A computer components & hardware forum. HardwareBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » HardwareBanter forum » System Manufacturers & Vendors » Dell Computers
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old July 29th 10, 03:53 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Joe[_23_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 40
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a warning
when booting up- (forgot to write it down exactly) warning about battery
failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the manual says
I need to write down everything in Setup. Is that really necessary? One
friend suggested that if I make a restore point before the replacement- it
should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think that a
PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe

  #2  
Old July 29th 10, 05:53 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Timothy Daniels[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 455
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

Assuming that you're talking about the lithium "coin" battery that powers
the ROM while the PC is shut down, the capacitors *should* keep enough
voltage on the ROM to give you enough time to remove the old battery
and insert the new one. But if the capacitor(s) is(are) leaky, you'll lose the
BIOS settings when the old battery is removed, so you should write those
down just in case. If you're curious or energetic enough to perform an
experiment, try removing the old battery and wiping its metal surface and
the metal contact surface of the holding clip with an abrasive paper towel -
enough to make the metal shiny again - and then pop it back in the holding
clip. (If you have a can of spray-on contact cleaner, that will help, too. Just
spray it on and wipe the metal surface clean.) The warning message may not
appear, indicating that you'll probably get another few months or couple years
out of the old battery.

*TimDaniels*


"Joe" wrote:
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a warning when booting up- (forgot to write it down
exactly) warning about battery failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the manual says I need to
write down everything in Setup. Is that really necessary? One friend suggested that if I make a restore point before
the replacement- it should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think that a PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe



  #3  
Old July 29th 10, 06:27 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Daddy[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 367
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything insys. setup?

On 7/29/2010 12:53 PM, Timothy Daniels wrote:
Assuming that you're talking about the lithium "coin" battery that powers
the ROM while the PC is shut down, the capacitors *should* keep enough
voltage on the ROM to give you enough time to remove the old battery
and insert the new one. But if the capacitor(s) is(are) leaky, you'll lose the
BIOS settings when the old battery is removed, so you should write those
down just in case. If you're curious or energetic enough to perform an
experiment, try removing the old battery and wiping its metal surface and
the metal contact surface of the holding clip with an abrasive paper towel -
enough to make the metal shiny again - and then pop it back in the holding
clip. (If you have a can of spray-on contact cleaner, that will help, too. Just
spray it on and wipe the metal surface clean.) The warning message may not
appear, indicating that you'll probably get another few months or couple years
out of the old battery.

*TimDaniels*


"Joe" wrote:
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a warning when booting up- (forgot to write it down
exactly) warning about battery failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the manual says I need to
write down everything in Setup. Is that really necessary? One friend suggested that if I make a restore point before
the replacement- it should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think that a PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe




That was a great post. Thanks, Tim.

I think I'll resurrect my ancient Dell XPS M200s (which has been
sleeping in my closet for about 9 years.)

--
Daddy
  #4  
Old July 29th 10, 06:33 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
GTS-NJ
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

As a general rule the BIOS will work at it's normal defaults if you never
customized any settings, so it shouldn't be necessary to write them down.
In all likelihood, since you've gotten the warning, the system has already
lost settings and used defaults on startup.
A restore point is completely irrelevant to the BIOS.
..

"Joe" wrote in message
...
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a warning
when booting up- (forgot to write it down exactly) warning about battery
failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the manual
says I need to write down everything in Setup. Is that really necessary?
One friend suggested that if I make a restore point before the
replacement- it should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think that
a PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe


  #5  
Old July 29th 10, 07:21 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Ben Myers[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,607
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything insys. setup?

On 7/29/2010 10:53 AM, Joe wrote:
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a
warning when booting up- (forgot to write it down exactly) warning about
battery failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the
manual says I need to write down everything in Setup. Is that really
necessary? One friend suggested that if I make a restore point before
the replacement- it should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think
that a PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe


If you replace the CR2032 coin-sized battery on a motherboard, and it
happens to lose all of the settings, do not worry. The first time you
boot the system, it will recognize that the CMOS settings are kaput,
poll all drive channels on the system, then halt, telling you to press
the F2 key to enter the system setup. You have to enter the correct
date and time, and you can probably live with the default settings the
BIOS ends up using.

Here are some BIOS settings you might want to change, depending on the
motherboard and the overall hardware configuration:

1. For many Dell systems, the default for a hyperthreaded processor is
disabled. Surely, you would want to enable hyperthreading, if possible.
2. Display and clear the event log, after viewing it. The event log
shows the abnormal events during system Power On Self Test (POST). But
it becomes old news, so clear it.
3. If you have an audio card, like the Sound Blasters shipped with many
Dells, disable the on-board audio.
4. You may want to modify the boot order, allowing the system to try to
boot from floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive for example. Or leave it
as is, and press the F12 key during POST to boot from a device different
than usual.
5. For a laptop, you may want to change screen brighness settings.

Perhaps someone else can add to this list, which I've fantasized from
memory, rather than looking at one of many Dell BIOS setups... Ben Myers
  #6  
Old July 29th 10, 08:11 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Timothy Daniels[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 455
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

"Ben Myers" wrote:
If you replace the CR2032 coin-sized battery on a motherboard, and it happens to lose all of the settings, do not
worry. The first time you boot the system, it will recognize that the CMOS settings are kaput, poll all drive
channels on the system, then halt, telling you to press the F2 key to enter the system setup. You have to enter the
correct date and time, and you can probably live with the default settings the BIOS ends up using.

Here are some BIOS settings you might want to change, depending on the motherboard and the overall hardware
configuration:

1. For many Dell systems, the default for a hyperthreaded processor is disabled. Surely, you would want to enable
hyperthreading, if possible.
2. Display and clear the event log, after viewing it. The event log shows the abnormal events during system Power On
Self Test (POST). But it becomes old news, so clear it.
3. If you have an audio card, like the Sound Blasters shipped with many Dells, disable the on-board audio.
4. You may want to modify the boot order, allowing the system to try to boot from floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive
for example. Or leave it as is, and press the F12 key during POST to boot from a device different than usual.
5. For a laptop, you may want to change screen brighness settings.

Perhaps someone else can add to this list, which I've fantasized from memory, rather than looking at one of many Dell
BIOS setups...


Ben Myers


It seems that the 2 major options a
1) to write down the above list and whatever others may add to it, or...
2) to write down the BIOS settings before removing the battery. :-)

*TimDaniels*


  #7  
Old July 29th 10, 10:20 PM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
RnR[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,394
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

In article ,
says...

"Ben Myers" wrote:
If you replace the CR2032 coin-sized battery on a motherboard, and it happens to lose all of the settings, do not
worry. The first time you boot the system, it will recognize that the CMOS settings are kaput, poll all drive
channels on the system, then halt, telling you to press the F2 key to enter the system setup. You have to enter the
correct date and time, and you can probably live with the default settings the BIOS ends up using.

Here are some BIOS settings you might want to change, depending on the motherboard and the overall hardware
configuration:

1. For many Dell systems, the default for a hyperthreaded processor is disabled. Surely, you would want to enable
hyperthreading, if possible.
2. Display and clear the event log, after viewing it. The event log shows the abnormal events during system Power On
Self Test (POST). But it becomes old news, so clear it.
3. If you have an audio card, like the Sound Blasters shipped with many Dells, disable the on-board audio.
4. You may want to modify the boot order, allowing the system to try to boot from floppy, then CD-ROM, then hard drive
for example. Or leave it as is, and press the F12 key during POST to boot from a device different than usual.
5. For a laptop, you may want to change screen brighness settings.

Perhaps someone else can add to this list, which I've fantasized from memory, rather than looking at one of many Dell
BIOS setups...


Ben Myers


It seems that the 2 major options a
1) to write down the above list and whatever others may add to it, or...
2) to write down the BIOS settings before removing the battery. :-)

*TimDaniels*


Tim, it's been my experience that in worst case scenario the bios
defaults to it's "default" setup. Now if he does have custom settings,
maybe he should write them down ahead of time as I don't know how long
the retention time is. I would think there is a retention time but I
can't really say.
  #8  
Old July 30th 10, 01:32 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
michael adams[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?


"Joe" wrote in message
...
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a warning
when booting up- (forgot to write it down exactly) warning about battery
failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed that the manual says
I need to write down everything in Setup. Is that really necessary? One
friend suggested that if I make a restore point before the replacement- it
should contain that info, but I'm not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think that a
PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe


There's no need to write anything down.

Switch on your printer.

Reboot.

Press the [F2] key during reboot to bring up page 1 the BIOS screen

Press the [Print Screen] key.

The machine will eventually print out page 1 of the BIOS settings

Press [Alt] [P] to bring up page 2 of the BIOS settings

Again press the [Print Screen ] key and the machine should eventually
print out page 2 of the Bios settings.

Printing page 2 can sometimes create problems - the printer may give an out
of paper request which needs to be cancelled, on mine anyway. But persistence
pays off.

I only know this because I've got still a copy of the bios settings titled
"CMOS SETUP" of two previous Dell machines, all neatly printed out.
Not quite remembering how I did this, I've just now done this one as well,
to be sure


michael adams

....













  #9  
Old July 30th 10, 03:30 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Boris[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 300
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?

"michael adams" wrote in
:


"Joe" wrote in message
...
Gee, my 8 year old Dell is finally losing its battery. I now get a
warning when booting up- (forgot to write it down exactly) warning
about battery failure. So, I bought a new battery- but I just noticed
that the manual says I need to write down everything in Setup. Is
that really necessary? One friend suggested that if I make a restore
point before the replacement- it should contain that info, but I'm
not so sure of that.

So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think
that a PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe


There's no need to write anything down.

Switch on your printer.

Reboot.

Press the [F2] key during reboot to bring up page 1 the BIOS screen

Press the [Print Screen] key.

The machine will eventually print out page 1 of the BIOS settings

Press [Alt] [P] to bring up page 2 of the BIOS settings

Again press the [Print Screen ] key and the machine should eventually
print out page 2 of the Bios settings.

Printing page 2 can sometimes create problems - the printer may give
an out of paper request which needs to be cancelled, on mine anyway.
But persistence pays off.

I only know this because I've got still a copy of the bios settings
titled "CMOS SETUP" of two previous Dell machines, all neatly printed
out. Not quite remembering how I did this, I've just now done this one
as well, to be sure


michael adams

...


That's news to me. I never thought you could print while in BIOS screens
because print drivers haven't loaded up yet. I'll have to try it. I've
always written down every BIOS setting when necessary, esp. when
resurecting someone else's machine.
  #10  
Old July 30th 10, 03:47 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Tom Lake
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 418
Default need to replace battery- do I need to write down everything in sys. setup?


So, should I bother to write down everything in Setup? I should think
that a
PC should be able to do this itself!

Joe


There's no need to write anything down.

Switch on your printer.

Reboot.

Press the [F2] key during reboot to bring up page 1 the BIOS screen

Press the [Print Screen] key.

The machine will eventually print out page 1 of the BIOS settings


It doesn't work on a Studio XPS 9000 with no parallel port.
Are you using a parallel printer or a USB printer?

Tom Lake

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How do I replace the BIOS battery? Kenn Caesius Packard Bell Computers 15 August 18th 09 11:31 PM
When to replace UPS battery? [email protected] General 11 March 15th 08 06:20 AM
Replace individual DVD and CD Read/Write Turner Morgan Gateway Computers 1 December 17th 04 05:44 PM
Primary replace battery for 600x Denman Gateway Computers 2 October 15th 04 12:35 PM
Setup - CPQCM.sys missing Neil Robinson Compaq Computers 0 September 2nd 04 08:47 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:58 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 HardwareBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.