Cmos Trouble

Hi.
last night while on IRC There where 2 blackouts in a row in my neighborhood.
After I restarted i found a message saying "cmos low battery" or something.
I took a look at the bios setup and the time had changed and some other things too.
So I fix them, saved changes and restarted.
Everything seems to be working normal, a little bit slower than usual.
My question is, Is there anything wrong with the bios or the battery or something? and if so, could it be dangerous?
I run a W98 box.
I welcome any comment.
Thanx.

get a new battery for it. you can find it on the motherboard, probably near the BIOS. they are CM2050s or something if made by sony. judging from a similar problem with my stepdad's 286 a few years ago (ummm.. 8?) once the battery goes totally flat the computer won't start properly (wow, and it wasn't a dos/windows problem!). and the clock will be delayed.

Hello CyberLord,

This is a tricky situation, because this could be, just the battery going low, or it could be a prelude to trouble.

A Brief Explanation

The CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) is where the BIOS settings are saved. The battery supplies power to the CMOS to make sure that the computer will retain the BIOS settings while it is turned off.

Apparently when the power outage occured you lost power completely, which would explain why the clock and a few other settings were different.

So...At this point it is hard to say... I would just watch your computer very closely to see if it acts "strange" ... As a precaution, change the battery. And if you still have problems then it would most likely be hardware problems.

Good Luck And I Hope This Has Helped :)

Thanx for the help.
Yeah, I could change the battery.
But, another question comes up.
Is it true that when I change the battery, it must not take more than 1 minute? cuz if it does setup will go to hell?
Thanx again.

i believe that is just superstition.

however, i have read that if if u had set a BIOS user or admin passwd then leaving the battery off for 30 minutes should clear it. oh, and of course, leaving the battery off for any length of time means the clock will be delayed.

if you read my formatted or beenhadded post youl see a scarier
battery ordeal...sry im lazy typist

You don't NEED to have it take less than 1 minute..
when you take the battery out, the computer can remember the settings for only a limited time, after that period of time it will revert to the hardware defaults and you may have to configure your BIOS again...

Before you take the BIOS battery out to switch it, write down all your BIOS settings, as it can be a pain in the ass to find out what setting has been chosen incorrectly and have the previous settings will help greatly...

I suppose if you want to keep a copy you could write it down or printscreen (if you have a printer attached). Alternatively, take a peak here: http://sac-ftp.externet.hu/utilmisc5.html. They have a few of utilities that exist out there to save CMOS settings. During my hardware course, students play around with, I believe, CMOS 0.93 but I'm sure the others do as well.

Hope this helps.

HI.
Thanx everyone for the help.
Yeah, about the battery, I also think that's a superstition.
And, Msmittens, the link you suggested is down or broken.
But, anyway I hope I can solve the problem.
We'll be in touch.