New owner with questions

[JackG]

Hello everyone!

I bought a 2000 Boxster S this week w/28K miles. Great car,I'm really enjoying it so far, and have a couple of questions.

There's a light in the front storage area (hood), but it's not working. The bulb is good, but no voltage on the socket. Any ideas? Where's the switch? I don't see one externally, so I'm guessing in the latch mechanism?

The battery is the original one. Cranking seems a tiny bit sluggish, and it's 5 years old, so I'm going to replace it. Unfortunately, I don't have the radio code (I have all other documentation and tools, just no code card). I'm assuming the local dealer can look this up? Also, I'm thinking about hooking up a 12v supply to the battery cables while I remove and replace the battery so the car never sees a loss of 12v during the swap (saving a trip to the dealer). Anyone ever done this, any words of wisdom?

Thanks in advance,
Jack