Cmos

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THis is a general PC question but I do have WIndows XP professional - I got a
message about the CMOS battery needing to be replaced with I first booted up
- Can I damage the machine if I don't replace it right away ?? or run it too
long??I have the pc open but wondered if this is easy to spot or not - I
Understand you can just "pop it out" and then buy a new one and "pop it" back
in again - this all sounds so easy but I need to knwo what to "pop out"
first. Is it easily visible ? thanks (I wish we could attache pics to these
messages) thanks for any info
 
fergie123 said:
THis is a general PC question but I do have WIndows XP professional - I
got a
message about the CMOS battery needing to be replaced with I first booted
up
- Can I damage the machine if I don't replace it right away ?? or run it
too
long??I have the pc open but wondered if this is easy to spot or not - I
Understand you can just "pop it out" and then buy a new one and "pop it"
back
in again - this all sounds so easy but I need to knwo what to "pop out"
first. Is it easily visible ? thanks (I wish we could attache pics to
these
messages) thanks for any info
Click to expand...
A weak battery is one of the reasons for the clock to lose time. A weak
battery is one of the reasons for the BIOS to lose settings. There may be
other things as well.

Doesn't your computer manual show where the battery is located?

These things are essentially watch batteries, and they are easy to remove
and replace. There is nothing close to being like the battery so it should
be easy to spot.

Buy the replacement first. Write down any BIOS settings that are different
from the default because replacing the battery may cause them to revert to
the default.

Then just remove and replace.

These batteries last a very long time. How old is your computer?

Jim
 
fergie123 said:
THis is a general PC question but I do have WIndows XP professional -
I got a message about the CMOS battery needing to be replaced with I
first booted up - Can I damage the machine if I don't replace it
right away ?? or run it too long??
Click to expand...


No you can't damage the machine, but you can lose the abililty to use it
until you replace the battery.

The battery maintains the CMOS settings while the machine is powered off,
and the biggest danger of not replacing it is that you can lose those
settings and not know what settings to put back. So I recommend that you
replace it ASAP.

You normally have ten to fifteen minutes or so with the battery out before
you lose the settings, and I've seen it as long as an hour or more on some
computers.

However, my personal view is that nobody should ever be in a position of
having to rely on this. There are no guarantees and you can easily lose all
the settings if its less that I call "normal" above. I recommend that
everyone make and keep handy a hard copy of his BIOS settings, just in case,
even if you are not planning on replacing the battery any time soon.


I have the pc open but wondered if
this is easy to spot or not - I Understand you can just "pop it out"
and then buy a new one and "pop it" back in again - this all sounds
so easy but I need to knwo what to "pop out" first. Is it easily
visible ?
Click to expand...


Yes, it's around the size and shape of a quarter. You should have system or
motherboard documentation that shows it. There are pictures of them here:
http://shopping.msn.com/results/shp/?bCatID=4634,av=12-89889,minPrice=2,maxPrice=4.99

or http://tinyurl.com/geknu

Buy the new one *before* you pop it out, so it's out for the minimum length
of time and the risk of losing the settings is minimized. Open the case,
read the model number and buy the one you need before removing the old one.
They are very inexpensive--usually under $5.

Read about how to do it here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/81
 
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