Interestingly this has been going on since before the PS1 era.
Many PCs from the early 90s and late 80s had battery backed RAM to store CMOS settings, and some wouldn't boot at all if it was dead. The battery was integrated into a Dallas real-time clock chip, so there was no way to replace it without desoldering the entire thing and putting a new one in. Fortunately brand new ones are available even today, or third party replacements with socketed batteries.
Some games consoles had them too. The Philips CD-I,
yes but luckyli several old systems used cr2032 batteries and are often easy to revive. I has an old 80386 with a drum battery that has been sitting in an unheated wooden shed for 30 years.. It still works but I removed its battery just to be safe. no sign of battery leak... pretty amazing. however most other mainboards were dead, about 20 ranging from pentium 4 back to 8086 mainboards. I havent been able to rescue them before now.
Headline almost gave me a heart attack (Score:4, Insightful)
I was worried my library of classic favorites for PSX and PS2 would cease working. Crisis averted!
Re: (Score:2)
Interestingly this has been going on since before the PS1 era.
Many PCs from the early 90s and late 80s had battery backed RAM to store CMOS settings, and some wouldn't boot at all if it was dead. The battery was integrated into a Dallas real-time clock chip, so there was no way to replace it without desoldering the entire thing and putting a new one in. Fortunately brand new ones are available even today, or third party replacements with socketed batteries.
Some games consoles had them too. The Philips CD-I,
Re: Headline almost gave me a heart attack (Score:1)