Hi, I have just regained access to a couple of retail boxed P4 PC's that are approx 6 years old.

[aquired for a music project-studio that failed to get off the ground
due to the bass player making the singer pregnant,
and the lead guitarist moving to europe in a sulk because he also fancied her..]

These PCs have been stored in dry clean conditions and should be ok to use.

My only concern is what state the internal batteries may be in.
I am not an expert computer user, so need your helpful advice.

How likely is it that the batteries may now be flat,
or even have leaked and damaged surrounding components;
maybe to the extent that the motherboard is a write-off ?

If they are only flat, but not corroded, would the PC's still work ?
Or are the batteries absolutely vital for normal day to day use.

I presume they are replaceable, but what are the chances they may be soldered to the motherboard ?

I've just had to throw away a lot of similar aged unused sealed-packaged rechargable batteries
that had leaked whilst in storage.


Ps, the other thing that I remember people talking about a few years ago,
was shoddy manufactured 'capaciters' [I think ?]
that blew up and failed.
Would that have only happened if powered up,
or again is it something that could deteriorate unused in storage ?

I'm hoping to use them for music recording and editing
because they should still be perfectly adequate for 8 to 16 track mixes.



Thanks