OT: Can CMOS battery on PC motherboard be hot-swapped?

Socketwatch updates the clock once an hour. My statement was technically incorrect... the 50ms was the last correction before I read the clock.

Socketwatch is automatic and settable to any interval desired and checks _multiple_ time servers.

Where is this Win2000/XP feature that does ntp automatically? ...Jim Thompson

And after 2h the fun is over, battery exhausted. I do heavy SPICE and a laptop won't last long that way. The HD writes for the RAW files alone are a major burden.

But what I meant was PC sales in general, including laptops. Many older folks buy laptops these days because they don't want a space-hogging tower and monitor setup. And it's the saem thing there: Writing setup info that hardly ever changes into voltaile RAM is not smart.

I meant all the other settings. Think about it a little more: Why does the handbook insist you copy everything in the setup before swapping the battery? They would surely not say that if all you'd lose is date and time (which nowadays cen even be auto-updated from the web).

Yes. Just be careful not to drop it on a energized circuit board!

Not enough memory?

"Data Compression" not turned on?

No ability to "Save Data at Markers Only" ?>:-}

But I rarely run simulations on battery... that's what they make power adapters or docking stations for ;-)

Whine, whine, whine ;-) ...Jim Thompson

The strap or the battery? The strap is NOT the degree of "conductive" you may think it is.

Unless you are dumb enough to have ever or still be using those stupid "wrist watch strap" designs that were metallic. The cloth ones pass tests for years as fully functional.

But as for ESD and keeping your products safe from yourself...

The paradigm these days, since fields are also important to abate as well, is to simply don an ESD smock and be shielded full body. nothing to drop onto anything, including a charged field. Touch your product chassis or workbench ground before starting.

Also, your skin is (typically) very dry (comparatively)and you can accumulate excess electrons (charge) on it with respect to an earth grounded chassis from your clothing. Moisturize your hands and writs, since that is where the smocks connect to you at.

Other "charge particulars"

Even an ungrounded chassis is already typically at earth grounded (read 'drained') potential, as it was at one time so grounded and not likely to have had charges added to it. It will sink your charge. If you only touch the chassis. You AND the chassis are important to establish being at the same charge. Do not use electrical ground for ESD abatement systems. Earth sink points, as in a hard driven ground rod are preferred.

So, FAIAP even an ungrounded system or chassis is considered "at ground potential" because it was recently or still is, from an ESD sinking capacity POV.

Of course there are special situations where an earth ground insulated (ungrounded) chassis, like one sitting on a table, could build a charge over the entire chassis with respect to true earth ground, as in a location where magnetic fields from HV presence or corona or even dry air in a lightning storm area. Or just dry air.

But for the most part, even an ungrounded chassis is considered "at ground" and represents the same ESD event sinking capacity as a fully grounded system.

After many such 'sinking' events, however, one would think that the chassis itself might have a few extra electrons that might want to jump into the earth when that contact was re-established.

So back to the smocks.

They now have integrated "wrist straps" because they are long sleeved and the sleeves have conduction throughout the smock, and the 'ground lead' gets attached at the left or right pocket, mid smock.

No wrist strap required and no fields are ever present when someone touches ground as they approach an ESD controlled workstation, and then hooks up before any examinations or functions utilizing ESD susceptible componentry is performed. It is all about balance. Typically, the 'ground circuit' of any device or card or circuit you would consider touching is the ground level of the surface of your bench top, and YOU yourself.

Otherwise, your PC chassis IS the "ESD safe workstation", and you either leave it plugged in, or tie the chassis to the electrical fault line, since you have no ground rod *at* the PC. still, don the smock, and use the PC chassis as your smock grounding point.

THAT IS THE IMPORTANT MESSAGE OF THIS POST.

For the smocks;

Plug in at a std test station and press the button, and the circuit from the ground point, through the ESD attachment cord, to the smock pocket, through the smock, sleeve, and cuff, into your wrist and down through your finger, back to the button.

A passed test shows that not only is there a path to ground for your body, but also a 'field shield' over your clothing, all integrated together to keep you from presenting yourself as an ESD event hazard to any device with such a susceptibility.

Remember, an ESD event and subsequent failure mode in a product does NOT require contact, and does NOT always immediately exhibit any evidence of the damage it has caused.

There is never enough memory.

With switchers one usually doesn't want to do that. You never know where "fuzz" shows up you want to look at and zoom in.

I thought that's what they make nuclear power stations for :-)

But anyhow, I only use laptops for that if I have to. The heat generated internally ain't too healthy for them.

Nah, if something in a consumer or business product got screwed up I call that out. Thanks to Jeff I found that hot-swapping avoids having to re-enter all that.

Click on the clock in the taskbar to open the date & time. Click the right tab.

I don't see how you can set that to every 15 minutes... looks like it's once per week or upon reboot. ...Jim Thompson

He just said automatic, not every 15 minutes.

Plug it in. Your desktop isn't going to work for very long if it's unplugged either. Most people scale back their processing power substantially when operating on battery. Two hours is a thing of the past.

Who does that, with flash being so ubiquitous?

Jeff brought an example, I don't know which mfgs use this:

I have a Dell and the manual states that an image of the CMOS should be taken before removing the battery, in order to be able to restore the settings in there. But it fails to say how and what software to use for this.

Maybe just write down the settings? There's not very many. ...Jim Thompson

One of the best points in the entire thread.

Everything past 0Fh? Not "many"?

Ok, I just bought a new set of ink roller pens so at least I wouldn't run out of ink :-)

Come on! You DO have equipment later than 1980 ???

I just bought some T\u\l (that's an over-bar :) medium needlepoint pens. I've been having problems with the usual rollerball offerings going all the way thru the cheap-ass paper masquerading as "green", and bleeding such that readability goes to hell. So far the T\u\l pens seem quite good.

Do the world a favor... locate a greenie and burn his ass to the ground >:-} ...Jim Thompson

I've been using Tul pens since 2007. I just wish I could buy only the red ones. I have plenty of the others. I have some of the medium point ones. They're great for writing (what little writing I do) but I prefer the fine point for markups.

Actually, I'll have to correct my statement, it's gel pens. Pentel EnerGel BLN105, 0.5mm. Those are really nice for drawing schematics that need to be scanned and shared, or "skyped". Also to write on the back side of the green AMPAD paper where pencil is hardly readable.

Digital camera?

NvramRestorer - dumping and restoring BIOS settings in Windows (Login required).

HWdirect

CMOS Save

Using the IBM ASU (advanced settings utility) DUMP command:

CMOS save/restore

Disclaimer: I haven't tested any of these.