Re: PC fails to turn on - PSU is OK

Cheemag wrote in message
34nio21pbossvn0bfpo0aorbasr7oa0vt3@xxxxxxx:

On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:09:09 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <a@b> wrote:

Have you tried changing the onboard battery? You need a CR2032
like one of
these:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=4470&TabID=1&C=SEO&U=strat15&doy=search

Most electronics places sell them for about £2.

Could a flat BIOS battery cause this symptom? Never thought of
that. I'll give it a try: I've got a PC that I was given for
spares so I'll take the battery from that one.

Best get a new one so that you know for certain that it's
good.

WH Smiths sell them for around £4.

What voltage should they be? Are they 1.5 volts? If so, I've found
that the one that I was going to try (on a temporary diagnostic
basis only!) is about 1 volt, so it may be too low to work.

3V, so that one's knackered.

Looks very much like it! And yet it still powers the CMOS quite happily on
the PC that I took it from: the real-time clock keeps good time and doesn't
reset every time the PC is turned off. Perhaps I'd better go round and check
the batteries in my other PCs...

Until I started doing PC maintenance, I'd always thought that CMOS batteries
were rechargable and that you only needed to replace them when the battery
stopped retaining its charge. How long does the charge in a CMOS battery
normally last - a couple of years, as for a digital watch?


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