~ ELECTRONIC PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

I have a venerable IBM 765L Laptop computer. I've had the thing for ages and don't want another because I like the feel of the keyboard. After saying that I'll admit to a conflict: I'm a great lover of toys. I want the latest gadget to come down the pike, even if it really doesn't fit my elderly image. That's a polite way of saying that I got a WiFi card for my laptop. It works fine, but it brought out a weakness on my old friend the ThinkPad: I needed a new battery.

Usually, the battery isn't used much. I normally have the laptop hooked up to the 110 here in the office, and often it works just fine when I'm on the boat... also attached up to the 110 source. Anyhow, I want a battery that is a little newer and capable of being fully charged so that I can run around a bit and use the WiFi. Hmmm... the old battery won't hold a charge more than a few minutes. Like maybe twenty.

So... I accosted my local computer guru (Advantage Computers... nice guys) about a battery. Silly boy. IBM doesn't support their old stuff. Grow up. You can't buy a new battery. Get a grip. So... I sought solace from the usual source -- a got one on Ebay. Guaranteed to take a charge and costs about $20 rather than the $150 I expected to pay from IBM.

Here's the trouble -- I opened up the box and looked at the old battery. Easy as pie. But at that point I couldn't get the old battery to lift out of its hidey hole in the box. The gizzard of the 765L seems to be easy enough, but I can't get the components out of the thing without force. That bothers me.

I have seen my guy at Advantage pull the battery out in the past but I wasn't following closely and now I'm afraid that I'll mess the thing up. Anybody out there know how to remove the components properly? My guy Justin is off being a good tech and starting up another store for his owners for two weeks and I'm shaking in my boots.

What a wimp.

Bob