Time Inaccurate? Change Your Battery

I get lots of e-mail asking for help. Yesterday, Cynthia M. fired off a note asking why the time on her PC was erratic.

"So today, my normally-reliable computer at work starts changing the time. First it thinks that it's 5 p.m. on Monday. Unfortunately, it's already Tuesday. Oddest thing, though, it correctly identifies that I'm on Pacific Daylight Time. Fast forward through several resets, reboots, McAfee Virus Scans, and deleting and reinstalling the Windows Daylight Savings Time patch. Better, but no cigar: Now the time is resetting back to 10:25 a.m., although it's at least recognizing it is Tuesday."

The problem, I told her, is a weak system battery. The symptoms can also exhibit as a temperamental PC, say, booting to a simple, but horrifying message that the hard drive doesn't exist. The next boot, however, will be normal.

A battery stores a PC's CMOS settings, the time and date, among other things. A dying battery confuses the settings. Changing it is straightforward, but time consuming.

First record your computer's existing CMOS settings. Boot up and head for your system's Setup screen. Do that by watching the screen for instructions. For instance, my PC wants me to hit the Delete key; my notebook tells me to use F10.

Once the Setup's visible, use a digital camera to snap an image of each page; the other option is to jot the info down using pencil and paper.

BTW, some computers come with a handy program for saving your CMOS settings. You'll have to hunt around in your PC's manual to see if you're one of the lucky ones. Read Make a Backup of Your CMOS for details.]

Once you've recorded the CMOS settings, turn off and unplug the PC, take off the cover, and check the tutorial at LiveRepair. They'll show you, step-by-step, how to pop out the battery. You can pick up a new coin cell battery for under $7 at any electronics store.

Boot your system, step through each page of the setup, changing the settings to match your original settings, and you're good to go.

CMOS battery hanging around a systemboard

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