If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Rechargeable CMOS/RTC Battery was a Bad Idea
Hi,
Most PCs (laptops and desktops) have non-rechargeable CMOS/RTC batteries, thank goodness. I have two old laptops that used rechargeable CMOS batteries. ISSUES WITH RECHARGEABLE CMOS BATTERY: If you have a PC that contains a rechargeable CMOS battery, and you do not use it often, the battery will run down to the point that CMOS memory becomes corrupt, but not fully "wiped". When you use that PC, the CMOS battery gets recharged. In doing so, some of the data that changed in CMOS memory, will remain in the changed state. I had this happen to me twice on two different PCs. The first time on a HP laptop. The changed data prevented me from using the laptop because it required a password during bootup. I had never set this laptop for a bootup password. The part of CMOS memory that contains password info became corrupted. Solution: I removed the CMOS battery and waited a few hours. Afterwards I was able to bootup again without a password prompt. The second time this happened on a Gateway Solo 3350 laptop. This time I noticed when I plugged in a USB flash drive, access to that flash drive was very slow. Much slower than normal even though this laptop has a 1.0 USB port. Solution: The next time I booted up this laptop, I pressed F2 to enter settings and restored default settings. Afterwards the USB flash drive access speed was back to normal. John |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|