OT: mainboard battery

winrockpost wrote on 3/2/2006, 8:55 AM
May help someone ,may be obvious but on a deadline I was gettin a little freaked,,
from time to time I will move an edit computer to another location to get updates,or set up in a clients location. The other day moved into a new location ,computer would not boot, messed with it for an hour or so got it up and running, got it home same thing. $ 3.25 battery on the mainboard. Everything appears fine till you unplug the computer, and the plug in and powerup.

Comments

craftech wrote on 3/2/2006, 9:31 AM
That is why I always write down my bios settings.

John
Chienworks wrote on 3/2/2006, 10:03 AM
This is inevitable. Sometimes it happens as early as 2 years, but the average is about 4 to 5 years. One early warning sign is that your PC clock may start drifting a bit. If you see it needing to be set more often then it's probably time to change the battery. If you do it while the computer is on then you won't lose any settings.
Steve Mann wrote on 3/2/2006, 8:06 PM
"If you do it while the computer is on then you won't lose any settings"

That assumes that your battery isn't soldered to the MB.
Chienworks wrote on 3/3/2006, 3:29 AM
Ouch! Never encountered one of those. That sounds like a disposable unit.

So far every one i've worked on has either had an oversized "watch battery" or a small block that connects to a pair of molex pins.
bw wrote on 3/3/2006, 3:53 AM
Early computers back in the stone age, pre 1990, 286s etc had a 3 cell nicad soldered onto the M/B. Being nicads they were trickle charged when the computer was on. Usually by the time they needed changing they had leaked and caused irrepairable damage to the board.
Brian