cmos battery

[catsmoke]

The cmos in my T43p 2668 is now nearly six years old.I haven't any issues and I understand they can last up to ten years.My questions is.When the time come to replace,will all the settings be lost?And if so how do I restore the cmos chip?

Thanks! Vince

[rkawakami]

Here's what happens when the CMOS (backup) battery dies:

- The laptop's real time clock (RTC) will lose the time.
- If there was a power-on password set, it will be lost. In other words, you won't get prompted for it.
- Some of the BIOS' configurations will be lost. Generally, they will reset to default settings (see below).
- The next time the system is booted, you will be prompted to enter the correct time. This will occur even if you have replaced the CMOS battery.
- If there is a BIOS (supervisor) password set, you will have to enter it before you can change the time. This is what can lock you out of the laptop. When the time is lost, the system forces you into BIOS before it can proceed booting.
- Once you have access to the BIOS, I would recommend performing a "load setup defaults" just to be safe. It should be under the BIOS Restart menu. After that, you may want to check the BIOS settings and see if everything is the way you want. Typically, you would verify that the boot sequence and the power/performance settings are what you want. Exit the BIOS, saving the changes.

I would also recommend that you access all of the BIOS menus now and record the settings. The easiest way would be to take pictures of each screen, being sure to scroll down and/or clicking the [+] boxes to expand certain items. This way you have a "permanent" record of how it's set up.

[catsmoke]

Thanks so much! For the very in depth explanation.This forum is GREAT!