All CD-i players have a Timekeeper battery chip inside. It is one of the 'design-flaws' as how we see it today, as these batteries eventually will die and the chip is soldered on the PCB, so it is not easy to change or repair. You actually have to desolder the whole chip (28 pins!) and replace it with a new one (price ranges between 10-30 dollar) or you have to dremel inside the chip until you uncover the CR2032 cell battery and solder new wires to the connection points to a new battery holder. If you're following the CD-i Community (or you own a portable CD-i model yourself), so might have noticed portable CD-i players like the Philips/LG CD-i 370 player or the Goldstar GPI 1100 portable CD-i player have a seperate and replaceable battery holder on the back already, allowing you to replace the battery that supports the timekeeper chip by yourself, without any trouble. That means the design of portable CD-i players is different compared to table-top CD-i players.
Indeed it is true that on the bottom
of most portable CD-i players there is a replaceable battery holder like this. That leaves a question to us: what kind of timekeeper
would be in it? (I suppose on without a battery inside?)
Regular timekeeper chips that we're using to repair CD-i players are MK48T08B15, M48T08, M48T18 or DS1643. Those won't fit in a portable CD-i player.
That means that portable CD-i
players (which have a dedicated battery slot on the back) actually have a
different timekeeper chip, is that correct? Might be easier to buy that
one? Could these timekeeper chips also be used in regular table-top CD-i players?
Retrostuff has a detailed answer: "Yes and no - there is no
Timekeeper. E.g., the "Portable CD-i" board in my DVS VE-200 has a
GM76C256CLLFW70 (CMOS SRAM) and a whole bunch of other chips (mostly
power/voltage controllers) next to the battery. I didn't find a RTC chip
yet, it is probably hidden somewhere else on the mainboard. The
mainboards in the other real LG players are very similar, if not the
same."
That means the design is different and there is no chip that you could use in 'regular' CD-i players, but it sure seems like the design of portable CD-i players is more future-proof with a seperate battery holder on the back!
[Thanks, Retrostuff, Zachary C. Loveall, William Steele]