CMOS Battery Replacement Questions

[aaronhirshberg]

I recently replaced my CMOS battery. I did not have my BIOS settings
hard copied. I have had to make the following changes by hand. The
changes worked out fine.

My computer thought I had an A drive. I started the computer, F2-

Drive Configuration, and so on, and removed the A drive.

Norton Anti-Virus was looking for the A drive to scan. I went into
the Norton set up and changed that back, too.

What else will I have to change by hand? No sarcasm, please.

Is it possible that the default settings that were reinstated after
the battery change could show less memory that I actually have? When
I go to Programs->settings->control panel->system, is the memory
stated there the physical memory or the memory read from the BIOS? I
still have the purchase order for the PC, so I can always find the
installed memory there. Is there a run time test I can run to find
the size of the memory?

Aaron Hirshberg
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Malke]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

Answers inline:

I recently replaced my CMOS battery. I did not have my BIOS settings
hard copied. I have had to make the following changes by hand. The
changes worked out fine.

My computer thought I had an A drive. I started the computer, F2-
Drive Configuration, and so on, and removed the A drive.

Norton Anti-Virus was looking for the A drive to scan. I went into
the Norton set up and changed that back, too.

What else will I have to change by hand?

Generally if you didn't fine-tune the BIOS yourself (and based on your
questions I would surmise that you didn't), the only thing you need to do
is set the time and date. You might want to change the boot order, but
that's optional.

Is it possible that the default settings that were reinstated after
the battery change could show less memory that I actually have?

No. It's possible that when you were removing the CMOS battery you somehow
dislodged the RAM (not really easy to do so I rather doubt you did this),
but in general just replacing the battery will not affect the BIOS being
able to detect the correct amount of RAM you have.

When
I go to Programs->settings->control panel->system, is the memory
stated there the physical memory or the memory read from the BIOS? I
still have the purchase order for the PC, so I can always find the
installed memory there. Is there a run time test I can run to find
the size of the memory?

There isn't any difference between the "physical memory or the memory read
from the BIOS". The only thing that will look different in Windows is if
you have, for ex., 1GB of memory and an onboard video card that shares some
of that memory. In that case, Windows will probably show something like
936MB (64MB being shared with the video card in this example).

To find out what memory you have, you can:

1. Open up the computer while it is turned off AND unplugged and look at it;
or

2. Run a free system inventory program like Belarc Advisor or System
Information for Windows.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows

3. Look at the documentation you got with the computer.

There are other utilities too, but the above should cover it for you.

BTW, it is not a good idea to post your real, unmunged email address on
Usenet (where you are now posting whether you realize it or not). It will
get harvested by spammers.

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/munad.htm - how to munge email address

Malke

 

[SC Tom]

I recently replaced my CMOS battery. I did not have my BIOS settings
hard copied. I have had to make the following changes by hand. The
changes worked out fine.

My computer thought I had an A drive. I started the computer, F2-

Norton Anti-Virus was looking for the A drive to scan. I went into
the Norton set up and changed that back, too.

What else will I have to change by hand? No sarcasm, please.

Is it possible that the default settings that were reinstated after
the battery change could show less memory that I actually have? When
I go to Programs->settings->control panel->system, is the memory
stated there the physical memory or the memory read from the BIOS? I
still have the purchase order for the PC, so I can always find the
installed memory there. Is there a run time test I can run to find
the size of the memory?

Aaron Hirshberg
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

If you go into BIOS on boot up, it will show you how much memory is
installed. Keep in mind that Windows (or any 32-bit OS) won't show anything
more than ~3.5GB even if you have more than that installed. Using this
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php will show all that's physically there (and
much more).
If you hadn't made any changes before you replaced the battery, all the
settings should be the same for everything else. If you don't have a floppy,
you can disable that in BIOS, too, so that Windows and Norton won't be
looking for it.

SC Tom

 

[Lil' Dave]

I recently replaced my CMOS battery. I did not have my BIOS settings
hard copied. I have had to make the following changes by hand. The
changes worked out fine.

My computer thought I had an A drive. I started the computer, F2-

The "A" and "B" drive letters are typically reserved for the standard 1.44
MB floppy diskette drive. In some cases, an older ZIP (100/200 MB)or an
LS-120 (120mb/240MB) diskette drive may have a boot option that defaults to
drive "A" when setup that way in the bios setup.

Norton Anti-Virus was looking for the A drive to scan. I went into
the Norton set up and changed that back, too.

What else will I have to change by hand? No sarcasm, please.

Is it possible that the default settings that were reinstated after
the battery change could show less memory that I actually have? When

No, the RAM is detected and counted at beginning of the bios routine.
Doesn't matter about any bios setup.

I go to Programs->settings->control panel->system, is the memory
stated there the physical memory or the memory read from the BIOS? I

Its the total onboard memory detected by the bios including video memory
which may be additional.

still have the purchase order for the PC, so I can always find the
installed memory there. Is there a run time test I can run to find
the size of the memory?

www.crucial.com
--
Dave

CDOs are how we got here.
A modified version, new taxes in the future, is how Congress will get us
out?