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When I powered-up the 770 this morning, it gave me a black screen (warning) that it had detected a "CMOS Battery Failure".
And, since I'm not the most computer-savvy guy in the world, is this something that I should be concerned about?
Is the battery necessary?
And how hard is it to replace, and where is it located?
The group's knowledge and expertese is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
-Russ
A CMOS battery is there to keep the computer's clock running and possibly to save BIOS settings. If it is a desktop computer it is normally a CR2032 or CR 2016 button battery in a holder on the motherboard. I would recommend replacing it and it is not hard at all. Power down the computer, unplug it, remove the case and find the battery. There will be a little spring clip on one side to release the battery. Get a new one and pop it in. All done. When you boot up after replacement you will have to set the clock, and maybe BIOS settings. I doubt that you will need to mess with bios as newer computers store BIOS setting in non-volatile memory and it will stay even with a dead CMOS.
On a laptop it is probably a little harder because you will likely have to disassemble the laptop at least partially to access the battery. On a laptop it could be a battery on a pigtail plugged into a connector on the motherboard.
On a laptop the battery will be under one of the panels on the base, should be no need to dismantle the assembly
Oh, cool.
Thanks for the replies.
It's in the Tormach PC Tower, so it should be an easy fix.
The hardest part will be getting my Fat-A$% under the mill, and unhooking all the plugs. Boooo…
Depends on the laptop. I have at least 2 where it isn't accessible through the covers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevem109r
My experience also!
Well, that was a complete waste of time!!! :devious:
I crawled under the 770, unhooked all of the wires.
Opened the cover to the Tormach controller, and guess what?
The damned Battery is nowhere to be found!!!!!!!
It's buried somewhere in there beyond my line of sight.
Ridiculous!!!
You shouldn't have to unhook everything just to open up the PC. Even if the PC is inside the base, there's usually enough slack to pull it outward and tilt it enough to get access.
Take off the PC case cover, look on the motherboard inside, there should be a battery right there.
They probably use slightly different cases/motherboards at different times, depending on what's cheapest/available at the time. Here's where it's at in mine:
https://watte.net/pathpilot-battery-far.jpg
https://watte.net/pathpilot-battery-close.jpg
(The CMOS battery is the shiny round CR2032 (?) sized coin cell in the approximate center of the pictures)
Thanks Jwatte,
But. my PC is completely different than the one you pictured. I wish mine was that easy!!
I removed the cover, and looked everywhere with a flashlight... no Battery visible. (I should have taken pictures)
The schematics decal inside the cover showed the battery is located right behind the Ethernet plug, which is inaccessible without removing screws and plugs, and gizmos.
I gave up.
I didn't want to start pulling stuff out, and fiddling with things that I know very little about.
My luck, I'll screw something up and have to buy a new computer.
I guess I'll be running my 770 with a dead battery from now on.
Wow, that sucks!
The CMOS keeps the time ticking (so "date changed" timestamps are correct) and keeps various system configurations (such as what disk to boot from, how fast to run the memory, and so on.)
The good news is that, as long as the computer boots, you'll probably be OK. When the battery runs down entirely, you may need to press some buttons to "load defaults and continue" each time you start the computer. The defaults are almost always totally fine! Except for the date/time. And I bet you can live without that.