when to replace system board battery?

hi, in an old pc i have had second hand for five years or so it says it the instruction booklet that it has a lithium battery in the system board can be replaced.

how would i know when this needs to be replaced please? will the whole p.c. just stop working? thanks

Reply to
jw 1111
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Usually, what happens is that the settings in the system's CMOS (AKA the settings in the BIOS) will be lost and require reconfiguring. As many systems just run with the defaults anyway, these days it isn't much of an issue. I would expect the battery will be getting low. I've known them last a lot longer than 5 years, but I've also seen them last less than one year!.

Generally, when you switch the PC on and you get the POST screen (the first thing you see when you power on, when it does the memory count) it will notify you if the battery is low with a message similar to 'CMOS battery low'.

Most modern systems have a system monitor function in the BIOS, where you can find out things like power supply voltage, CPU temperature and CMOS battery voltage. To access the BIOS, consult your manual or watch for any onscreen instructions on power on, usually something like 'press DEL to enter BIOS'. If yours has a hardware BIOS monitor, check the CMOS battery voltage is not significantly below 3V, ie 2.9V or 2.8V should be OK.

If your system does not have such a function, and it may not as it's getting on in years, you can pop the battery out and check it with a multimeter. Failing that, just replace it, they're cheap!

Dave

Reply to
Dave D

I know on older computers when the battery was dead you would get the "non systems disk, please replace diska nd hit enter" message or messages asking for date and time.

Reply to
Jeff

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p.c.

The battery usually does 2 things. It keeps the internal clock running while the computer is off. It also holds the cmos settings such as what hard drive and if you have a floppy drive in the computer. The first thing that usually hapens is that if the time is nearly correct when you turn off the computer and then turn it back on the time is way off. Depending on the computer, if the battery is dead you will loose the settings in the CMOS. Then you will have several possiabilities. ONe is to hit F1 to continue. Another is you will go to the cmos and have to reenter the settings, or the computer may do an automatic default to some settings that may let your computer start up or atleast start in a very basic configuration.

Some batteries last for a long time and some do not. Sometimes it depends on if the computer is turned on all the time or just used once a week.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Is the battery dead or is it on the verge of dying? Just another reason why good techs have a meter. Whereas lithium batteries are suppose to last 5 years, sometimes an IC has leakage problems causing the battery to only last 1 year or 1 week. How weak is the battery? Measure battery voltage with a digital meter. A 3 volt battery is ready for replacement when voltage drops below 2.8 volts. IOW as the battery approaches end of life, then the battery voltage starts to drop quickly.

Some lithium batteries are 3 volts. Some were 6 volts. You must read its label for voltage.

Any other answer would > hi, in an old pc i have had second hand for five years or so it says

Reply to
w_tom

If the battery is flat then the first indicator may be that the current time and date are wrong. When the pc is running set the time and date to current and then power down the pc (not a warm reboot). Power on again and check that the time and date are correct. If they aren't then the battery is dead.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

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p.c.

You replace the battery when the clock starts to lose time or the PC complains at boot that the CMOS settings are incorrect and when you correct them they're lost again when the computer is powered off.

Reply to
James Sweet

They had rechargeable cells in mobos a few years back. They were a disaster- they would leak, often long before the mobo was obsolete, and the chemicals would eat through the traces of the mobo rendering it useless. Also, they were not user-replaceable.

Lithium cells are a huge step forward IMO, they don't leak and are user-replaceable in seconds. I'm not sure why you feel they are a racket- they generally last the life of the mobo (in terms of obsolescence), and when they don't they are, at least in my country, extremely cheap to replace and widely available.

Dave

Reply to
Dave D

Jeff ha scritto:

The pc looses all the disk and boot infos and it will not recognize hard disks and floppy drives, and it will not boot. In very old pcs there are

1) DALLAS CHIPS : a RTC chip with a battery built in 2) 3,6V Lithium Batteryes 3) 3V small batteries, CR2032.

I.

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Reply to
inti2

That hasn't been the case for many many years now. Most mobos will auto detect the HDD and assume a 1.44MB 3.5" floppy if they forget their settings, and self-configure into a usable state. They will generally display a warning though, and prompt to correct the settings or continue booting.

That's 3.6v nicad batteries, the CR3032 is lithium.

Dave

Reply to
Dave D

In fact the whole win o/s is a joke because why should one have to wait to shut down a machine and then wait again for it to load up?

Many musical sythesizer modules can be turned off any time and when one turns them on again they are right back where one left them. Why can't we have pc's that work the same way without all this stupid loading and and waiting business?! We are needlessly getting mediocre technology and nobody is complaining!!!

- Did you ever hear of suspend mode? It does what you want. Or better yet get XP and NEVER turn your PC off.

Reply to
Bob Kos

All operating systems take time to start up and shut down.

It does, it does! Suspend mode and hibernate mode. Suspend mode starts and stops almost instantly, but requires some electric power to the computer while suspended. Hibernate takes a few seconds to stop and start, but persists without power.

Reply to
mc

Hello, mc! You wrote on Sat, 31 Dec 2005 22:37:44 -0500:

??>> In fact the whole win o/s is a joke because why should one have to ??>> wait to shut down a machine and then wait again for it to load up?

m> All operating systems take time to start up and shut down.

??>> Many musical sythesizer modules can be turned off any time and when ??>> one turns them on again they are right back where one left them. Why ??>> can't we have pc's that work the same way without all this stupid ??>> loading and and waiting business?!

The reason all this stuff has to be loaded up every time is because of the versatility of computers, different motherboards-graphics cards-modems etc all need their own driver software. The music synth only does that one thing and so the relatively simple program required to do it can be kept on a hardwired flash chip. Makers are currently working on motherboards with enough flash ram to hold the OS. They should be available in a few years.

With best regards, 3T39. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

Reply to
3T39

The 'suspend' mode on newer PCs does as you describe, though it takes a lot of hard drive space and RAM to accomplish.

Anyway... One reason this is difficult is because PCs are built as general-purpose devices (as in they can be configured to do a lot of different things). Flexibility like that comes at the cost of a complex operating system that has to be able to detect and use many different types of hardware devices.

In some cases, such as video or mass-storage adapters, the OS has to be shut down and restarted before it can use the drivers for newly- added or changed hardware. Even Unix-type OS's have this restriction where some hardware types are involved.

Music synthesizers, being dedicated-purpose devices, do not have to be as complex or versatile because they're designed for a single purpose. This makes it a lot easier to make something that will come right up, in the same state you left it, at power-on.

Keep the peace(es).

--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR, 
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Reply to
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee

Use suspend mode an be prepared for system crash after having done that often enough. Windows software suffers from memory leakage,and realy rebooting on occasian ,solves that problem for the time beiing.

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

Please could you tell me how long would the 'cooling fan' motor last (roughly speaking) if the pc was left running all the time ?

Reply to
jw 1111

Not sure but at work we have over 50 that have been for over 5 years, maybe longer. They go back to the 450 Mhz chips.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Hi!

It should last a long, long time. I've got a number of IBM PS/2 computers that run around the clock. The newest of these was probably manufactured around 1994. Others range from the late 80s to 92 or 93.

I've never had a fan quit in any of them...then again, IBM used decent quality fans in their equipment.

The reality with many other computers is that their fans usually don't last as long. I've seen some quit as early as two years under 24/7 operation. So, if you do run a computer around the clock, keep an eye on the fans. Pay attention to any funny noises if the machine starts making them. With today's computers, loss of a fan can lead to serious damage in a short period of time.

William

Reply to
William R. Walsh

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