I broke the clip on PRAM battery holder. Can I fix or replace?

Question

I broke the clip on PRAM battery holder. Can I fix or replace?

Boy I am not having a good Mac day. My trusty old 2008 Mac Pro (Quad Core) would not start up this morning. As dead as dead could be. No chimes, no fans, not whirrs. Not a whimper.

I thought it was probably a dead power supply. I made a Genius Bar appointment but that won't be for two days (it's the July 4 holiday at time of writing).

I came on here to ask how easy it would be to replace the power supply myself and someone suggested that it might just be the PRAM battery that needed replacing. I reseated all the cards, and ram, etc. then went to replace the battery. I was trying to ease it out when the clip snapped.

So to add to my woes does anybody now know if I can replace the PRAM battery holder or is there a way to fix the clip? 'm scared of soldering on the motherboard (or anywhere, really).

Thanks

A.S

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jul 3, 2015 6:34 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 3, 2015 8:37 PM in response to Adrian Smith4

The usual approach is to get a holder that fits the battery, then run some wire to the pads on the board where it was originally attached. Most don't bother with getting an exact replacement and putting it exactly where the old one was.

In the old days, we found that Macs would start and run just fine for bench testing without a PRAM Backup battery, but when the power dropped, all your special settings and the Date & Time would be lost. (this was before the Time sources available on the Internet today.)

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Answer 2

kaz-k

Level 8

49,068 points

Jul 4, 2015 1:04 AM in response to Adrian Smith4

It may be boot up the Mac Pro without NVRAM battery as long as you connect AC power cord to the tap.

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