Repairing your Timekeeper battery chip in a CD-i player is always a bit tricky, as it requires quite some soldering and skills. Each Timekeeper chip has 28 connection points, which you'll need to de-solder first point by point. The easy part is taking out the case and the insides, as CD-i players are all nicely screwed together. The 450 player might be the most difficult, as it is assembled the most compact and it works a bit different compared to other CD-i players. However, if you succeed in taking out the case you'll see the insides as how it is shown above. You can use one of these Timekeepers: MK48T08B15, M48T08, M48T18 or DS1643.
CD-i member David Powell de-soldered the original Timekeeper chip in his Philips CD-i 450 and soldered in a socket & replacement chip on the same place. "It turned out well and a VAM1202 replacement CD mechanism means this console works again. Of course it still needs the video cartridge so it can run all those FMV cut-scenes and questionable Playboy masssage tutorials", according to David :)
Inside the CD-i 450, the Timekeeper battery is located at the bottom left if you look at it the same way as we do in the picture on top. Try to use a chip with a socket so every next time you don't have to desolder and solder 28 connection points again.
And as you can see below, it works again like a charm:
If you have a different compact CD-i player, like the CD-i 470, the Timekeeper chip is located in the middle of the main board. They all have 'timekeeper' printed on it (at least the originals) so it is always easy to locate the Timekeeper chip.
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| CD-i member Omegalfa shows us how to remove the chip from the main board |
[Thanks, David Powell]