My friend has a second-hand Titanium Powerbook, which of course is fairly old. It seems that the backup (PRAM) battery is dead.
She always uses it on mains power (the only reason for a laptop is that I bought it for her when she was visiting me in England, and she needed a machine she could take back to California). Is there anythig nasty that is likely to happen with this battery being dead. I already know that things happen when the machine is taken on a trip.
What's the situation about replacing the battery? Apple's replacement battery, even when bought from another dealer, is madly expensive, and replacing it does need to be done professionally. It's usually easy enough to replace the battery on a desktop machine, but portables are a different matter (I've seen the instructions for doing it, and they are well beyond her abilities or mine).
There's a problem with the main battery. On the rare occasions we've used it on battery, the connection with the battery sometimes fails and the machine shuts down. I understand this is a known problem with this machine, which was solved in slightly later models, and that the battery is just rather loose in its fitting. Is there a simple solution to this? It's not a major problem, given that it is almost always on mains, but it would be nice to have it working ok.
I think the latch on the baterry compartment may be loose, as the battery has sometimes come out when moving the machine. I expect that fastening it shut with tape might solve this issue.