How long does a motherboard battery last?

[pmjdebruijn]

Hi,

Just out of curiosity... How long does a motherboard battery generally last?

I've heard of estimates of at least five years... I know it depends on what type battery is used etc...

But I'm more-or-less looking for user experiences.:

- Did you ever have to replace such a battery?
- Did you buy that machine yourself?
- Was it new back then?
- How long did the battery last?

Also what negative effect will a depleted battery have on my system? Just loss of time? or could my BIOS settings be lost as well?

Thanks in advance,
Pascal de Bruijn

[b_Q]

Hi

Never replaced battery on any of my system's (me bought new).
Other's yes.

Oldest still running here is a P2 on Asus P2L97 Agp motherboard
since 01-16-98.

"or could my BIOS settings be lost as well? "
Yes

You can load bios default, edit and boot with dead battery.
_________________
Preudhomme's Law of Window Cleaning:
It's on the other side.

[bennettp]

Here's a question... if the cmos baterry goes dead -- completely dead, will that prevent thr system from booting?

Because I've got two old pentium system lying around that won't boot. They both have the same motherboard. Just before each of them died, the bios settings would regularly get lost...

[Nate_S]

How long they last depends on the type of battery used, but most of them are lithium watch batterys that should last about ten years.

No, it shouldn't prevent systems from booting, however the cmos data may be lost every boot.

However, all ATX and later systems draw a small amount of power from the power supply even when they are off (the +5VSB on the power supply -- Voltage Stand By.) That way, the battery is really only being drained when the system is unplugged (or the switch on the back of the psu is turned off.)

-Nate

[Pajarico]

[Kaapeli]