TSGL: PC has died ...

[H Davis]

Tilman,

The usual lifespan given for these batteries is about 5 years but that 
varies considerably. All of mine have made it longer. If you're in that 
range it might be worth changing it. They're not that expensive.

H Davis

Russell W. Coover wrote:
> One way to check the CMOS battery is to shut off all internet access for a
> day or two and see if the machine has lost any time. If, over this period,
> it has lost at least a minute, your battery should be replaced. A smaller
> loss (such as 30 seconds) may indicate your battery has weakened and may
> need to be replaced soon. Prior to the test, be sure the computer clock
> shows the correct time by synchronizing it with a time server. 
>
> The reason for shutting off internet access is to make sure the operating
> system, or some program you may have added to the machine, is not able to
> synchronize the clock during the test. 
>
> If you need to add software to synchronize your clock, I suggest Dimension 4
>
>
> http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
>
> or TClockEx 
>
> http://www.download.com/TClockEx/3000-2347_4-10637570.html?tag=lst-2
>
> Dimension 4 is fairly basic and you can use various time servers across the
> world. TClockEx will do pretty much the same thing, and allow you to modify
> your System Tray so that not only the time shows, but, if you wish, day and
> date. Both are good. My preference is Dimension 4.
>
>  
>
> Russ Coover
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
> Behalf Of Tilman Brandl
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:07 AM
> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> Subject: TSGL: PC has died ...
>
> Hi,
>
> just a question. Recently I've had severe problems (probably Java-related)
> on my machine (XP Pro SP2). I've done a non-destructive repair which seemed
> to solve the problems. But then, it started to not *reboot* frequently, when
> I tried to .. I switched it off for a while, switched off the main switch in
> the back as well, tried the reset switch (which I believe does work), etc.
> To no avail.
>
> Today I swapped the system HDD into my older backup machine, which I'm using
> now. This worked almost flawlessly, as expected. But I would still like to
> get the main PC to work again, at least as a (third) backup.
>
> I've tried a different XP system drive from my backup-machine, didn't change
> a thing, didn't start up or show any signs of a Bios etc.. 
>
> Now, of course there could be several different reasons for this. From my
> experiments I guess it must be the hardware - except the HDDs which seem
> fine. I've got a new PSU recently, nothing else was changed....
>
> Question: Could a dying CMOS battery be behind all this? I've had the
> impression that when I left the PC sit for a while shut off e.g. overnight,
> it was easier to get it to work. Might be the battery did recover some ...?
> But how ?
>
> Any ideas on this?
> (I've ordered a new machine meanwhile)
>
> Tilman
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>   

-- 
H Davis   hdavis1 at gmail.com