A way to know if the CMOS battery is installed without opening the case?
Hi: that is, the machine case. To see by myself I changed the BIOS settings to some arbitrary values, turned off the machine, then turned it on. And the new values persisted. Can I safely infer that the battery is there?
|
if the new settings persisted, then it's a fair bet, that the battery is intact ..
- if it was not, - you would lose those settings, when the PC is left for a while, with no power. |
Another way to tell is that the battery is needed to keep the clock running so if you're not using ntp and your clock shows the right time after the machine has been switched off for a while the battery must be there.
|
Yes, it's some minutes now since I turned it off. I'll see now what happened. If the time is OK, the I shall have to open it, because some files are being listed with incredible times.
|
Still worried about cracking open the case? Its quite often the fastest and easiest method.....
Even if the CMOS battery is dead/missing, if you leave the power supply plugged in the system can keep its settings. The only way to know if the CMOS battery is dead/missing without opening the case is to turn the machine off then unplug the power supply. |
Quote:
|
Member Response
Hi,
Add to what cascade9 has stated; once system is unplugged it may take some time lapse for the decay therefore without shorting the CMOS shorting jumper it may take a while before BIOS reverts/changes state. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Quote:
__________________ |
Member Response
Hi,
Quote:
Quote:
|
Well, you've finally made to open the case. The battery is certainly there. If it is dead or not is another matter.
EDIT: sorry. I did not refresh the screen and didn't see your post, onebuck. Thanks for the reference, though I already knew the article. |
Can a pc even boot without one?
|
Yes most systems can boot without a CMOS battery Habitual. I dotn think I've run acrross a x86 system that wont boot without a CMOS battery, but I dont go around remvoing them to check ;)
Quote:
|
I've come across a few systems with dead CMOS batteries that have booted and a more recent machine (from between 5 and 10 years ago) that complained in its POST that the battery was low but still booted.
|
Member Response
Hi,
Quote:
Just small footprint motherboards/SBC. If the BIOS itself is faulty then booting could be an issue.Usually BIOS does default to original state so a boot would be possible if the storage media is default boot device once power is applied. I once experimented by removing power from motherboard and waited a few days to see if the BIOS settings changed. Machine booted with original settings so decay would depend on the capacitor retention and battery condition. I usually replace the battery if it's possible issue since the cost is minimal and not worth wasting time. Purchase the batteries in lots so the cost to clients is minimal. |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:23 AM. |