battery going?

Bob Reynolds · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 4

Hi,
Over this last few weeks I've noticed that my PC is losing time,ie. over a
week it could lose a day.
Is my battery going, is it difficult yo replace? expensive? does it have to
be done professionally? Thats assuming that it is the battery.

TIA

Bob.

Mike M1 · External Since: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 4241

Bob,

Is your PC losing time whilst switched off or whilst running? If whilst
running then this has nothing to do with the battery but could be the
result of some application or other "stealing" all the cpu cycles causing
the clock to miss ticks. If however the PC loses time when switched off
then yes, this will be due to the battery on the motherboard, used to
maintain the clock and also keep some of the bios information in volatile
RAM, no longer holding sufficient charge. Replacing the battery is quite
straightforward and they do not cost much. The most important thing being
to note down the various settings in the bios so that they can be restored
if lost whilst swapping out the old battery for the new.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows
mike.maltby DeleteThis @gmail.com

Bob Reynolds <roger DeleteThis @eircom.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> Over this last few weeks I've noticed that my PC is losing time,ie.
> over a week it could lose a day.
> Is my battery going, is it difficult yo replace? expensive? does it
> have to be done professionally? Thats assuming that it is the battery.

Bob Reynolds · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 4

I've got the machine switched on for the last four hours and it hasn't lost
any time so presumably this is happening when it is switched off,
consequently faulty battery? I'll have to find out more about replacing it ,
BIOS etc -bit novicey - still prepared to have a go, I'do an internet search
and if unsuccessful might get back to you guys
Thanks Mike.
Bob,

"Mike M" <No_Spam DeleteThis @Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
news:enVYYtR2GHA.2036@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Bob,
>
> Is your PC losing time whilst switched off or whilst running? If whilst
> running then this has nothing to do with the battery but could be the
> result of some application or other "stealing" all the cpu cycles causing
> the clock to miss ticks. If however the PC loses time when switched off
> then yes, this will be due to the battery on the motherboard, used to
> maintain the clock and also keep some of the bios information in volatile
> RAM, no longer holding sufficient charge. Replacing the battery is quite
> straightforward and they do not cost much. The most important thing being
> to note down the various settings in the bios so that they can be restored
> if lost whilst swapping out the old battery for the new.
> --
> Mike Maltby
> MS-MVP Windows
> mike.maltby DeleteThis @gmail.com
>
>
> Bob Reynolds <roger DeleteThis @eircom.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> Over this last few weeks I've noticed that my PC is losing time,ie.
>> over a week it could lose a day.
>> Is my battery going, is it difficult yo replace? expensive? does it
>> have to be done professionally? Thats assuming that it is the battery.
>

Mike M1 · External Since: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 4241

Bob,

You're not likely to do any damage, serious or otherwise, when replacing
the battery providing you just replace the battery and don't go diving in
and pulling wires off connectors and the like. In other words, be
sensible and when you're finished check that the various connectors
between the motherboard and your external devices such as hard drive,
floppy (if installed) and CD & DVD etc, are still securely in place.

What will most likely happen is that the bios will reset to its default
settings meaning that any specific configuration or settings that you
might have made will probably be lost as these are stored in volatile
memory which will clear down when the battery is removed. If you haven't
made any changes then all should be well, if you have, such as perhaps
customising the boot order, you will need to reapply those changes.

Best of luck.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows
mike.maltby.TakeThisOut@gmail.com

Bob Reynolds <roger.TakeThisOut@eircom.net> wrote:

> Lost a few hours when switched off over-night, the machine is about 4
> years old, do you think replacing the battery when I find the model
> should be straigh-forward, or am I at risk of doing serious damage?
> Thanks Again.

Bob Reynolds · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 4

Right,
I'll have a pop at that, I'll let you know later how I got on, might
be a few days, many thanks for your help Mike.

Cheers Bob.

"Mike M" <No_Spam RemoveThis @Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
news:esF5dOo2GHA.4924@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Bob,
>
> You're not likely to do any damage, serious or otherwise, when replacing
> the battery providing you just replace the battery and don't go diving in
> and pulling wires off connectors and the like. In other words, be
> sensible and when you're finished check that the various connectors
> between the motherboard and your external devices such as hard drive,
> floppy (if installed) and CD & DVD etc, are still securely in place.
>
> What will most likely happen is that the bios will reset to its default
> settings meaning that any specific configuration or settings that you
> might have made will probably be lost as these are stored in volatile
> memory which will clear down when the battery is removed. If you haven't
> made any changes then all should be well, if you have, such as perhaps
> customising the boot order, you will need to reapply those changes.
>
> Best of luck.
> --
> Mike Maltby
> MS-MVP Windows
> mike.maltby RemoveThis @gmail.com
>
>
> Bob Reynolds <roger RemoveThis @eircom.net> wrote:
>
>> Lost a few hours when switched off over-night, the machine is about 4
>> years old, do you think replacing the battery when I find the model
>> should be straigh-forward, or am I at risk of doing serious damage?
>> Thanks Again.
>

Mike M1 · External Since: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 4241

Bob,

I hope all goes smoothly.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby RemoveThis @gmail.com

Bob Reynolds <roger RemoveThis @eircom.net> wrote:

> Right,
> I'll have a pop at that, I'll let you know later how I got on,
> might be a few days, many thanks for your help Mike.

Derek Hoy · External Since: Sep 18, 2006 Posts: 1

Hi Bob,

Excuse me putting in my six pennorth, but I found it useful to take digi pix
of my bios screens to remind me of my settings.

--
Delboy

A common mistake that people made when trying to design something completely
foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Douglas Adams

"Bob Reynolds" <roger.RemoveThis@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:%23hK02mp2GHA.1588@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Right,
> I'll have a pop at that, I'll let you know later how I got on,
might
> be a few days, many thanks for your help Mike.
>
> Cheers Bob.
>
> "Mike M" <No_Spam.RemoveThis@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
> news:esF5dOo2GHA.4924@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> > Bob,
> >
> > You're not likely to do any damage, serious or otherwise, when replacing
> > the battery providing you just replace the battery and don't go diving
in
> > and pulling wires off connectors and the like. In other words, be
> > sensible and when you're finished check that the various connectors
> > between the motherboard and your external devices such as hard drive,
> > floppy (if installed) and CD & DVD etc, are still securely in place.
> >
> > What will most likely happen is that the bios will reset to its default
> > settings meaning that any specific configuration or settings that you
> > might have made will probably be lost as these are stored in volatile
> > memory which will clear down when the battery is removed. If you
haven't
> > made any changes then all should be well, if you have, such as perhaps
> > customising the boot order, you will need to reapply those changes.
> >
> > Best of luck.
> > --
> > Mike Maltby
> > MS-MVP Windows
> > mike.maltby.RemoveThis@gmail.com
> >
> >
> > Bob Reynolds <roger.RemoveThis@eircom.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Lost a few hours when switched off over-night, the machine is about 4
> >> years old, do you think replacing the battery when I find the model
> >> should be straigh-forward, or am I at risk of doing serious damage?
> >> Thanks Again.
> >
>
>

Bob Reynolds · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 4

Got that sorted in a jiffy, just popped in, no probs with BIOS etc. Thanks
for help, sorry about delay in answering - changed broadband providers - off
line for a bit.

Bob.

"Bob Reynolds" <roger DeleteThis @eircom.net> wrote in message
news:e8j3IFQ2GHA.3656@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> Over this last few weeks I've noticed that my PC is losing time,ie. over a
> week it could lose a day.
> Is my battery going, is it difficult yo replace? expensive? does it have
> to be done professionally? Thats assuming that it is the battery.
>
> TIA
>
> Bob.
>

Mike M1 · External Since: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 4241

Bob Reynolds <roger.TakeThisOut@eircom.net> wrote:

> Got that sorted in a jiffy, just popped in, no probs with BIOS etc.
> Thanks for help, sorry about delay in answering - changed broadband
> providers - off line for a bit.

Not a problem Bob. Good to see you back and also to read that the battery
exchange went without a hitch. Hopefully the clock now keeps time when
the PC is switched off.
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby.TakeThisOut@gmail.com