T42 losing time

[DennisGordon]

I got an email from a friend saying that her T42, which she's had a month, is not keeping the current time when she resets it. I'm presuming it's the CMOS battery. Computer is ruinnning great otherwise.

Are there any other explanations?
I don't have the tech manual handy, but I'm guessing the instructions for changing the battery are in there.
Would a local shop carry that part?
Is it covered by the warranty?

Thanks for any help.

[rkawakami]

Depending upon how far off the time is getting, you could be looking at a weak CMOS battery or a problem with the on-board real time clock (RTC) circuit on the motherboard. Also, if she is running Windows XP, it may have been set to grab "internet time" from a time synchronization service and thus automatically updating the computer's clock to an accurate reference standard at the given time zone Windows thinks its in, and not her living room clock .

The Hardware Maintanence Manual will have the procedure to remove the battery and if you have a voltmeter, what you can expect to measure from it. Depending upon the repair shop you go to, they may or may not have an identical replacement part. It appears that the T42 use two different batteries (depending upon the size of the LCD ??) but both have a plug at the end of the battery. While the batteries themselves are standard CRxxxx lithium coin cells, the welded on wires and plugs aren't something normally stocked at the drug store. Radio Shack may have something that will work, but a shop geared towards laptop repairs stands a better chance of having one. As far as warranty coverage goes, I'd check the fine print. The main battery may be covered for one year but I'm not sure about the CMOS battery.

If it's the CMOS battery giving problems, then I would think she would be getting a boot error message to that effect. If when she checks the date and time in BIOS and it's been reset to 01/01/1999 at 00:00, then, yes it's the battery. If it's a matter that the clock is off a random number of hours/minutes then that could be a different problem.

[mitchellst]

If the machine is under warranty, then that should be covered.