PC Low System Battery Warning

Good Morning, looking for a bit of quick advice please, turned on my PC the last few mornings and as it's booting, a message comes up " Low System Battery " press F1 to continue or F2 to setup.

I'm ok with delving into the casing, but is this a DIY job and whats involved please, do I need to make a note of settings and where from ?

The systems a 7-10 year old Dell

Many Thanks in advance

If you are referring to a desktop, then it sounds like it's the CMOS battery that needs replaced. If you take the side off the casing to expose the MoBo (motherboard) - remember to power down AND unplug it first - somewhere on the mobo you should see a little button battery (about the size of a 1p coin). Remove this battery, and go buy a replacement. Boots, Superdrug, etc might have them in stock - there should be no need to visit a specialist computer shop.

Before removing this battery, touch the metal frame of the casing with both hands to discharge any static electricity your body has produced - likewise when you replace the battery too!

Good luck!!

Thanks for the quick response Steve, it is a desktop, are there no settings checking / making etc after replacing ?

If not thats great

Cheers

As far as I can recall, everything should be pretty much as normal. You might need to boot into the BIOS though, to reset the time and date. If that's the case, once you have changed the CMOS settings from the BIOS, save and exit (usually the F10 key), then reboot your machine.

When your machine powers up, it should tell you which key to press to enter the BOOT MENU.

No settings to save..Just swap the battery. Bob's your auntie..

Excellent, Thank you Stuart / Steven for the replies.

You shouldn't remove the battery
It's still holding your cmos/bios settings.... if you remove
it all will be lost and you will need the motherboard manual
to reset some of them such as CPU speed.

Try to read it in the machine with a magnifying glass
if need be. It might be in the manual.

It's probably a CR2032 or Cr2025 .... 20 is the diam.
32 is the thickness = 3.2mm etc. Readily available even
in some supermarkets.

Quickly swap the new battery over.

Thanks Algi, it is a CR2032, will get one tomorrow and swap over.

If you're not in a hurry, I had to get some cr2032 for my father's Dell PC. 7dayshop were extremely cheap for them, £2.99 for 12 panasonic cr2032 batteries with free postage.

I'm assuming all's well now, Chris??

Hmmmm.... not yet, been to busy work wise and been away from home, to get a battery, written a note as a reminder for tomorrow, thanks for the prompt

Chris

Just to add, avoid touching the battery with your hand. Try using a tissue. It just stops grease getting on and causing a short circuit.

Job Done, Thank you for all your input & instruction, really appreciated

No probs, buddy!!

Looking forward to tackling this same problem soon! Can't keep setting the date and time every time I boot the PC up forever....