Losing Tine

  • Thread starter Thread starter RobertVA
  • Start date Start date
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RobertVA

Rainy said:
Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
Click to expand...

How old is the motherboard. If a couple of years old the CMOS battery
might be approaching discharge.
 
I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes the problem.
 
'Rainy' wrote:
| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard?
_____

Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is almost
certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of the
holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil to
lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the battery
on the motherboard.

It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let the
default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in the
behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.

Phil Weldon

| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard? thanks Raikny
| | I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
| the problem.
|
|
| --
| Don
| Vancouver, USA
| | Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
|
|
 
thanks.. is this expensive? Rainy
Rainy said:
Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
Click to expand...

How old is the motherboard. If a couple of years old the CMOS battery
might be approaching discharge.
 
When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
motherboard? thanks Raikny
I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
the problem.
 
thanks so much.. appreciate this..Rainy
'Rainy' wrote:
| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard?
_____

Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is almost
certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of the
holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil to
lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the battery
on the motherboard.

It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let the
default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in the
behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.

Phil Weldon

| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard? thanks Raikny
| | I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
| the problem.
|
|
| --
| Don
| Vancouver, USA
| | Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
|
|
 
RobertVA said:
How old is the motherboard. If a couple of years old the CMOS battery
might be approaching discharge.
Click to expand...


If the computer is losing time when turned off, almost certainly the problem
*is* the battery, which needs to be replaced. The age of the motherboard is
irrelevant. Although they *usually* last a few years, batteries can go bad
at any time
 
Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did.. So
if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
Click to expand...

Rainy, it is the battery. The clue is "loses time" after the computer has
been powered down. The job of that battery is to retain BIOS settings and
to advance the internal clock when the computer is not in use. The internal
clock is predictably wrong every time you power up which indicates a weak
battery.

While these batteries typically last five years or more, it's entirely
possible that a newly purchased battery is already suffering from long
shelf life (lower charge) and will not last as expected.

The flip side of the time problem is when the time is correct at start up
and then goes wrong. After the computer boots, the operating system takes
over and tracks time. If you were losing time only when the computer was in
use then you would need an atomic clock to re-synch your time OR find the
program that is hogging resources to the point that the operating system
could not advance the clock properly.
 
Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did.. So
if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much.. Raikny
'Rainy' wrote:
| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard?
_____

Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is almost
certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of the
holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil to
lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the battery
on the motherboard.

It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let the
default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in the
behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.

Phil Weldon

| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
| motherboard? thanks Raikny
| | I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
| the problem.
|
|
| --
| Don
| Vancouver, USA
| | Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
|
|
 
'Rainy wrote:

| Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
| and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
| remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did..
So
| if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
_____

By all means install the 'atomic clock sync program'. It will not solve the
problem, but it can't hurt. The change the battery to solve the problem.

The battery is what keeps the internal clock running when the power is off.
The symptom you report is that the clock loses time when the computer is
off. The CMOS battery is what keeps the clock running when the computer is
off, but that is not ALL the CMOS battery does. Therefore, replace the
battery.

An 'atomic clock synch program' just uses an Internet connection to reset
the time periodically when the computer is ON and connected to the Internet.
This will have no effect with your reported problem Your computer will
still lose the time whever it is shut off.

Though it is possible that some strange alignment of Jupiter and Mars COULD
cause the symptom you report (tiny cracks in the motherboard that have no
other effect and that only open up when you press the start button,for
example), this is very highly unlikely, and using an atomic clock synch
program would STILL be of no help.

Change the battery. You have gotten responses from people who know and who
have likely accumulated the necessary experience of replacing dozens of CMOS
batteries over the last 25 years.

Phil Weldon

| | 'Rainy' wrote:
|| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
|| motherboard?
| _____
|
| Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
| replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is
almost
| certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
| quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of the
| holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
| power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil
to
| lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the battery
| on the motherboard.
|
| It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
| they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let
the
| default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in
the
| behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.
|
| Phil Weldon
|
| || When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
|| motherboard? thanks Raikny
|| || I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
|| the problem.
||
||
|| --
|| Don
|| Vancouver, USA
|| || Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
||
||
|
|
|
 
Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did.. So
if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much.. Raikny
Click to expand...


If it's losing time when turned off, it almost certainly *is* the
battery. It doesn't matter when the battery was last replaced;
although on the average, batteries last for several years, some die
much sooner.

Synching programs are good to have, but they won't fix the problem,
they will hide it. You need to replace the battery.
 
'Rainy' wrote:
| thanks Phil.. Rainy
_____

Please post the result after you have install the 'atomic clock sync'
program and then after you have replaced the CMOS battery. That will help
other people with the same symptom, and go a long way toward helping those
who have replied to your question that their time in giving complete and
precise answers has not been wasted.

Phil Weldon

| thanks Phil.. Rainy
| | 'Rainy wrote:
|
|| Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my
computer
|| and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I
didn't
|| remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did..
| So
|| if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
| _____
|
| By all means install the 'atomic clock sync program'. It will not solve
the
| problem, but it can't hurt. The change the battery to solve the problem.
|
| The battery is what keeps the internal clock running when the power is
off.
| The symptom you report is that the clock loses time when the computer is
| off. The CMOS battery is what keeps the clock running when the computer
is
| off, but that is not ALL the CMOS battery does. Therefore, replace the
| battery.
|
| An 'atomic clock synch program' just uses an Internet connection to reset
| the time periodically when the computer is ON and connected to the
Internet.
| This will have no effect with your reported problem Your computer will
| still lose the time whever it is shut off.
|
| Though it is possible that some strange alignment of Jupiter and Mars
COULD
| cause the symptom you report (tiny cracks in the motherboard that have no
| other effect and that only open up when you press the start button,for
| example), this is very highly unlikely, and using an atomic clock synch
| program would STILL be of no help.
|
| Change the battery. You have gotten responses from people who know and
who
| have likely accumulated the necessary experience of replacing dozens of
CMOS
| batteries over the last 25 years.
|
| Phil Weldon
|
| || || 'Rainy' wrote:
||| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
||| motherboard?
|| _____
||
|| Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
|| replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is
| almost
|| certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
|| quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of
the
|| holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
|| power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil
| to
|| lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the
battery
|| on the motherboard.
||
|| It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
|| they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let
| the
|| default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in
| the
|| behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.
||
|| Phil Weldon
||
|| ||| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
||| motherboard? thanks Raikny
||| ||| I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it
fixes
||| the problem.
|||
|||
||| --
||| Don
||| Vancouver, USA
||| ||| Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
|||
|||
||
||
||
|
|
|
 
thanks Sharon.. you are always so thorough.. appreciate the information..
will send this to my friend. thanks Rainy
Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did..
So
if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
Click to expand...

Rainy, it is the battery. The clue is "loses time" after the computer has
been powered down. The job of that battery is to retain BIOS settings and
to advance the internal clock when the computer is not in use. The internal
clock is predictably wrong every time you power up which indicates a weak
battery.

While these batteries typically last five years or more, it's entirely
possible that a newly purchased battery is already suffering from long
shelf life (lower charge) and will not last as expected.

The flip side of the time problem is when the time is correct at start up
and then goes wrong. After the computer boots, the operating system takes
over and tracks time. If you were losing time only when the computer was in
use then you would need an atomic clock to re-synch your time OR find the
program that is hogging resources to the point that the operating system
could not advance the clock properly.
 
thanks Phil.. Rainy
'Rainy wrote:

| Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
| and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
| remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did..
So
| if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
_____

By all means install the 'atomic clock sync program'. It will not solve the
problem, but it can't hurt. The change the battery to solve the problem.

The battery is what keeps the internal clock running when the power is off.
The symptom you report is that the clock loses time when the computer is
off. The CMOS battery is what keeps the clock running when the computer is
off, but that is not ALL the CMOS battery does. Therefore, replace the
battery.

An 'atomic clock synch program' just uses an Internet connection to reset
the time periodically when the computer is ON and connected to the Internet.
This will have no effect with your reported problem Your computer will
still lose the time whever it is shut off.

Though it is possible that some strange alignment of Jupiter and Mars COULD
cause the symptom you report (tiny cracks in the motherboard that have no
other effect and that only open up when you press the start button,for
example), this is very highly unlikely, and using an atomic clock synch
program would STILL be of no help.

Change the battery. You have gotten responses from people who know and who
have likely accumulated the necessary experience of replacing dozens of CMOS
batteries over the last 25 years.

Phil Weldon

| | 'Rainy' wrote:
|| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
|| motherboard?
| _____
|
| Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
| replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is
almost
| certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth US
| quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of the
| holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
| power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil
to
| lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the battery
| on the motherboard.
|
| It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
| they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let
the
| default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in
the
| behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any settings.
|
| Phil Weldon
|
| || When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to my
|| motherboard? thanks Raikny
|| || I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it fixes
|| the problem.
||
||
|| --
|| Don
|| Vancouver, USA
|| || Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks Rainy
||
||
|
|
|
 
'Rainy' wrote:
|I already did.. and it's still losing time.. :) as Sharon said, losing time
| when I reboot is different than losing times while in windows.. then I
could
| use the clock sync program..
_____

You already did which? Install the 'atomic clock sync' program, or change
the battery? I'd guess the former, so please post the results after you
replace the CMOS battery.

Phil Weldon

|I already did.. and it's still losing time.. :) as Sharon said, losing time
| when I reboot is different than losing times while in windows.. then I
could
| use the clock sync program.. Rainy
| | 'Rainy' wrote:
|| thanks Phil.. Rainy
| _____
|
| Please post the result after you have install the 'atomic clock sync'
| program and then after you have replaced the CMOS battery. That will help
| other people with the same symptom, and go a long way toward helping those
| who have replied to your question that their time in giving complete and
| precise answers has not been wasted.
|
| Phil Weldon
|
| || thanks Phil.. Rainy
|| || 'Rainy wrote:
||
||| Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my
| computer
||| and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I
| didn't
||| remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I
did..
|| So
||| if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much..
|| _____
||
|| By all means install the 'atomic clock sync program'. It will not solve
| the
|| problem, but it can't hurt. The change the battery to solve the problem.
||
|| The battery is what keeps the internal clock running when the power is
| off.
|| The symptom you report is that the clock loses time when the computer is
|| off. The CMOS battery is what keeps the clock running when the computer
| is
|| off, but that is not ALL the CMOS battery does. Therefore, replace the
|| battery.
||
|| An 'atomic clock synch program' just uses an Internet connection to reset
|| the time periodically when the computer is ON and connected to the
| Internet.
|| This will have no effect with your reported problem Your computer will
|| still lose the time whever it is shut off.
||
|| Though it is possible that some strange alignment of Jupiter and Mars
| COULD
|| cause the symptom you report (tiny cracks in the motherboard that have no
|| other effect and that only open up when you press the start button,for
|| example), this is very highly unlikely, and using an atomic clock synch
|| program would STILL be of no help.
||
|| Change the battery. You have gotten responses from people who know and
| who
|| have likely accumulated the necessary experience of replacing dozens of
| CMOS
|| batteries over the last 25 years.
||
|| Phil Weldon
||
|| ||| ||| 'Rainy' wrote:
|||| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to
my
|||| motherboard?
||| _____
|||
||| Remove the old battery. Take it with you to RadioShack and buy a
||| replacement. If you have a desktop computer, the required battery is
|| almost
||| certainly a CR2032 Lithium 3 volt cell. It looks like a shiny smooth
US
||| quarter and will cost about US $4. The battery should just pop out of
| the
||| holder which retains the battry flat on the motherboard. Make sure the
||| power is off; open the case, pop out the battery, perhaps using a pencil
|| to
||| lift the edge. There will be nothing else remotely similar to the
| battery
||| on the motherboard.
|||
||| It would probably be a good idea to write down the BIOS settings because
||| they will be erased when the battery is removed. Or you could just let
|| the
||| default settings be automatically used with very likely no difference in
|| the
||| behavior of the system if you have not specifically changed any
settings.
|||
||| Phil Weldon
|||
||| |||| When I go to buy one, do I just buy any cmos battery.. or specific to
my
|||| motherboard? thanks Raikny
|||| |||| I'd guess the battery is in its dieing stages. See if replacing it
| fixes
|||| the problem.
||||
||||
|||| --
|||| Don
|||| Vancouver, USA
|||| |||| Only when computer is turned off.. appreciate any advice.. Thanks
Rainy
||||
||||
|||
|||
|||
||
||
||
|
|
|
 
thanks I got it.. :) appreciate the response.. will do this this weekend...
by the way what happens if the battery dies? Rainy
Hi.. I was just asking my friend who installs the hard ware on my computer
and she said, she replaced the battery about a year or more ago.. I didn't
remember! She suggested I get an atomic clock sync program.. and I did..
So
if it's not the battery, any ideas? thanks so much.. Raikny
Click to expand...


If it's losing time when turned off, it almost certainly *is* the
battery. It doesn't matter when the battery was last replaced;
although on the average, batteries last for several years, some die
much sooner.

Synching programs are good to have, but they won't fix the problem,
they will hide it. You need to replace the battery.
 
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