"Asimov" wrote in message
...
"Ralph Mowery" bravely wrote to "All" (14 Sep 05 22:38:15)
--- on the heady topic of " when to replace system board battery?"

RM From: "Ralph Mowery"
RM Xref: core-easynews sci.electronics.repair:342122

RM "jw 1111" wrote in message
RM ...
hi, in an old pc i have had second hand for five years or so it says it
the
instruction booklet that it has a lithium battery in the system board can
be
replaced.

how would i know when this needs to be replaced please? will the whole
p.c.
just stop working? thanks


RM The battery usually does 2 things. It keeps the internal clock
RM running while the computer is off. It also holds the cmos settings
RM such as what hard drive and if you have a floppy drive in the computer.
RM The first thing that usually hapens is that if the time is nearly
RM correct when you turn off the computer and then turn it back on the
RM time is way off. Depending on the computer, if the battery is dead you
RM will loose the settings in the CMOS. Then you will have several
RM possiabilities. ONe is to hit F1 to continue. Another is you will go
RM to the cmos and have to reenter the settings, or the computer may do an
RM automatic default to some settings that may let your computer start up
RM or atleast start in a very basic configuration.

RM Some batteries last for a long time and some do not. Sometimes it
RM depends on if the computer is turned on all the time or just used once
RM a week.

That clock/cmos battery is a racket because a tiny solar rechargable
battery could be used for the clock and the bios settings could be
stored in nonvolatile memory eeprom.

In fact the whole win o/s is a joke because why should one have to
wait to shut down a machine and then wait again for it to load up?
Then too why should most programs need to access the internet making
the pc vulnerable to any number of malwarez and snooping?

Many musical sythesizer modules can be turned off any time and when
one turns them on again they are right back where one left them. Why
can't we have pc's that work the same way without all this stupid
loading and and waiting business?! We are needlessly getting mediocre
technology and nobody is complaining!!!

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... The current limits placed are based on resistance



A solar cell wouldn't do much good in a lot of offices and here at home
where my PC is tucked under a dark desk, and there'd be no point because
there's standby power available in modern PC's that would keep it going most
of the time. Rechargable battery would work but they tend to fail and leak
after about the same 10 years lithium batteries are supposed to last. I
suppose a memory backup capacitor might work though.

PC's take time to boot up because we still don't have cheap gigabyte
nonvolatile memory that's fast enough to be used as system RAM, a
synthesizer is a single function device with a FAR less complex operating
system. It's not just Windows, but *any* modern PC operating system needs to
be shut down properly before turning it off, Windows is actually one of the
more tolerant of them in that respect.