Dreamcast battery...

I have a question about the dreamcast battery. If I do not use the DC for 10 days or more, it loses completely the date/time settings. This did not happen with the Saturn. Some people told me that if I leave the DC always connected to the power outlet, the battery will be recharged even if the DC is turned off. Is this true ? Are some parts of the DC always "active" when it is connected to an outlet even if it is turned off ?

Thanks to everybody,

Flavio
 
Yep! In the back you'll notice a detachable plate that acceses the battery (CR2302, I believe.) and VCD card port. When that battery dies out you'll lose all your gamesaves...not to mention having to set the time everytime you boot up the machine.

I'm surprised you didn't know this...?
 
The part number is CR2032 (or DL2032 for the Duracell version). It's the same type of battery used by the VMU, and usually costs around $3 at your favorite local place that sells odd batteries (in the U.S., anyway).
 
As far as I know, no rechargeable battery will last forever anyway. Sooner or later, it will become unable to recharge itself. The Saturn battery is easy to replace, but what about the DC battery ? Can that be replaced too ? And by the way, I just noticed in the DC manual that it says that in order to recharge the battery the DC must be connected to the power outlet *AND* turned ON. I suppose that means that if I leave it connected to the outlet *BUT* turned OFF the battery will NOT be recharged, which also means that I must use it more frequently if I want it to remember the date/time settings. If someone can confirm this, it would mean the guy that told me that the battery should have been recharged anyway when connected to an outlet (no matter if the DC was turned ON or OFF) was wrong...

Thanks again,

Flavio
 
such a battery lasts 5-10 years, and after that can be replaced by desoldering it.. it's a standard type.
 
thanks for the info Arakon ^_^ If it lasts so much, there should be no problems for a long time ! ^_^

By the way, do you also know if the battery gets recharged when the DC is connected but turned OFF ?

I am asking this because in these days I rarely have time to play with the DC, and when I do I always have to set the date/time again (how boring...). So if leaving the DC connected to a power outlet will recharge the battery, I might simply leave it always connected. The manual, however, says to disconnect the DC when it is not in use, so I would be willing to keep it always connected only if I have the advantage of not losing the date/time settings...

Thanks again to everyone,

Flavio
 
Has anyone noticed that after 2 months or so the VMU batteries die out.....DC wastes too much battery I think.... (I left for vaction once....used my brand new VMU once....2 months laster it was dead...)
 
I added a socket for a power supply to one of my VMUs, for mini games. I dunno wtf sega did there, but those things eat through batteries like pacman through dots.
 
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