where is cmos battery location for e627 laptop

databaseben
databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User

ok.  this is driving me nuts and seems to be somekind of conspiracy at play.

 

how in the world can i change out the cmos battery for my ol' e627 laptop ??

 

is the battery changable or is it sodered on the mobo?

 

find lots of chats, rants and manuals on the e627 but none cite where is the cmos battery and orhow to replace.

 

it may prove cheaper for me just to buy a new laptop than to take it to my local tech guy at the supermarket kiosk.

 

but if i do buy a new laptop, it sure wont be an acer - since this is the second acer laptop that i have owned and likely built in north korea !!!

 

fortunately, the hard drive is a sata and i was able to connect it to a desktop and save all my docs.

 

any ideas from any1

 

thanks !!

 

dbben

Best Answer

  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User
    Answer ✓

    ok.  i see something that is a little round about the size of a smalll button but it seems to be wrapped in something blue, like a metal ring that is painted in chevrolet blue.  from where i am sitting, it looks like a tiny spaceship, per se, that has 2 connections soldered to mobo, (NCWGO LA-5481P), and underneath it, is a big white dot painted on the motherboard and "PBJ1+" near it.

     

    is this the cmos battery?

     

     

    if so, looks easy to replace via a solder iron.

     

    but:

     

    1) i cant find the model number on it,

    2) not sure if walmart carries it, since it clearly does  not look like the typical watch battery and most importantly,

    3) I am not sure if i can put this whole thing back together again !!!

     

     

    btw: i captured this pic from ebay.  the blue wrapped round thing is near the right edge next to some green mini board.  hope this helps us to figure out what im looking at.

     

    mobo-eMachines-E627.jpg

Answers

  • laurent_14
    laurent_14 ACE Posts: 10,017 Trailblazer

    Hello databaseben,

     

    The RTC battery (cmos) is soldered on the motherboard. It's located near the thermal module (CPU). It's round and little blue.

    Your laptop is eMachines E627.

    France
  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User
    Answer ✓

    ok.  i see something that is a little round about the size of a smalll button but it seems to be wrapped in something blue, like a metal ring that is painted in chevrolet blue.  from where i am sitting, it looks like a tiny spaceship, per se, that has 2 connections soldered to mobo, (NCWGO LA-5481P), and underneath it, is a big white dot painted on the motherboard and "PBJ1+" near it.

     

    is this the cmos battery?

     

     

    if so, looks easy to replace via a solder iron.

     

    but:

     

    1) i cant find the model number on it,

    2) not sure if walmart carries it, since it clearly does  not look like the typical watch battery and most importantly,

    3) I am not sure if i can put this whole thing back together again !!!

     

     

    btw: i captured this pic from ebay.  the blue wrapped round thing is near the right edge next to some green mini board.  hope this helps us to figure out what im looking at.

     

    mobo-eMachines-E627.jpg

  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User

    after some intensive "INTENSIVE" research, i discovered that these mobo batteries are aka cmos rtc batteries.

     

    the look like this:

    $_1.JPG

     

    so now the next question is where to buy them?

     

    so far, it seems ebay is the best place, a place called biosdepot out of japan - which makes sense since i think your eMachine mobos are coming from JAPAN anyways.

     

    I also considered just buy a new mobo for this laptop since they are cheap. but im sure they come with old cmos batteries as well.

     

    i contacted a variety of stores here in america, but none seem to stock this part.

     

    when i get the part number for this item, i will post here for others to use and help - because NONE of the MANUALS from ACER provide NO HELP and the battery on my mobo at this time, is smooth and has no inscriptions on it that provides a part number

     

    respectfully, i am disappointed with ACER for making such a machine.  IMO, there could of been a trap door on the bottom that allows us access to the CMOS battery, instead of us having to literally "LITERALLY" take the whole machine apart. did i say LITERALLY ???  yes, I DID.

     

    secondly, there is no reason why a harness/slot could not of been soldered onto the board to make change outs of the cmos battery easier.  there is lots of room for it.

     

    ultimately, i think this cmos battery replacement is an industry conspiracy that forces us consumers to buy a new laptop when the cmos battery dies out.

     

    office depot wanted to charge 200.00.

     

    and though i watched a 7 minute youtube vid and dismantling this laptop, it took me 3 hours.  the problem is that i am not sure if i can put the thing back together again !

     

    urghhhh!!!!

     

     

     

  • laurent_14
    laurent_14 ACE Posts: 10,017 Trailblazer

    Hello,

     

    Yes, that's this part (CR2032 soldering - 2 vertical pins).

    I give you two professional electronic sites. You measure the external diameter of the battery: ~20/21 mm.

    The plastic insulation may be a different color. It depends on the brand.

    You can find it in an electronic shop or on web.

     

    For information:

    Digikey

    Allied Electronics

     

     

     

    France
  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User
    thanks for the info/links. i will keep this thread updated with the stats of this project.
  • laurent_14
    laurent_14 ACE Posts: 10,017 Trailblazer

    Hello,

     

    I found the correct cmos battery for eMachines E627 on a french online shop:

    Maxell ML1220

    Information about Maxell ML serie

    ML Catalog

    ML1220 Diagrams

     

    I think it's same than your picture. I found one on ebay us.

    France
  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User

    thank you!

     

    i went ahead and ordered from ebay.  hopefully, it will be here in the next few days. it cost me 10 bucks but i honestly could not find it around town and my emails for quotes to some vendors were not responded to.

     

    in any case, i will see if this 10 dollar repair part, ie battery, plus many hours sacrificed researching and working on this thing, will save me the cost of a new laptop

     

    by next week, i will let you know (and everyone else)  if all of this was worth the effort.

     

    i am thinking that whatever i ultimately discovered with this particular laptop, will be helpful to others and also applicable to other laptop models as well.

     

  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User

    Solved Now: I received the battery from eBay yesterday, 2 days sooner than expected. However, i waited until this morning to begin the removal of the old batt and the installation of the new.

     

    Fortunalely, i had a soldering iron and lead free solder in an old box. Upon focusing on the battery replacement, i couldnt figure out which side up the new battery should be because the connections on the old battery were not the same as on the new one. In otherwords, i could no mimick the switch out based on the old part. (unfortunately, i didnt have a multimeter as well. So i could not test the new battery to ensure is was not dead and / or to see which side was positive and which was negative)

     

    Further, the old battery had no markings on it as well. But then i remembered that our American standards would have markings on the side that should be visible from the top. So i proceeded to solder in the new battery with the markings on top. ((Personally, i had not done any soldering for over 30years but was sure that i would not burn up anything. But this was wishful thinking. Unfortunately, i wasnt paying attention and the hot iron came close to the lcd frame and caused a melted spot. But oh-well, i'm not going to replace the frame over this) In any case, I was able to put everything back together afterwards.

     

    However, I did require the use of a service manual because the lcd had a couple of extra brackets that i couldnt remember how to reinstall. After everything was put back together again, minus a number of screws that i don't think were needed to secure everything together, i powered up the laptop.

     

    At first it was promising because the fan came on and the power light came on too which was much more than before due to the dead battery. But nothing else did, ie no display, no hdd light, no bios read out, nothing. I cycled the laptop on / off several times but still got the same results. However, when i left it in the on position for a short while the fan would cycle on and off and figured it was functioning with cooling down the unit. So all was not loss but at the same time i was loss to figure what the new problem is.

     

    Reviewing the flow charts in a service manual, the end solution was to replace the motherboard. Eventually, i came to wonder if i should just toss this project aside and buy a new laptop or reopen it up and see what could i have possibly missed. (Basically, it was a little easier to put to gether than to take apart and there were only like 4 or 5 connectors. Because the wiring had retained their bended shapes, the wiring basically pointed to their plugs/connections.)

     

    I figured that maybe i should just give it one last shot. As i began pulling out the ram chips, i figured "why not leave a chip in and restart the laptop?"

     

    So i did, and to my surprise the laptop booted up to windows. It took like 20 minutes for windows to stabliize, per se, because it seems that it had to reinstall all the drivers. During this time, i was able to open the device manager and saw a listing of hardware w/question marks that slowly shorten as their drivers were being installed by windows, one by one.

     

    Eventually, it installed everything and required a reboot.

     

    At this time windows seems to be working fine now, minus 1024 megs of ram. I think ram for this old machine is pretty cheap. But since i have another acer xp laptop i might see if i can salvage its ram for this emachine. (taking a quick look at it, the old laptop is aspire 3004wlci)

     

    Now i wonder if maybe i can fix this old one too. Dont remember why it would work anymore. On the other, perhaps, im pushing my luck!

     

    Conclusion, 10 bucks for a battery and 6 hours worth of labor and several days of research, i guess i saved myself 250.00 bucks.

     

    Tbanks for your help !!

  • laurent_14
    laurent_14 ACE Posts: 10,017 Trailblazer

    Hello,

     

    You're on the right track!

    About the polarity of the battery, I indicated you the ML1220 diagram link. There is two differents boxes T10 and T13.

    On the PCB, the positive pin is marked (+).

     

    About memory stick:

    Aspire 3004WLCI: 2 Sticks of 256 MB DDR(1) - 333 MHz

    eMachines E627: Stick of 1 or 2 GB DDR2 667 or 800MHz

    France
  • databaseben
    databaseben Member Posts: 14 New User

    hi laurent,

     

    just a final note:

     

    the memory chip came in today and worked out fine. i ordered it from here since it was like 10 bucks plus shipping.  www.MemoryAmerica.com

     

    so at this time the machine is back to normal (i think)

     

    :-)

     

     

     

    thanks for your input !!

     

    dbben

     

    -- case closed --

This discussion has been closed.