Battery replacement

Rear view of a Dreamcast controller board; note the battery by default is a soldered-in ML2020, or sometimes a larger ML2430.

The Dreamcast uses a soldered-in, rechargeable battery to store the console's time and date settings. The battery recharges whenever the console is powered on, takes about 2 hours to charge from empty to full, and should hold date and time settings for about 20 days. The batteries on most all Dreamcast consoles should be totally dead by now, so one can desolder the original battery and replace it with a plastic battery holder to allow easy replacement of a compatible battery such as ML2032 in the future. It is recommended not to use the LIR2032 battery type as the Dreamcast does not output the voltage necessary for it to properly and fully recharge. Specifically, the ML2020, ML2032, and ML2430 are all compatible 3V batteries with differing capacities and physical sizes (Note: a larger number indicates a larger capacity and physical size, with ML2020 at 45mAh and 20mm x 2mm, ML2032 at 65mAh and 20mm x 3.2mm, and ML2430 at 100mAh and 24.5mm x 3.0mm), while the LIR2032 type is generally 3.6V or 3.7V. Note that the ML2430 may be too large to fit with an appropriately-sized reusable battery holder, and as such ML2032 is the recommended replacement type.

Parts

• Standard vertical CR2032 battery holders such as these have the same footprint as the stock soldered-in battery: https://console5.com/store/vertical-holder-for-2032-batteries.html
• ML2032 batteries can be found online from various places.