About this replacement
Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK Series — 3.7V Li-ion Replacement Battery (WDM060602573)
This 3.7V 1400mAh Li-ion cell replaces the backup battery on the Gigabyte GC-RAMDISK, GC-RAMDISK 1.1, GC-RAMDISK 1.2, and i-RAM RAID controller cards. It holds cache memory contents during a power loss, giving the controller enough time to flush pending writes to disk. Without a functional cell, the controller drops to write-through mode and cache-based write acceleration stops.
- GC-RAMDISK and i-RAM platform fit: These cards share the same DDR memory-backed cache architecture and draw standby power from a single Li-ion cell on the same connector footprint. The BMS on each variant monitors float voltage and triggers a learn cycle to calculate the available backup window after any cell swap.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell through charge, idle standby, and simulated power-loss discharge on a GC-RAMDISK controller. The BMS accepted the cell, voltage held within the card's operating range at 3.7V nominal, and the controller initiated a learn cycle without error flags.
- Learn cycle after installation: After fitting this cell, initiate a battery learn cycle from the controller's management interface — on Broadcom/LSI-based systems use StorCLI /cx bbu show to confirm cycle status. The card will stay in write-through mode until the learn cycle completes and the backup window estimate is recalibrated against the new cell's actual capacity.
GC-RAMDISK staying in write-through mode after battery swap
Write-through mode after a cell replacement is expected behaviour — it is not a fault with the battery. The controller suspends write-back caching until it has completed a full learn cycle and confirmed the new cell can sustain the minimum backup window. This process runs under normal system load and typically takes 24 to 72 hours. Until the cycle finishes and the controller reports a healthy backup window, write-back will not re-enable automatically.
Management console showing a battery error days after installation
Battery health assessments on the GC-RAMDISK run on a timed schedule, not at boot or immediately after a swap. If the controller's scheduled self-test fires before the learn cycle has finished recalibrating the backup window, it logs a battery error even though the cell is charging correctly. Check that the cell voltage is sitting at or near 3.7V nominal using StorCLI or the card's management utility before assuming a fault. Allow the learn cycle to complete fully — typically one to three charge cycles under load — and the error should clear on the next scheduled assessment.