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  • Tandy 200 built-in battery

    From Chris Tobar@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 30 23:40:59 2018
    Hi all,
    I bought a vintage Tandy 200 portable computer a while back. It's in good condition and works great, with a few minor issues. It's a really cool little computer and I'm amazed that it runs on AA batteries! I took the cover off one time and I saw that it
    has a small built-in nickel-cadmium backup battery. Surprisingly, it still holds a charge and kept documents in the RAM even after the AA batteries died. I noticed though that the ends of the battery look a little bit corroded. Should I be concerned
    about this? I've heard that old batteries in some other vintage computers can start to leak and damage the circuit board, but someone else told me that I don't really to worry about Ni-Cad batteries leaking. Should I replace it? And if so, what would you
    recommend? I would think that a more modern Ni-mh would be better.

    Thanks for any help!

    - Chris

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  • From Captain Nemo@21:1/5 to Chris Tobar on Mon Dec 31 03:33:23 2018
    On Sun, 30 Dec 2018 23:40:59 -0800, Chris Tobar wrote:

    Hi all,
    I bought a vintage Tandy 200 portable computer a while back. It's in
    good condition and works great, with a few minor issues. It's a really
    cool little computer and I'm amazed that it runs on AA batteries! I took
    the cover off one time and I saw that it has a small built-in
    nickel-cadmium backup battery. Surprisingly, it still holds a charge and
    kept documents in the RAM even after the AA batteries died. I noticed
    though that the ends of the battery look a little bit corroded. Should I
    be concerned about this? I've heard that old batteries in some other
    vintage computers can start to leak and damage the circuit board, but
    someone else told me that I don't really to worry about Ni-Cad batteries leaking. Should I replace it? And if so, what would you recommend? I
    would think that a more modern Ni-mh would be better.

    Yes, you should be concerned. Those batteries, plus any electrolytic capacitors, are not designed to last 30 years and usually start to leak
    by now.

    It's normal to replace the battery. Replacement batteries are very easy
    to get.

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