System delay after replacing CMOS battery

[Charles W Davis]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer member. It was
explained to me that he had been receiving some vague messages. He had
decided that it needed a new CMOS battery. On the way to the store he
dropped the battery that he had removed down along side the transmission
housing. So he simply guessed as to the replacement. When he had installed
it, the computer wouldn't boot. That's when I was called. After attempting
to start it, I very carefully explained that I would take it to our hardware
guru and that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation took
several minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort of error,
and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP SP2. After resetting
the system clock all was normal.

Is this kind of a delay normal?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer
member. It was explained to me that he had been receiving some
vague messages. He had decided that it needed a new CMOS battery.
On the way to the store he dropped the battery that he had removed
down along side the transmission housing. So he simply guessed as
to the replacement. When he had installed it, the computer wouldn't
boot. That's when I was called. After attempting to start it, I
very carefully explained that I would take it to our hardware guru
and that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation took
several minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort
of error, and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP
SP2. After resetting the system clock all was normal.
Is this kind of a delay normal?

No.

 

[VanguardLH]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer member. It was
explained to me that he had been receiving some vague messages. He had
decided that it needed a new CMOS battery. On the way to the store he
dropped the battery that he had removed down along side the transmission
housing. So he simply guessed as to the replacement. When he had installed
it, the computer wouldn't boot. That's when I was called. After attempting
to start it, I very carefully explained that I would take it to our hardware
guru and that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation took
several minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort of error,
and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP SP2. After resetting
the system clock all was normal.

Is this kind of a delay normal?

Some motherboards will not boot if the CMOS battery is dead or missing.
My guess is that the powered up state caused a capacitor to eventually
charge up that would then hold the values in the CMOS table copied from
the BIOS (from EEPROM).

You should be able to go online to the motherboard maker's web site to
read their online manual. Many mobos use the CR-2032 wafer battery.
Sometimes you can check the silkscreen printing inside or around the
battery holder to see a battery model number.

Did you short the 2-pin header to clear the CMOS table copy of the BIOS
(to force a reload of the default BIOS settings)?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer member.
It was explained to me that he had been receiving some vague
messages. He had decided that it needed a new CMOS battery. On the
way to the store he dropped the battery that he had removed down
along side the transmission housing. So he simply guessed as to the
replacement. When he had installed it, the computer wouldn't boot.
That's when I was called. After attempting to start it, I very
carefully explained that I would take it to our hardware guru and
that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation took several
minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort of error,
and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP SP2. After
resetting the system clock all was normal.
Is this kind of a delay normal?

No.

What battery did he end up installing? The most common ones I have seen ar
CR2032 Lithium batteries. The one he put in may be the wrong voltage.

 

[Olórin]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer member. It
was explained to me that he had been receiving some vague messages. He had
decided that it needed a new CMOS battery. On the way to the store he
dropped the battery that he had removed down along side the transmission
housing. So he simply guessed as to the replacement. When he had installed
it, the computer wouldn't boot. That's when I was called. After attempting
to start it, I very carefully explained that I would take it to our
hardware guru and that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation
took several minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort of
error, and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP SP2. After
resetting the system clock all was normal.

Is this kind of a delay normal?

"...It started to boot up. Found some sort of error, and I pressed on..."

Did you make a note of what this error was?

 

[Charles W Davis]

This morning I was called to make a House Call for a computer member. It
was explained to me that he had been receiving some vague messages. He had
decided that it needed a new CMOS battery. On the way to the store he
dropped the battery that he had removed down along side the transmission
housing. So he simply guessed as to the replacement. When he had installed
it, the computer wouldn't boot. That's when I was called. After attempting
to start it, I very carefully explained that I would take it to our
hardware guru and that it appeared to be a power supply. This explanation
took several minutes, and Whoa! It started to boot up. Found some sort of
error, and I pressed on. The system booted up correctly. WinXP SP2. After
resetting the system clock all was normal.

Is this kind of a delay normal?

I spoke with the member at Thursday's Q&A session. He has had no further
problems, except that the printer didn't work. I followed him home and
plugged the USB cable into the port.