[Tfug] Battery replacement

[Mike Martinet]

>On 2/23/06, erich <erich1 at copper.net> wrote:
>> Well,
>>        Powering down the machine, and removing the battery means that
>> the CMOS configuration will get wiped out. Then the box becomes a
>> paperweight or a doorstop, or you can decorate your fireplace mantle
>> with the motherboard.


Hm.  I don't know everything about every PC motherboard ever made - you might have some weird hardware there.  I don't want to tell you something and then be wrong, but...

It's my understanding that the basic BIOS settings are hard-coded in the firmware chip and cannot be wiped out.  Most motherboards will allow you to reset to the defaults (and clear out a boot password, etc) by setting a jumper on the motherboard.  But this just reverts back to the default configuration.

Removing the battery with the power off, in my experience, only results in having to reset the time and date, because the user-configurable choices are stored in flash RAM.  In other words, the clock can't run without power, but everything else that's static is remembered bu the flash RAM.

I have an old 486 running Linux in a true-blue case that I keep around just for the aesthetic weirdness of it and the battery is shot.  I just go into the BIOS and set the hardware clock on the rare occsasions when I boot it up.  

Please come back and tell us what happened!  Good luck.


MjM