CMOS battery: replace it when possible.

[MJL]

I recently obtained a 2010 Mac Mini server which had been sitting idle for close to 18 months. (was a spare machine in a service centre) I replaced the bottom HDD with a SSD.

A few weeks later I noticed that the top HDD was vibrating badly when cold so I wanted to replace it with the HDD that earlier came out but it meant that the logic board had to be removed.

At this time I gave some thought to the CMOS battery and ordered a new one - make sure it is the BR2032 and not the CR2032, the latter cannot cope very well with high temperatures.

Sure enough when I measured the existing one it was on its way to being empty. (3.017 V versus 3.46 V for the new one)

Moral of the above is that if you have to remove the logic board for one reason or another and the machine is over a year old then replace the CMOS battery at the same time. It might just save you some work at a later stage.

But wait... there's more. I've noticed that the rubber grommets holding the bottom drive (the ones in the antenna grille) easily get mangled. When you put the machine back together make a small washer out of some thin material to go between the screw and the rubber (I used a piece of plastic from an antistatic bag)

Enjoy!