battery

Hello Dell dimension 4600, xp home, sp3, version 2002. Battery 3-V CR2032 The clock has moved back one hour twice in the last 4 months and my manuel says if this happens repeatedly, the battery should be changed. Repeatedly is vague. I did not have the daylight savings box checked as I did not think I had to. I just checked daylight savings and it adjusted to the correct time as opposed to the first time I noticed it and just made a simple adjustment.. The book also said the battery controls the computer configuration. and can explode if improperly installed. The book says the battery helps," record all the screens in the system setup program", which I get into by rebooting and pressing F2. Is a battery change something an average user can do with your help, or is it work for a technician? Should I wait to see if this occurs again now that I have set daylight savings before taking any action?Thank you

That is a standard CMOS battery, you should be able to get it pretty much anywhere, just as long as it's a 2032 it will be fine. The procedure is extremely simple, you remove the side of the case, obviously unplug from the mains first, you will see a cell\button battery in a plastic "cup" for want of a better description, you will see a metal lip on the side, gently press that against the wall of the cup and the battery should simply pop up, to put it back just sit one edge into the cup and press down gently but firmly and will will see it snap into position, as long as you put it back in the same face up you will be fine. These battery's do go flat, just like any battery, so it is common to need replacing every so many years, it needs no special training in it's own right, just care, the bit that may concern you is setting the bios options back to whats needed, and setting the time\date, but we can take you through this a step at a time if need be, just depends how happy you are to do this, if need be we can set a time when we are both online so you can post and have answers almost instantly if needed, just let us know how you'd like to proceed and we will do all we can for you. But as to daylight savings, I would definitely leave it on, then it will automatically change the system clock when the time changes.

Hello I called and the battery is available as you said. DST will stay on. I do understand how to remove and insert but will need your help when it comes to settings. [When I had Dell support they had moved BIOS from A3 to A 12.] I began to explore a bit just to learn in case the clock runs ok and I want to know how for learnings sake. After restarting I tapped F2 and a screen came up -I don't know names yet but it had a lot of "enters" at the end of some lines. I avoided trouble by not clicking on any 'enters'. If I do will I be able to escape without doing damage if I adjust nothing? Hypothetically, if I want to save the information I need to restore settings, I was thinking of "print screen" but then it dawned on me I cannot maneuver that way while in the pc. Now I am guessing if I need a yellow pad to write information down. Could you briefly tell me the idea here after I see all those "enters" so I can learn a bit more? I think your idea of alerting you if the actual time comes to do this procedure, is a good one. I can have my wife stand by with the lap top and receive your guidance sort of like ping pong . Thank you and I actually look forward to learning more about this procedure.

Well once the new battery is in you wont be able to boot, well to be exact once the battery is removed the CMOS is\can be reset, so until it is told what to do you wont be able to boot to the system again, but the rules in the settings are very simple, if you don't know what it does you do NOT touch it, should you change something by accident, and can't be sure what it was prior, you can hit the Esc button and exit without saving, doing this means NO changes were made, so no harm can be done. Navigating these settings will depend on what yours requires, the up\down arrow keys are blatantly obvious for going up\down the list, the right\left arrow buttons vary, some will move you across the heading's, others (possibly older ones) expand the options for the highlighted item, you should be able to very quickly figure that bit out now you know what to expect there. Entering the sub menu for the highlighted item again varies on the makers, most of the time it's the enter key, but as described here it could be the arrow keys, but the enter one is most likely, once in there the up\down arrows are used to highlight the option you want then enter again closes the sub menu leaving that option as the one set, but NO changes will be made until after you SAVE and exit this, the F10 button is the one to press when your ready, it will ask confirmation your sure then once acknowledged it will reboot the system, an alternate way is to scroll to the exit menu and select to save and exit, either way is fine. Selecting some choices require more than the arrow buttons, the tab button for instance is probably going to be required when setting your clock, you may need it to jump from hours to minutes, if the arrow buttons move the menus, then if you need to move over it's the tab button to do that. Changing the time, and the order the system will look for boot devices yet again varies, big surprise lol, some use a sub menu as described above, but most tend to use the +\- (plus and minus) buttons, what I suggest is go into these settings and have a play, change the settings, get used to moving around and changing settings, this will give you the confidence to do this, and it will allow you to ask any questions about area's of concern etc, you'll be quite safe doing this as long as you exit without saving, the Esc or menu option are both fine. Now the best way to approach this is doing the bare minimum, because unless your well into tweaking etc you will see no benefit to messing around with most of whats there, so the quickest way to do this is tell the system to use the default settings, these are the known safe choices that will work, once the default settings is selected we will simply change the boot order, but I will also have a look through the manual and see what else can be done to benefit you, but if you can tell me the exact model of your system it will help me find the right manual, your looking for the extra numbers after those you've already given, you should also see a Tag number, again it will help me get the manual for this board, then I can get a better idea of what option you will see, for reference this message is posted at 18.20 (6.20 pm) on the 8th July.

So far I understand your information + am taking necessary notes to refer to. Tag = 2552T31. I am going to click on one of the enter buttons without saving anything to see what it is like. I edited because I clicked on all the 'enter' buttonsas far as - system security. I have taken notes about this information and when there was an enter within an enter I made note of that also. I am going back to system security to see if I can complete my notes hoping this is a positive step forward..

Hi GP As well as using the "exit without saving changes" as recommended by 8210GUY a useful technique if you have a digital camera, (even the cheapest one will do) or you can perhaps borrow one for a short while, is to take a snap of each page and another when you hit "enter"..this way you can hardly go wrong…….. The technigue is also very useful if you have opened your machine and started to root around inside….take several close up snaps of the inside, before you start …..as if you have a complicated set up they will be worth their weight in gold when it comes to check that everything is in its original place. Regards paws

Hi again GP, I see that you mentioned that your cmos battery is a "2032" there are quite a few folks who don't really know what the battery looks like, or why it is called a 2032……. for anyone who is not too sure the battery 2032 is: round, silver coloured and is 20mm diameter and 3.2mm in depth and that's why its called a 2032 (taken from its dimensions) Not all computers are fitted with a 2032 sometimes called a CR 2032, but it is fitted to a lot of machines, and I always carry a few in my "spares bag" they are cheap to replace and have a nominal voltage of 3V Hope this helps anyone who is puzzling over the insides of their machine and wondering if they are looking at the correct bit ! Regards paws

Yep pic's are a good idea, or worst case physically write down the info, but thats pretty long winded, and easy to forget minor details in your notation, so pic's are better. Now I believe I have your manual now, it's not laid out the usual way makers normally do, but between what I can see and what you tell me we should manage this fine, as I said above we wont be doing anything much in there, but an important bit of info I forgot above is how to get out of the sub menu's, and that is simply done by pressing the Esc button, each press of that button takes you back 1 screen each press, when there are no more screens to return to it will prompt about exiting windows without saving changes, if you hit that but have not finished, 1 further press removes the prompt leaving you on the main screen again.

Hello I have written down the subs and all information. Then I tried the picture with the digital camera and it did not work. Try it and you will see the issues that prevent a legible picture. Because all is running well, I will not change the battery unless the clock malfunctions again. I understand the BIOS gives you a few minutes to pop the old out and the new one in. I'm glad I had the chance to explore that area and perhaps the notes I took are not in vain. It really does not take that long and for novices I would recommend it just in case the "pop in and out" don't get done as quickly as you thought. I'll be in touch and thank you again.

Hi GP

Then I tried the picture with the digital camera and it did not work. Try it and you will see the issues that prevent a legible picture.

It should look something like this:
📎DSCF1864.JPG
or
📎DSCF1865.JPG

These are quick snaps that I took in my workshop a few minutes ago. (just click on them to enlarge)
If you let us know the specific trouble you are having with this, may be we can help
Regards
paws

What great pix! I have an Olympus Camedia digital camera, D580Zoom which I set to the easiest setting which is 'P'. I took the picture of the pc screen even at a slight angle to avoid glare but the letters were so small I could not read them. I just edited because I have a thought. Matybe I should have uploaded the pix I take to my pc so I can use the camera software to edit. If necessary I could back up these pictures so I'll have them if necessary. If you were to upload these pictures to your pc and save them to desktop for example, when you boot up to restet the ?BIOS settings that may have been changed during a battery change would these settings pictures still be saved on the desktop or should they be saved to an external device? How do you get such a clear picture that you can enlarge by clicking on it? That is great!

Hi GP,

How do you get such a clear picture that you can enlarge by clicking on it? That is great!

Here's a link to a great tutorial put together by Ztruker (thanks also to Doug) and this shows you how to upload images to a topic here on WTT
http://forums.whatthetech.com/How_upload_I…ead_t96285.html
and I agree its magic!
Some tips for you when using the digital camera for taking snaps of your screen:

1 Have your Zoom set to zero or minimum and try to get the whole of the computer screen to fill up the frame (in the viewfinder)
2 No need to take the snap at an angle, full head on is OK and ensure the flash is disabled ( the screen provides plenty of light) so flash is not required and will spoil the pictures if its on.
3 Take the snap from as near the screen as you get whilst still keeping all the screen in the viewfinder.

Now some extra thoughts on using the snaps as a records of what the BIOS settings are on your machine…so you can set it all back after a battery change for example.
WARNING
Don't try and put the snaps onto the computer on which you are about to perform the battery change, another computer if one is handy is fine, or print out copies and keep them safe
The reason for this is that if you change the CMOS bettery there is a chance that you will lose your BIOS settings, although a lot of modern machines are smart enough to figure out most settings nowadays for themselves…nevertheless some machines will need you to put the correct settings into the BIOS before the machine will boot up…..

Yes that's right the BIOS must have the right settings (or most of them) before your machine will start, so the snaps you need to refer to for puting the correct settings into the BIOS will not be available to you if they are on the machine that has had the battery change……. as it will not start (boot into Windows) to allow you to access the snaps……You may have to read this again to get my drift .
Finally there is no need to edit the pictures….just print them or view them on another machine….
Hope this helps
Regards
paws

Paws Good and bad news 1-I took pictures of each "enter" and sub. I uploaded them to my camera software where by cropping they became quite clear. I printed which worked. I saved to a flash drive which worked. So fa so good. 2-When I tred to upload the indication was the file was too big, so I right clicked on one of th files and saved it as a zip file but it was still too big. 3-Whenever I try to leave safe mode or in this case F2 , when the sign in appears for my password, the pc freezes and I have to hard boot. If I remove the password first thee is no problem. Also if I click on guest instead of my personal sign in logo it will sometimes respond and load. So, I really enjoyed learning how to capture the setings with the camera. Need help, if available, to adjust file so it is small enough to be able to be uploaded -I'll be working on that. Need advice re: the freezing problem described above. Thank you again.

Paws I hope this attachmnent appears when I click "add reply" as it seems to have uploaded ok.

Hello I entered the BIOS on my laptop after doing the desktop and find by tapping F2 there is a different screen. I do not see the lists with subs and choices to 'enter'. There are 6 pages of information and almost everything is enabled. I will take notes/pictures if necessaryincase I need to reset something. Is the difference because one is a desktop and this one a laptop? Thank you