Troubleshooting a prius 2001 stall (12v dead battery or dead inverter?)

[tivollix]

Hello,

I am looking at buying a 2001 Prius with 100K miles, I am willing to take a chance on the battery, but I am not sure about the inverter. Would it make sens with these symptoms described below:

"When the car was brought from Kingston to Burlington it kept on stalling and needed to be boosted. The driver of the car said that the alternator was shot. But I never thought about the car not having a alternator. We had to boost the car to get it to the tow truck to take to you guy's. So I would think that the 12volt battery that should be replaced."

= do you think that only the 12V battery replacement can fix this?
= Could it be the inverter?

thanks for sharing your experience!

[hobbit]

If you have the opportunity to test the 12V side of the physical
car, do so; it should jump up closer to 13.8 - 14 once the car
comes into READY mode. If it doesn't, then the DC/DC converter
[which is part of the inverter] isn't working. Before blaming
the inverter, though, check the fuses carefully including any
fusible links you can find [often just look like little bits
of metal stretched across gaps]. I don't remember offhand what
the links look like in a 2001, maybe someone else can point
you specifically at the points to check..
.
_H*