PRAM battery record???

[m.paris]

I have used a Mac SE with some regularity for the past 18+ years without changing the PRAM battery. Sometime between mid-November and early December, it finally died. I never expected anywhere near that kind of battery life. Is this typical for an SE or am I just amazingly lucky? Has anyone come close to this or beaten it? I'm really curious. I never get anywhere close to this in my other machines.

[will2000]

I remember my SE -- $2700 with extra RAM and an ImageWriterII. It wasn't much better than the old 512Ke.

[JoeH]

The SE PRAM and clock did not take very much to power them compared to later Mac's. So it is not too surprising. Also, as I recall, some of the early PRAM batteries were not the current non-rechargeable LiIon batteries, but one of the long life chemistries such as silver-oxide. I personally have not seen one go 18 years, but have seen a number go into the 10-12 year range.

[WHiiP]

Accept your good fortune . . . no gloating allowed, grasshopper.

:bunny:

[cbelt3]

You not only win the PRAM life prize, you also gain the 'patient user' award for sticking with your SE for so long. My Plus was retired back in 91, and the SE/30 I retired it for was itself retired in 95. Etc. etc. etc.

Of course you are personally responsible for the drop in Apple stock because you have failed to replace your computer as frequently as the Steve intended. :villagers:

[m.paris]

I accept only partial responsibility. Although I did not replace the SE, I have added to my collection of Mac's about every two to three years. I tend to use different Mac's for different tasks and different operating systems (from 6.0.5 to Tiger and Leopard). It's not very energy efficient but it works the way I like.

[-jeffB]

Earlier this year, I fired up my Mac II, acquired in the fall of 1988, and probably last powered up sometime around 1996. It still knew the accurate time and date. (Okay, it was off by an hour and a half or so -- partly because of clock drift, partly because they'd changed the rules about Daylight Saving Time in the interim.)

Unfortunately, the hard drive failed after half an hour or so of uptime -- taking with it what was apparently the last known copy of A/UX 1.1.1.

[JoeH]

That reminds me, I should pull the IIfx out of the closet and see if it still runs. Last fired it up in the late '90's, hardest problem might be making sure I have a monitor and VGA-Mac adapter to hook up to it that still works.