Key Battery Low

If your spare battery was in the FOB, it'll exhaust itself - hard work just idling away, it seems. But I had mine with the battery removed - and it was almost fully charged when I swapped fobs at 2½-3 yrs old.

 

You can also put your spare fob "to sleep" with a keystroke sequence so it will not run down the battery

 

Thinking back 5½yrs - I think I tried that, but wasn't convinced that it totally cut the battery - and so just pulled the battery.

 

But that's logical and easy. Why would you do that?

 

Spent too many years in IT support "before I come and have a look - have you unplugged it, counted to 10, and started again". "No, this is a printer". "Yep - good reason to do it - ring me once you've tried that". 5 mins later "good, I knew that'd fix it".

 

LOL! When I was an industrial electrician, a pretty big portion of my calls were from maintainers who couldn't get the press to start up or even to single stroke or jog. Every time, the first thing I did was ask if they'd checked the drive belt. They'd look behind the guard and 99 times out of 100, they'd turn back with a sheepish look and say, "Sorry." Having been a maintainer for the ten years prior to getting into the electrical shop, my former supervisor once told me, "When we call an electrician and then see you come around the corner, we go, 'Oh no! I hope it's really an electrical problem.'" Actually, the only time I got a little upset was when a guy called me for the same missing belt on the same machine three days in a row. But I did bestow a few lectures.

 

My computer wouldn't start, one morning at work. Phoned IT, and the guy said to turn it off, give it a gentle shake, and try again. Worked. Apparently shook loose the hard drive arm.

 

Well, here's my experience. Battery finally dead after 3.5 years (has been warning me for a few months). Tried opening the fob with the mechanical key as the videos show, and it slipped and gouged a little of the plastic. So instead, I opted to use screwdriver as the manual recommends. I took a piece of Saran wrap, doubled it a couple times, wrapped that around the tip to reduce scratching. Inserted in slot and turned clockwise; it opened VERY easily. To remove battery, get tiny nail clipper that has traditional "cuticle stimulating" tool on it, used that to pop the battery out (inserting tool into the deep slot on one corner). To insert new battery, some trepidation at first, but just push it under the 2 fixed grippers, and then you can push it in by applying pressure on the opposite side (where the two flexible grippers are); it popped right in.

 

I go down that exact path every time: the tip of the mechanical key will work I think, but a slightly broader flat-blade screwdriver is better.

 

Seems like an awful lot uf unnecessary work to me. Key Battery Low | PriusChat