Battery Changing

[Capricorn]

Is battery changing just as simple as replacing the old with the new, or are BIOS settings lost?

[freddy]

good idea to look in the bios and try to "remember" the settings ,,,,yes i know its hard work! ,,,,just change the battery , and then go into bios ,,,,set to default ,,,,or optimum ,,,,and then go to h/drive and seek yours ,,,,floppy drive set to 1.44m (as some bios still say 720k by default)

if u set your h/drive it will save a millisecond,

when its up and running ,,,,,u can then set things a bit quicker (if u need to) ,,,,,

simple job ,,,,good luck


freddy

[Capricorn]

Thanks for that info. I also thought it might require some jumpers being reset, is that likely?

[Matridom]

[quote]Originally posted by Capricorn:
<strong>Is battery changing just as simple as replacing the old with the new, or are BIOS settings lost?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Depending on yoru board, you may have to set a jumper to allow you to flash, but otherwise, your good. I would make a point though on seeing how the HDD's are setup, specialy if your board is old and your running overlay software on your disk...
(i've seen people loose there hard drive contents because of that.)

I write down anything that has been changed.. "Just in case"

[TRICKPLAYER]

Don't worry , change battery, worst case senario is you may get default settings,

[freddy]

i,m sorry , but without getting into a slanging match Matridom ,,,,changing a bios battery , has nothing to do with flashing , + if it is a drive with "overlay" then the overlay is written to the drive (not the bios ,,,,or in this case the battery)


simple job 5-10mins ,,,,

as a side note "watch batteries " are done in standard sizes (at least in uk) No is xxxx ,first 2 =dia 2nd 2 = hieght ,,,,,

sorry cant give spec now but thats accurate ,,,ie buy from local DIY shop not expensive shop


freddy

[Vette]

I've always left the computer plugged in and used a grounding strap and just changed the battery. I've never (famous last words) lost any settings that were critical. If it's an older board, write down the settings. If you leave the unit plugged in, and be very careful what you touch, the cmos doesn't loose power therefore you don't loose your settings.

[Matridom]

[quote]Originally posted by freddy:
<strong>i,m sorry , but without getting into a slanging match Matridom ,,,,changing a bios battery , has nothing to do with flashing , + if it is a drive with "overlay" then the overlay is written to the drive (not the bios ,,,,or in this case the battery)


simple job 5-10mins ,,,,

as a side note "watch batteries " are done in standard sizes (at least in uk) No is xxxx ,first 2 =dia 2nd 2 = hieght ,,,,,

sorry cant give spec now but thats accurate ,,,ie buy from local DIY shop not expensive shop


freddy</strong><hr></blockquote>

Agreed, it's not anything to do with flashing( i don't think i said that... anywho), the issue with overlay is that it's configured to use certain drive geometry. When reseting the bios, you loose those number, if you don't get the same geometry back, you loose your data.

It's more common on a bios flash, but i've seen it done just switching the battery and loosing settings. I try to leave nothing to chance when working with Data

[AlienDyne]

System Battery Issues on my webpage:

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/alienhardware/index27.htm" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/alienhardware/index27.htm</a>

[confus-ed]

[quote]Originally posted by Capricorn:
<strong>Is battery changing just as simple as replacing the old with the new, or are BIOS settings lost?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yes, don't do it while the unit is on (as suggested earlier)....... ooops I dropped my screwdriver.....

Optimal settings from bios may be lost, Freddy's suggestion might better be read as write down any unusual bios settings (like overlay size re-strictions), though generally defaults are ok.

If the system discharges, that is the battery changing takes longer than 30 secs or so and the standby charge is lost, you may need to clear BIOS and reload certain values from NVRAM which is EEPROM(the bit you re-program in a flash), in which case clear CMOS (the battery backed up bit, of NVRAM) by using the appropriate jumper. Its blindingly obvious when you need to clear cmos it won't post...

Just a note here. If you want to be 'extra' sure that your bios settings aren't lost, you can use the flash bios programming utilities to make a copy of your current bios, tell it you want to re-program and the first option is to save your current bios....

As a further aside if you don't keep track of overlay settings your data is not lost, it is 'inaccessable', the MBR can't tie up with the bios specification table, so you just get a rude message on post. There are tools which can read any drive in these states, by booting from another source. You can figure it out too, in bios, if you know the computed size of the disk.

Of course overlay software is just nonsence, get a newer computer or bios, or use the right sized hard disk!!!!!!

Freddy (Again!) raises but slightly misses the point about using 'AUTO' for drive geometry recognition, use auto when all else fails, the point of BIOS recognising certain drives is to let them use their own propriety functions like SMART. Leaving a machine with drives set at auto will not only loose time on boot(F's point!) but whilst running, simply getting bios to recognise the unit correctly can produce a noticable speed difference.....

Now I could have almost come and done it for you rather than have typed all that....

[Ruslan]

Sometimes replacing the battery can be bit problematic, if an old motherboard has soldered into board RTC (RealTime Clock) and the battery (all-in-one box like well-known Dallas12887 chip or similar one from another manufacturers)

[freddy]

you are right ruslan ,,,,what we have ommitted to ask the poster is "what make/model" is the machine.

"if" it is an "old" model then yes it will use dallas type RTC ,,,,hopefully it wont be that old

some intel LX boards are like this ,,,,but as a "rule" (not always) award type bios 386 plus , have had batteries ,,,either watch type or in earlier cases "capacitor" type ,,,

in case of latter , there is "usually" a set of jumpers/pins ,,,,1 set jumpers internal/external battery ,,,,and set of 4 pins for external battery packs ,,,,(used in late 286-386) in which case buy a battery pack from electronics shop ,,,maplin in UK ,,,prob radio shack in US


note not totally acurate re: models/year etc ,,,,,but i think close enough.

amstrad pc1512 8088 (5.5in floppy) has 4xAA cells in cover under monitor!!!!!!!


cheers freddy

[Vette]

I didn't mean leave the unit plugged in and running. DOH .......I meant leave the unit plugged in, but turned off!!

[Capricorn]

Thanks for the tips and advice. Lots of good info. Battery changing seems less of a problem than I thought.

[goinpostal]

You are asking for big sparks if you ground yourself and work in equip that is pluged in regardless if it is powered on or not.