Motherboard Battery Lifespan.

[Ghuraba]

Hi there

I have Gigabyte Gaming X AM4 from 2019. Daily mild usage. But since July 2024 it has been completely unplugged by the power cord as I don’t have a GPU at the moment. When could the CMOS battery begin to lose power?

 

[Rroff]

A good quality CR2032 battery is rated for about 10 years shelf-life, though the generic ones that come with a lot of hardware can be as little as 2 years. The current drain from the RTC and EEPROM or whatever implementation used should be low enough to keep settings for around 2.5 years or more (a good implementation on paper could maintain settings for about 20 years), in reality some boards are poorly implemented and have higher drain.

 

[adidan]

I had to change the one on my B450M Mortar Max after I'd left it a while. Bought that in 2019 too.

They do go.

 

[Ghuraba]

Are these rechargeable that get power from the PC when it is on or are they just normal batteries that need replacing?

 

[BUDFORCE]

Are these rechargeable that get power from the PC when it is on or are they just normal batteries that need replacing?

They don't recharge.

They are very low draw though, so basically the battery almost "goes off" before it's discharged as such.

They are cheap and easy to replace, although as above a good one should last about 10 years.

 

[Rroff]

I had to change the one on my B450M Mortar Max after I'd left it a while. Bought that in 2019 too.

They do go.

Unfortunately it is a bit of a how long is a piece of string subject - I've fished 10-15 year old hardware (which uses a CR2032 battery for time/settings) out of my parent's loft and it has still retained settings, other times I've encountered systems which can't even do more than like 4 months. The implementation of the hardware and quality of the original battery (if not replaced) can make a huge difference.

 

[adidan]

Unfortunately it is a bit of a how long is a piece of string subject - I've fished 10-15 year old hardware (which uses a CR2032 battery for time/settings) out of my parent's loft and it has still retained settings, other times I've encountered systems which can't even do more than like 4 months. The implementation of the hardware and quality of the original battery (if not replaced) can make a huge difference.

Very much so.

My x58 board still had a working battery last time I booted it up (a few years back now but it was old - what was that, 2008/2009 ish release time?) so probably 10+ years.