A few days ago, having had my computer totally disconnected, the Date/time had defaulted back to 2005 and I had to reset them, no problem, A few days later the cooling fan started running very noisily (dust I thought) and the next day my monitor failed - "No Signal"
Took the thing down to my friendly local computer shop and the whole thing was down to the failure of the CMOS battery. Apparently this failure caused the fan to run continuously but why it killed the video signal out I have no idea. Anyway £10 labour plus a battery was all that was needed; I was thinking it might be a video card problem ie expensive and was glad that it wasn't
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The video card was lost because the low CMOS battery meant the BIOS defaulted to factory defaults.
As soon as you get time and date issues, change the battery. Its the first indication.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 9 Feb 11 at 13:37
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Thanks zero - I learn something every day!
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Yes the BIOS will default to onboard video, good tip though. It can be worth simply changing the CR2032 battery very two years.
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>>It can be worth simply changing the CR2032 battery very two years.>>
Ironically that's the only thing I've never had fail on me on a computer system, no matter how old the motherboard...:-)
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>> Ironically that's the only thing I've never had fail on me on a computer system,
>> no matter how old the motherboard...:-)
>>
Neither have I, nor have I changed one though at £1.99 a battery a bi-annual change would not break the bank.
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>>Neither have I, nor have I changed one though at £1.99 a battery a bi-annual change would not break the bank.>>
Pack of eight for £1 (branded) at our local discount or pound shops..:-) One of the batteries has been going strongly in a Franklyn word checker for nearly two years now.
You can buy Maxell and other brands on-line from 40p each upwards, such as from:
tinyurl.com/6d98dad
although my use wouldn't extend to so many....
The 2032 is a pretty large lithium battery and mainboard use is very low drain.
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>> Neither have I, nor have I changed one though at £1.99 a battery a bi-annual
>> change would not break the bank.
Given the low drain I'd have thought biennial would suffice.
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IIRC Mercedes do a shrink wrapped 2032 with a MB Part # and they are something like £4.99+VAT - if you are caught short of a 203 2 and got cash to burn!
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they make a nice loud bang like a bullet if you plug them into your battery car booster (wear goggles mind) with screwdrivers in the two croc clips as you blast em
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Strange Cause of Computer Problems - Zero
