Weak Battery (or Alternator) ? (archive)

My 1992 750iL (117,500) has been sitting in my garage
for 3 weeks until I tried to start it up last night.
(Actually, have not driven the car much in the last few
months).

Had a hard time even getting inside the car, since the
key fob would not work, and couldn't even manually open
the car with the key. Anyway, with some help from a
dealer technician was able to manually open the
passenger door, and was able to jump start the car.
(The jump start took a lot of tries since the battery
was completely dead.)

After about 30 minutes of driving around, turned off
the engine, and tried to start it up again. Alas, the
engine was completely dead again.

Symptoms (after turning off the engine):
1) Even the interior lights would not light up properly,
and was very dim.
2) Once I locked the doors, the locking system went into
a strange ritual and kept locking the doors (not
unlocking) repeatedly 5-6 times, and then stopped.

Questions:
1) Did I not keep the car started long enough (after the
jump start) before sutting it off ?
2) Do I need to get a new battery ?
3) Do I need a new alternator ?
4) What is an estimated price to get a new alternator
for this car ?
5) BTW, where is the battery in the E32 750's ?
(I just found 2 bolts for the jump start ?

Would greatly appreciate your responses. Thank you.
Regards.

Follow Ups:

Either way... Lin Gilbert 21:23 7/22/2001 (0)
Little early to tell - likely didn't run enough! Wayne McKay 18:04 7/22/2001 (0)
Re: Weak Battery (or Alternator) ? Ron Tetzner 09:00 7/22/2001 (0)
Sounds like a bad battery . . . gale 08:52 7/22/2001 (2)
- I aggree too..... Paul B (UK) 22:46 7/22/2001 (0)
- I Agree With Gale... Dave E (UK) 13:28 7/22/2001 (0)

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