Hey guys - Travis is over and we successfully replaced the socket and confirmed his ROM was the source of his issues. We cleaned off all of the corrosion from the battery pack and installed fresh batteries. Fired it up and everything worked like a champ. No issues that we saw. Turned it off, pulled his board from my LOTR and as he was getting ready to leave we saw this:

Obviously this battery pack got very hot - Could it have been from his original bad ROM?We installed these batteries - before - installing the bad ROM and then installing my known good one. Could it have just been a bad battery? Finally - could the remaining corrosion in the battery pack have caused it? Again - we cleaned it pretty good, though I am sure some was still present.

On a completely different note - we are installing the anypin battery eliminator now - to do away with the battery pack. My questions with it are:
1 - Whitestars do use the 6264 setting - correct?
2 - I removed the original battery pack. Do I need to reinstall it - even empty / and/ or do I need to fill the solder holes remaining from its removal? Thanks!

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Good possibility - any idea which one it is - looking in the circuit for an obvious one now.

It's definitely bad. It's reading .182. Should be about .4-,6 - correct?

Also - any idea on removing the battery holder? Do I just fill those empty holes with solder

ok - need to replace the diode but it calls for a 1N5817. I only have 1N4001, 1N4004, and 1N4007. Can I replace it with one of those?

Also, I do intend on getting rid of the battery pack as I just installed the NVRAM from anypin if that makes a difference.

Ok - so a couple of additional questions:
1 - Are you sure about the voltage drop and where can I confirm what it should be - again I know a standard diofe is .4-.6.
2 - Does it matter given that I am using the NVRAM and won't be using the battery pack?
3 - If the diode is not bad - as we suspect it is - then what cause the batteries to basically overheat and melt the battery pack?

1 - OK - I reinstalled the original diode - but am concerned now because everything else in that circuit tests good. No grounds on the positive side of the battery terminal so not sure why the batteries over heated.

Again - we are getting rid of the battery holder so that is probably less of a concern if it was the cause - but I want to make sure something isn't going to blow up the board.

Also - with this NVRAM install - now that I have removed the battery holder, what do I do with the two empty holes where they holder used to be - just solder them closed - leave them alone - or is there a third option?

Thanks again for all of your help - it s most definitely appreciated.

Thanks Terry! I appreciate it. I just removed the battery holder altogether. Reinstalled the original diode since it tested ok, and installed the AnyPin kit. I set it to 6264 RAM - which should be correct for the Whitestar board. Getting ready to reinstall and fire her up. Wish us luck!
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