Hi All,

Can someone tell me what function does the battery CR2032 have ?

As per earlier posts have now established that the battery is dead.

Can i continue to load up a new installation of windows XP on my HDD without the battery and buy a new battery tomorrow to put in ?

Please advise

Thanks
Sean

The mobo battery serves an interesting role. Make some popcorn and read the tale...

BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System and this is the very first program that gets loaded when you turn on a computer. A BIOS is specific to a certain mobo (or perhaps family of mobo's) and it really is a tiny OS that does things. The purpose of the BIOS is to perform the POST (Power-On Self Test) to make sure all the components connected to the system are working. The POST does a basic electrical initialization of the system and returns the results to the BIOS. In this sense, you can think of the POST as a program that runs in the BIOS mini-OS. The results from the POST are then handled by the BIOS and outputted to you (the user) as something called a beep code. There are two types of foundations for BIOS's these days: Award and AMI. They each have their own specific meanings for the beep codes, but many of them are the same. The universal PC beep code for a successful POST is a single short beep. This is why you always hear computers beep once when they are first turned on. Note that the POST does not need to be run if you're on a computer and you choose to restart it from the OS menu because the POST runs an electrical diagnosis, and this doesn't need to be run when a computer is already on. This type of boot is called a "warm boot" and you won't hear a beep code. A normal boot from off to on is called a "cold boot".

Once the BIOS gains control of the system, it runs through its parameters and sets various functions and devices per these parameters. Getting into the BIOS and changing these parameters is known as "configuring the BIOS settings". As per your manual, you can see what these settings will actually change. Some of them affect the CPU settings, others determine which drive is set to boot first/second/etc, and others are used for low-level control like RAM latencies and PCI wait clocks. For the most part, you won't need to change too many of these BIOS settings. As you learn more, you will learn how you prefer your BIOS to behave (most of them are personal preference). When you do change a BIOS setting, you're changing the setting from the default value stored with the BIOS to a value of your own choosing.

So where do you suppose this extra data of yours gets stored? There's another chip that goes with the BIOS chip. It's called the CMOS (Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) and its only job is to store saved settings for the BIOS. The CMOS chip is a type of DRAM chip, and as such it needs power to retain these values for the BIOS settings. While the computer is on, no problem! There's plenty of electricity to go around, so the CMOS is kept happy. But when the computer is turned off, darkness comes. And the only thing keeping your stored BIOS settings from going away is that little unassuming CR2032 button cell. Without it, your computer's clock is erased as well as all BIOS settings that you changed! :eek: That's what that mobo battery is for.

Now of course as long as you don't change any BIOS settings, you'll be fine for awhile. I don't recommend never having a mobo battery, but at this point it won't hurt to install Windows without it. Just be aware that your computer will need to be off and perhaps even unplugged before you put a new battery in. If you put a new one in while the computer is on, you could fry your mobo! So play it safe.

Does that answer your question?

Munch munch munch....pass the soda please.......

Good show Saph. :)

You can get the battery just about anywhere. Department store, local drug store, grocery store. The CR2032 is just a common watch/medical device battery. Just look near the jewelry section or battery section. So unless you are far from civilization, I would just go and pick one up.

Bravo, Bravo. . .

Superb Saphalline, what a fantastic explanation. You make it sound all so easy :cool:

Thanks again for all your assistance, your the kewlest ;)

I'm fascinated by the number of variations there are on the name John [Sean].

Yohan, John, Sean, Ewan, Evan, Yan, Jan, Jean, Jane. :)