CR2032

Some years ago I was on a consulting gig involving Windows Server 2003 performing in a cluster. I got very frustrated at some point at access to systems to do my work and went out and bought three custom built PCs to try to mimic the cluster run by the client. I figured I'd earn back the cost of the systems over the next year as the contract continued. Unfortunately, the contract ended about six weeks later for reasons I don't feel a need to go into.

Since then, I've been using the systems for development, one running Windows XP as a desktop, the others running Windows Server 2003 and FreeBSD. The Win2k03 server died about 18 months ago. Since the boxes were custom made (cheaply custom made) there's no warranty.

On returning from my midwestern sojourn I discovered the FreeBSD box to be mysteriously quiet, too quiet.

The problem with it appeared to be the battery had gone bad and the system had powered off.

This system wasn't critical to me, it just had copies of code I've been working on for the past year and a nice little development environment. The code is backed up. The environment, not so much.

So, in that usual I-really-need-the-thing-working again mode that deadlines tend to prompt, I went hunting for the battery. It's actually a common watch battery, CR-2032. So common that each of the four local shops I checked for it had a slot in their watch battery case for it. An empty please tell the store manager to refill the CR-2032 product slot.

Not one store had a battery (plenty of other models, like the CR2045, which is a completely different size and voltage).

Frustrated, I returned home. I remembered having had to go through this a year ago for something else in the house....the scale. The kitchen scale uses the same stupid CR-2032 batteries (two of them in fact).

So I swiped a battery from the scale and verified it had acceptable voltage.

I placed in in the motherboard.

I plugged in everything and turned on the power.

Couple lights blink on, the fan starts turning, the hard drive makes the sound that sounds like it's about to boot up.

But nothing...nothing on the screen, no beeps, no obvious errors, no bootup.

So, back to square one. Worst case scenario, I take the drive out and place it in the sole remaining PC, boot it, image or copy the development environment I want to keep.

And then throw the stinking mess out on to the street...

From now on, I either suck it up and buy namebrand systems, or a hire someone whose neck I can wring if the system goes bad.