My cmos batteries keep dying

Soldato
Joined
5 Jun 2005
Posts
20,906
Location
Southampton
Hey guys, I have a SN41G2 shuttle about 4 years old now, and 6 months ago the cmos battery died, I thought fair enough and replaced it. In the last 6 months I have gone through a further two. I know this is not a big issue, but still they should not be dying so soon. I turn my pc off @ the wall each night, apart from that it’s on for a good 14 hours a day. Any ideas?
 
maybe because you turn it off on the wall, I don't know if this can be the case. Or maybe you are buying cheapish batteries?

offtopic: I keep reading your name as Jihad damnit :D
 
It's either crap batteries that you've got or the mobos developed a fault, have read of others having a similar problem where the mobo was at fault.

I've always switched my PCs off at the wall socket and never had any probs to date but if decent batteries are dying then it looks like you'll have no other option except to leave it switched on at the mains.
 
Have you metered the batteries you have removed to ensure they were drained & it isn't just a connection problem (tarnished battery connectors for example) ?
 
There is no rechargable circuit in CMOS batteries.
It should be turned off at the wall as well, just in case you get a spike and you don't have surge proetection.

Ive got a motherboard that seems to drain batteries faster than it should, but I don't know why. It starts with clock losing.
Something isn't right somewhere, but it's 3 years old and prolly about to give up.
It does random restarts :(
 
im pretty sure it doesnt use the battery when u have it plugged into mains.. so unplugged its using batteries.. they havent got much juice anyway.
 
Cheers for the input guys, I will run a meter test on it. Not sure on them being cheap they came from a well know electronics shop starting with M, so I would have thought they would be ok to use. I also got the exact same part number
 
Some of my older PCs have been idle several years between restarts and CMOS battery still as enough juice to keep the data... infact in 12+ years of using PCs - I've only had to replace a CMOS battery once. Maybe theres a slight short on the board - not enough to cause any serious problems but enough to drain the battery over time...
 
I've looked at a couple of PC recently that had your symptoms. In each case a quick scratch of the contacting surfaces & a hint of WD40 applied with a cloth cured the fault. That is why I asked if they were "flat". (Yes I know what shape they are :D ) Maybe you fitting a replacement makes contact for a while then the tarnishing creeps back, or you may have a rogue chip that is allowing too much current through it if they are "flat".
 
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