time/date display

pm.

hi, each time i shut down my computer and switch the power off, then start back up again i have to reset the time and date :eek: . i have an up to date antivirus and use spy doctor for spy/adware, anybody have any ideas what culd be causing this.

aidan_walsh

How old is the computer?

Stephen

Sounds like your cmos battery is dead.

pm.

i have the computer 2 years.

aidan_walsh

Did you buy it new? 2 years sounds a pretty short time for the CMOS battery to give in...

pm.

what is cmons battery? im new to this only started using the computer a couple of months ago when i got broadband installed. i also put a graphics card in and when the computer starts up i get a message saying that the graphics has to lower its performance due to lack of power

pm.

yea but it hasent really been used much till i got broadband, my old connection speed was 14.4 kbps :eek:

DonkeyStyle \o/

pm. wrote:

what is cmons battery?

It's a little battery attached to the motherboard inside the PC that saves low-level settings like the date/time, type of harddrive installed, processor related settings... and lots of other bits and pieces that the system wants as soon as it powers on.

See what it looks like here -> http://images.google.ie/images?q=cmos+battery

It's fairly painless to replace.

angelofdeath

pm. wrote:

i also put a graphics card in and when the computer starts up i get a message saying that the graphics has to lower its performance due to lack of power

your psu (power supply unit, the part the power cable plugs into) can't supply enough power to your gfx card, so you need to get a better psu with a higher wattage, i'm not sure if this is the cause of the date/time problem, but it probably is


edit://and as seamus said below check gfx power cable, although no card ive had so far has let me boot up without this connected

seamus

Definitely sounds like the CMOS battery is dead. When you open your machine, you'll see a big round cell battery somewhere on the motherboard. That's the CMOS battery.

For the Graphics card, it's probably a matter of connecting a supplementary power lead to the card - the motherboard can't supply enough power alone. Read the manual for the card before plugging anything in.

pm.

Thanks for the help guys.

stevenmu

aidan_walsh wrote:

Did you buy it new? 2 years sounds a pretty short time for the CMOS battery to give in...

I'd bet it's a dell, they often seem to suffer from batteries dying after 2/3 years. Possibly the fact that it hasn't been used much for a large period of that time has added to the wear on it.

pm.

lol, your right it is a dell.