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Replacing battery on 386

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First post, by kepak

Posted on 
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I got Goldstar 386 PC and I try to make it fully working. He has external lithium 3.6v CMOS battery attached to pc case (Tadiran TL-5242). Of course is dead, but hand't leaked since 1991. I had a plan to replace this with 18650 cell cause I have cells from old laptops, and I haven't ever seen this cell leaked. Af).ter connecting new cell something strange happens. The PC lock on POST, it won't boot and I couldn't go to setup. It lock after RAM and Drive check, just before booting. When I unplugged floppies, the floppy error was shown. Fortunately after night the cmos was cleared and the problem disappear. To be honest I'm not sure this is a problem with this battery ( I was trying to setup working CF card at the same moment) but I want ask you before I try again put this battery. Original battery was 3.6V, new one gets 4V IMO it's close enough.

Reply 1 of 1, by Gabriel-LG

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Is the original battery disposable or rechargeable?
If it is rechargeable, then I would not replace it with a 18650, because it has (likely) different charging requirements. This could lead to instability.
It it is disposable, then the 18650 will not last very long due to self discharge (it could still last for months, depending).

4V (or max 4.2V for 18650) could cause damage to the system, depending on the system design. So I would not recommend it.
To test, you could also use 2 AA batteries in a holder, or a CR2032. (assuming the original battery was not rechargeable of course).

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