a second.

My oldest working backup battery is the CMOS battery I took out of my Compaq Deskpro 286 (just in case). It originally held 7.2 volts but mine is down to 3, although it did still keep the settings intact regardless, so it counts in my view.

 

[rjkucia]

Earlier this year, I bought my SE. The seller told me they replaced the soldered battery with a battery holder. I assumed they replaced the battery too, because the time & settings were being saved between boots. I did notice the clock was a little slow, so I checked out the battery to test the voltage. It said "Made in West Germany" on it. The voltage was (unsurprisingly) low, but it was apparently still enough to do its job. I'm guessing it was the original battery from 1987. And don't worry - I replaced it right away!

As far as rechargeable, my PowerBook G4 from 2003 still has a battery that lasts a half hour or so.

 

[3lectr1c]

That doesn't really surprise me, unlike the other brands used, the early VARTAs like the one you had seem to be pretty bulletproof and many still hold charge to this day. I still have heard of them leaking though, so getting it gone was a good idea. Still, much less leak-prone than the Maxells.

 

[pfuentes69]

I had exactly the same case with another SE I bought two years ago... it was still holding the data... the clock had drifted a lot, but after setting and reboot it was working well...

 

[rjkucia]

While I don't know exactly what conditions can cause a battery to blow up (I heard that if it still has a charge it's probably fine?), I'd still recommend replacing that ASAP to limit the risk.

 

[pfuentes69]

While I don't know exactly what conditions can cause a battery to blow up (I heard that if it still has a charge it's probably fine?), I'd still recommend replacing that ASAP to limit the risk.

If fact I didn’t keep that SE… but I gave the same advice to the buyer

 

[retr01]

How does one know if the battery is oldest without knowing the date of battery replacement? And the length varies. For example, on the 575 board, the Motorola MC146818 RTC (Real-Time Clock) chip operates from 3v to 6v. If a 3v battery powers it and the computer is off for a few months, then it will be dead. On the other hand, if a 6v battery powers it, chances are it will last a lot longer if not a very long time. Check the RTC and review the spec sheets for the operation voltage as well as the power requirement while the computer is powered off. Time can be calculated with the draw and the battery capacity when the computer is powered down. It's all statistics.

 

[Daniel Hansen]

My 1986 IIGS' battery - soldered in - was still good. I replaced it anyway, but I think that's the oldest CMOS I have.

For rechargeable, my ThinkPad T20's battery (2000) will still take a charge, but doesn't last more than 15 minutes, so I'm not sure if that counts.

 

[RetroTechTom]

I have 3 working batteries for my 3 PowerBook G3's
Two of my original Wallstreets and my PDQ has a working one that does hold a decent charge about 3 hours (if i'm correct i might need to recheck them yet again )
I also have the working 12 inch iBook G4 battery in my 12 inch iBook G3 Dual USB (500mhz) that holds a little charge but not the greatest since it's quite worn out
And the battery in my 500mhz Latitude CPx still holds up decently for a few minutes

 

[3lectr1c]

Here’s an update to mine:

1. Oldest is still my 3400c batteries, although now I’ve got 5 of them! And yes, the 5th one still holds at least 2 hours.
2. My PowerBook G3 PDQ’s battery is still going strong too.
3. I’ve now got another Latitude CPi battery that works. That’s from 1998.
4. I do also have a 12” iBook battery that’s still good for around an hour and a half IIRC
5. My Latitude C640’s battery charges to some extent too although I haven’t done a life test on it (2002).
I have a few others from around that point but those are the main ones.

 

[eric]

My oldest is a NOS 3rd party iBook G4 battery I got off ebay (ibook looked bare without anything in the battery bay) - works quite well.

All my other computers batteries are chucked into a jar. I'm thinking of bringing them to VCF MW to have a contest "Guess the Voltage and win a BlueSCSI"