Lithium are fine. I'm sure a few folks use them. The important thing is to get them off the board, remotely located.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact/
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

Install NVRAM and save your battery money and never worry about battery puke again.

I had remote battery packs on all my games that have AA batteries. One remote battery pack leaked and really made a mess in the corner of the back box. The alkaline damage creeps a fair distance. If you use batteries lithium is the way to go in a remote pack inside a ziploc bag.

I had purchased memory chips for my games and after this last battery puke event it motivated me to take the time and install them.
I should have done is LONG ago.

If this is within your capability then I agree. All of mine now have NVRAM, aside from Gottlieb 5101 games. I use SuperCaps on those. Just my particular preference. YMMV.
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/contact/
http://webpages.charter.net/chibler/Pinball/index.htm
http://www.PinWiki.com - The new place for pinball repair info

http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=MPU_Battery_Replacement_Options

The lithium will last many years and no worries imo. But about same price for a four pack as NV ram so.....

But with NVRAM the clock stops when you turn a game off. So unless you reset the time when you turn the game back on you may miss out on a midnight madness.

I enjoy midnight madness without staying up until midnight.........
Clock starts running when powered on.

That, and the clock is completely unused and irrelevant in all but about six WPC games.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
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Quality Board Work - In Home Service
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http://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=MPU_Battery_Replacement_Options#Games_Affected_By_a_Real-Time_Clock

I use nvram on non-invasive installs like dataeast/sega/stern whitestar games. on WPC games, i've seen too many people screw up an otherwise perfect cpu board trying to remove the solder-in ram. my preference on these game is a cr2032 coin battery (very low cost, easy to install.) And it does maintain the date/time data in a conventional way. this is helpful for games that use the clock like Creature, Twilight Zone, Dirty Harry, Johnny Mnemonic, WHO dunnit, Theatre of Magic, Congo, Junk Yard, NBA Fastbreak, Medieval Madness (all but the first two use the clock for some form of "midnight madness".)

Socketing the MPU board is a simple job IF you have the skill and tool needed ( Hakko 808 rules).
10 years back I never had a battery leak. In the last 10 years I have lost a few items from battery puke. The cheap items were a pc mouse, maglite, etc and one expensive item Duracell comped me on but was irreplaceable. Two different brands of batteries far away from expiration date.

Mounting a remote battery holder only moves the damage off the MPU board to a different area.
Seriously, put a bag over them or far away. The corrosive battery puke carries a pretty good distance and will damage or rust things it contacts.

Nvram is just an option in the toolbox to consider.....

I only have 2 games left that still have batteries in them. And those will probably be swapped over to NVRAM in the next couple weeks when I have time to get them back and pull the CPUs.

NVRAM in the games that can handle it, SuperCaps in the old Bally games. It's so nice to not worry about them.

And... Ardvark Pinball is running a special for cheap NVRAM installs at Pintastic. Yeah, that's an ad.

Ok please forgive me for my ignorance for this question... I have a TOM and was considering NVRAM I have looked at some old posts about NVRAM and the list on pinwiki (the one that ForceFlow linked) what I am confused on is the wording I guess. On pinwiki and other posts it states "Theatre of Magic ("hermaphrodite position" - midnight madness does not depend on real time clock since it is a game mode)"

So my question is if midnight madness does not depend on the real time clock and is a game mode... is it (for all practical purposes) impacted by NVRAM?

Again sorry if this is a duh question but as I read it there is no change.

Yes, midnight madness depends on the real time clock. It goes into the mode when the clock reaches midnight, no matter what is happening at the time.

However, TOM does not have the special midnight madness mode like some other games do. NVRAM will not affect any modes in TOM. Midnight Madness is the name of a regular mode in TOM that can be started on every game played.

Only these games have special midnight madness mode
•Congo
•Dirty Harry
•Johnny Mnemonic
•Junk Yard
•NBA Fastbreak
•Who Dunnit