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Tue 2 Nov, 2004 12:55 pm
hello,
how does a computer remember the time and date even when its unplugged.
is it stored in the hard drive or in its memory or has it a special chip?
this answer is for my uncle who isnt very computer wise.am i right in thinking that it has its own battery back up on the motherboard?
thanks in advance
Such information are kept in the BIOS powered by a battery found on the mother board as you said.
Yup, & the battery likely will die on you after 3~4 or so years, at which time it needs to be replaced.
Computer techies will call it a CMOS battery or RTC battery or some such, but it's simply one of those flat round 3-volt watch batteries you can buy at any electronics or convenience store. (To change one you'd need to open the PC's case and pull the old battery off your motherboard.)
Unfortunetly, due to the fact that it also preserves some hardware configuration settings, if the clock battery completely dies some PC's will give bizarre boot-up errors & not be able to get into Windows. If that happens, though, it's nothing that can't be fixed by replacing the battery -- and possibly resetting your BIOS settings.
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