battery on the motherboard

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack B
  • Start date Start date
When does the little battery on the motherboard need to be replaced?
Click to expand...



When it fails. You will know when that begins because the clock will
start to lose time whenever the machine is powered off.

When does that happen? It depends entirely on the specific battery.
Sometime as soon as a couple of months after purchase. Sometimes as
much as five years later.
 
Thanks.

My pc is 8½ yrs old so I probably ought to replace the battery. Is there
anything in particular I should be aware of in doing that?


Jack




When does the little battery on the motherboard need to be replaced?
Click to expand...



When it fails. You will know when that begins because the clock will
start to lose time whenever the machine is powered off.

When does that happen? It depends entirely on the specific battery.
Sometime as soon as a couple of months after purchase. Sometimes as
much as five years later.
 
Jack said:
Thanks.

My pc is 8½ yrs old so I probably ought to replace the battery. Is there
anything in particular I should be aware of in doing that?


Jack








When it fails. You will know when that begins because the clock will
start to lose time whenever the machine is powered off.

When does that happen? It depends entirely on the specific battery.
Sometime as soon as a couple of months after purchase. Sometimes as
much as five years later.
Click to expand...

Unplug the computer from the wall (you might also wait a few minutes
after you unplug it) and discharge any static electricity from your body
before working on the computer (and/or wear an antistatic wrist strap).
Don't poke your fingers (or any metallic tool) in random parts of the
computer.

This is a FAQ: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=replace+cmos+battery
 
Simple common sense. Turn power off but leave line cord plugged in.
(Provides static discharge path)
Touch frame of computer before anything else (discharge static)
 
as they say:

"If it aint broke
then don't fix it"

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
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~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen
 
Simple common sense. Turn power off but leave line cord plugged in.
(Provides static discharge path)
Touch frame of computer before anything else (discharge static)
Click to expand...

Turning power off and leaving AC power cord plugged in is *not* a good
idea. This does not completely remove power from the motherboard. The
Standby +5VDC is still active even when the rest of the power supply
lines are off. This is used to power the circuitry that controls the
Power-On signal, and network card's Wake-On-LAN capabilities. Always
unplug the AC cord is the common sense approach.
 
Thanks.
Click to expand...


You're welcome. Glad to help.


My pc is 8½ yrs old so I probably ought to replace the battery.
Click to expand...


8½ years is an extraordinarily long time for a battery; you've been
very fortunate.

If you're not having problems with it, there's no rush to replace it.
On the other hand, it can't last a whole lot longer. And since they
are very cheap (under $5 US) and they are very easy to replace,
there's no real downside to doing it now.

Is there
anything in particular I should be aware of in doing that?
Click to expand...


As I said, it's very easy. My only suggestion, if you've never done it
before, is to get a friend who has done it to work with you and show
you how.
 
Thanks.

My pc is 8½ yrs old so I probably ought to replace the battery.  Is there
anything in particular I should be aware of in doing that?

Jack



When it fails. You will know when that begins because the clock will
start to lose time whenever the machine is powered off.

When does that happen? It depends entirely on the specific battery.
Sometime as soon as a couple of months after purchase. Sometimes as
much as five years later.
Click to expand...

If you provide more information, we can perhaps help you locate a
manual that will tell you exactly how to replace your battery. If it
has been 8.5 years, that is a good life and if you have never changed
it, it might be a good time to perform some other routine maintenance
on your system so you can get another 8.5 years out of it.

If you do nor provide more information, you will just get general
ideas that might apply to your system. So far, you have gotten some
conflicting information - which is the right information?

Please provide additional information about your system:

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

msinfo32

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just
delete it from the pasted information.

This will minimize back and forth Q&A and eliminate guesswork.
 
NA said:
Turning power off and leaving AC power cord plugged in is *not* a good
idea. This does not completely remove power from the motherboard. The
Standby +5VDC is still active even when the rest of the power supply lines
are off. This is used to power the circuitry that controls the Power-On
signal, and network card's Wake-On-LAN capabilities. Always unplug the AC
cord is the common sense approach.
Click to expand...

Unknown is incorrect with the newer computers but where that information was
obtained is that it was correct in older AT class computers that actually
had the computer's power switch on the power supply. The newer computers
where it is an electrically controlled switch (momentary contact type switch
on the case) on the motherboard what unknown said can cause the computer to
be fried quickly as you pointed out.

Unplug it and also anything that could be sending a signal to the computer,
such as self powered scanner, attached external drives, etc. They can
"backfeed" through the signal cable into the computer's motherboard (granted
this is not much current but...)

I have created a ground strap with an alligator clip on one end that is
clipped on the metal frame of the computer and a standard wall plug's ground
that can be plugged in to provide a chassis ground. This is done, of
course, after all has been unplugged.
 
You are absolutely correct. I neglected to add the proper procedures when
using a
multiple outlet box with an on/off switch. I (dumbly) assumed poster had box
with switch.
Be more careful next time.
 
NA said:
Turning power off and leaving AC power cord plugged in is *not* a good
idea. This does not completely remove power from the motherboard. The
Standby +5VDC is still active even when the rest of the power supply
lines are off. This is used to power the circuitry that controls the
Power-On signal, and network card's Wake-On-LAN capabilities. Always
unplug the AC cord is the common sense approach.
Click to expand...

My P4 and Core2Quad computers have Asus motherboards (retails) and Antec
power supplies (retails).

There are leds on the motherboards and ON/OFF (1/0) switches on the power
supplies on the back of the towers.

When I flip the power supplies to OFF (0), the leds on the motherboards go
out and I am not able to turn on the computers from the power switch in
front of the tower and I am pretty sure they would not power on using Wake-
On-Lan or keyboard keystrokes. That tells me that there is NO power going
to the MB and I can do maintenance such as replacing MB battery or memory
on them without unplugging the power cord from the wall or power bar, I
already replaced the battery on my P4 and added memory to the Core2Quad
only turning the back switch OFF and no problems.

The only time I unplug that cord, is when I take the towers outside to
remove accumulated dust with air spray cans.

Of course if the power supplies don't have the power switch like many OEM
models, you need to unplug the power cord.
 
Your computer is not a United States version. It probably is Canadian.
Electrical specs vary from country to country.
The US computers do not have on/off switches on the back of the power
supplies.
 
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