The below explaination is correct, it is a black oblong chip that can be
replaced (with the word "Dallas) on top). But there was also another type of
battery on the older boards. It is a barrel type battery soldered to the
board. They are noticeable as they are 3/4 of an inch long and usually
bluish green in color. Ocassionally the the leads from the battery to the
board will look corroded. Almost all have a connector adjacent to the that
is 4 pins sticking straight up. This is so you can replace the battery. You
should be able to see the voltage on top of the battery, usually 3 volts.
You can go to Radio Shack or an Electronics Shop (Not a computer store as
thay have only modern items) and get a battery holder that will hold 2 - 1.5
volt AA or AAA batteries. The holder should have a connector that will slide
over the 4 pins I mentioned above, There is usually tape or velcro on the
back to attach it to the side of the case. Connecting this to the board will
disable the onboard battery and power will be drawn from the replacement
batteries.

Fran


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Pike" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: CMOS battery


On the old Pentium I boards sometimes the battery was an integrated unit
that looks something like a large IC chip. A company called Dallas made
them. The problem with these is that they incorporated the battery, the real
time clock, and several other things into this one unit. They are easy to
replace, just unplug one and plug the other one in. only problem is that you
almost never can find the right one. There is a string of numbers on the
chip, which you have to match exactly, if they don't match, it won't work. I
went through this a little while back, I went to a commercial electronics
supplier and got the chip (they called their distributor and gave them the
numbers) when I got the chip and put it in it asked for a bios password, I
used a backdoor password for the bios and got passed that but still the chip
would not work. Unfortunately I ended up throwing away the motherboard and
getting a new one. I hope you have better luck than I did.

William Pike
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Chilangisha B. Changwe
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 1:18 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] CMOS battery

I am trying to make changes in the CMOS settings but
the changes can not be saved due cmos battery failure
as reported by the BIOS. Surprisingly I cant see any
CMOS battery on this PC's mother board. Its a pentium I
or 586.


ChilangishaChangwe

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