comp battery dead?

[bj]

Hello,

Some time ago the time on my pc began to reset; recently every time I start
it, the BIOS setup screen comes up and I need to move HDD as primary drive
to first position which keeps resetting to floppy every time after shutdown.
Is that a matter of a battery? If so, where will I find it on the
motherboard?

Thanks loads in advance!
Best,
bj

 

[RobV]

Hello,

Some time ago the time on my pc began to reset; recently every time I
start it, the BIOS setup screen comes up and I need to move HDD as
primary drive to first position which keeps resetting to floppy every
time after shutdown. Is that a matter of a battery? If so, where will
I find it on the motherboard?

Thanks loads in advance!
Best,
bj

Yes, your CMOS battery is bad (had to replace one myself recently).
It's a standard "watch" battery, 2032 (sometimes CR2032), about the size
of a quarter and it provides 3V. You can't miss it if you look at the
MB closely. There's a clip that holds it in. Carefully remove it and
install a new one. The + side goes up: this is the 'case" portion of
the battery. Should be a big + sign in the middle.

 

[VanguardLH]

Hello,

Some time ago the time on my pc began to reset; recently every time I start
it, the BIOS setup screen comes up and I need to move HDD as primary drive
to first position which keeps resetting to floppy every time after shutdown.
Is that a matter of a battery? If so, where will I find it on the
motherboard?

Thanks loads in advance!
Best,
bj

Read the manual for your motherboard (or the host if you bought a
pre-built). It should tell you where to find the battery and what
battery to use for its replacement. No one else but you, so far, knows
what hardware you have so all you'll get is untargeted responses. If
you don't have the manual, it might've come on a CD with the host or you
check the manufacturer's web site to see if they carry the product
manuals there.

 

[GT]

Yes, your CMOS battery is bad (had to replace one myself recently). It's a
standard "watch" battery, 2032 (sometimes CR2032), about the size of a
quarter...

of what?

 

[ShadowTek]

of what?

lol A "quarter" of a dollar. It's an American coin.

 

[RobV]

Somewhere on teh intarwebs "RobV" typed:

Man, you must have a HUGE watch!

Nope. Standard size digital watch. The plastic holding the strap
broke, so I opened the watch up and it has a 2032 strapped to the bottom
of the display/circuit board. It's actually quite compact.

 

[RobV]

~misfit~ wrote:

[snip]

Amazing. I've had electronic watches since the days of the push
button red LED type in a monolithic stainless steel block (wish I
still had that, circa 1975) and none have them have had a battery
that comes close to a 2032 in diameter.

Same here. Sorry I can't send you a picture, but I'm looking right at
it (it still functions, as the battery is literally strapped to the back
of the wafer).

Perhaps you're overestimating the size of the battery. As kony
mentioned, it's about 20 mm in diameter, with the watch module being
slightly larger than that at 30 mm in diameter. That's what the cheap,
Chinese made digital watches use nowadays. Since you don't believe me,
go out and buy one for around $15.00 and take it apart to see what's
inside.

 

[Paul]

~misfit~ wrote:

[snip]

Amazing. I've had electronic watches since the days of the push
button red LED type in a monolithic stainless steel block (wish I
still had that, circa 1975) and none have them have had a battery
that comes close to a 2032 in diameter.

Same here. Sorry I can't send you a picture, but I'm looking right at
it (it still functions, as the battery is literally strapped to the back
of the wafer).

Perhaps you're overestimating the size of the battery. As kony
mentioned, it's about 20 mm in diameter, with the watch module being
slightly larger than that at 30 mm in diameter. That's what the cheap,
Chinese made digital watches use nowadays. Since you don't believe me,
go out and buy one for around $15.00 and take it apart to see what's
inside.

There are a couple watch-type devices on this page, that use CR2032.

http://www.oneinhundred.com/Wholesale-customized-printed/Heart-rate-monitor-watch.htm

Paul

 

[RobV]

~misfit~ wrote:

[snip]

Amazing. I've had electronic watches since the days of the push
button red LED type in a monolithic stainless steel block (wish I
still had that, circa 1975) and none have them have had a battery
that comes close to a 2032 in diameter.

Same here. Sorry I can't send you a picture, but I'm looking right
at it (it still functions, as the battery is literally strapped to
the back of the wafer).

Perhaps you're overestimating the size of the battery. As kony
mentioned, it's about 20 mm in diameter, with the watch module being
slightly larger than that at 30 mm in diameter. That's what the
cheap, Chinese made digital watches use nowadays. Since you don't
believe me, go out and buy one for around $15.00 and take it apart
to see what's inside.

There are a couple watch-type devices on this page, that use CR2032.

http://www.oneinhundred.com/Wholesale-customized-printed/Heart-rate-monitor-watch.htm

Paul

Thanks, Paul. For the skeptical, here is a picture:
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/dr_hardware/HPIM0929.jpg

 

[CBFalconer]

By standard coin cell battery naming convention, CR2032 is
about 20mm diameter x 3.2mm thick

Interesting fact, completely unknown to me before. Maybe I will
remember it.

 

[RobV]

RobV wrote:
~misfit~ wrote:

[snip]

Amazing. I've had electronic watches since the days of the push
button red LED type in a monolithic stainless steel block (wish I
still had that, circa 1975) and none have them have had a battery
that comes close to a 2032 in diameter.

Same here. Sorry I can't send you a picture, but I'm looking right
at it (it still functions, as the battery is literally strapped to
the back of the wafer).

Perhaps you're overestimating the size of the battery. As kony
mentioned, it's about 20 mm in diameter, with the watch module
being slightly larger than that at 30 mm in diameter. That's
what the cheap, Chinese made digital watches use nowadays. Since
you don't believe me, go out and buy one for around $15.00 and
take it apart to see what's inside.


There are a couple watch-type devices on this page, that use CR2032.

http://www.oneinhundred.com/Wholesale-customized-printed/Heart-rate-monitor-watch.htm

Paul

Thanks, Paul. For the skeptical, here is a picture:
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp359/dr_hardware/HPIM0929.jpg

It's an unusually large battery for a watch, normally
they're about 9mm or less in diameter, OR much thinner. One
of the reasons they're typically smaller diameter is to
leave room for a spring that makes electrical contact with
the center of a piezo buzzer disc typically mounted behind
the battery. I *see* no such spring on that picture,
doesn't it have an audible alarm or did they place the
buzzer elsewhere?

Upper right side where the screw is...it looks like a shadow, but it's a
springy finger that's bent upwards (towards what would be the back of
the watch) and does touch the piezo buzzer.

 

[RobV]

I see what you mean... I should've zoomed in on the picture,
at first glance it looked like the contact for the top of
the battery but now I see the clear insulation sheet is
between them.

They did a pretty good job of shoehorning that into a normal
sized watch cavity, though I may be contrasting with analog
watches, I never really cared for digitals except when doing
rough/dirty work and wanting a throwaway in case it was
damaged.

The entire watch was one of the thinnest digital watches I had ever
seen. I haven't found another like it since. It was great for that
reason, but since the case broke, I pretty much feel the same way about
digital watches as well. As Douglas Adams quipped in "Hitchhikers Guide
To The Galaxy", man is so primitive that they still think digital
watches are a pretty neat idea, or something like that. ;-)

I've gone back to my "old" battery powered analog watch, with a real
leather strap, which is a really good quality unit.

 

[RobV]

Somewhere on teh intarwebs "RobV" typed:

~misfit~ wrote:

[snip]

Amazing. I've had electronic watches since the days of the push
button red LED type in a monolithic stainless steel block (wish I
still had that, circa 1975) and none have them have had a battery
that comes close to a 2032 in diameter.

Same here. Sorry I can't send you a picture, but I'm looking right
at it (it still functions, as the battery is literally strapped to
the back of the wafer).

Perhaps you're overestimating the size of the battery. As kony
mentioned, it's about 20 mm in diameter, with the watch module being
slightly larger than that at 30 mm in diameter. That's what the
cheap, Chinese made digital watches use nowadays. Since you don't
believe me, go out and buy one for around $15.00 and take it apart to
see what's inside.

Whoa! I didn't say that I don't believe you. It's just something I've
never seen is all, a watch using a 2032.

Also, I'm most certainly not overestimating the size of the battery. I
replace them often enough to always have a few new ones on hand so
know exactly how big they are. There are several in view from where
I'm sitting in fact.

I apologize for putting it that way. I should have said that you were
skeptical, which is a healthy thing and more accurate.

What size did those red LED watches use? I don't remember. I do
remember that it was really difficult to read the thing outdoors when
the sun was out.