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I too have a need to keep old computers online and it's frustrating when the CMOS battery dies and all those super important motherboard settings that make it b

I too have a need to keep old computers online and it's frustrating when the CMOS battery dies and all those super important motherboard settings that make it boot from a hard drive in the first place are lost, over and over on every reboot. Not everyone knows that old computers do not necessarily boot from the hard drive by default.

dylan604 5y ago
Why not just replace the CMOS battery so you only have to do it once every 4th blue moon vs everytime the thing reboots?
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  You can even replace most CMOS batteries on a running machine without causing any issues. The power from the system will keep the BIOS set, and it's a 1 minute job for many servers, slide out the rack, pop the top, thin phillips screwdriver to the CMOS battery to pop the old one out, pop the new one in and button her up. Heck, you can buy 2 CMOS batteries for a buck at the dollar tree. They'll last a year or more with the light usage that would be.
  - diroussel 5y ago
    Assuming the battery is not soldered in.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      In machines of this age, I don't think anyone would have considered soldering something in like that. That didn't happen until halfway through the 2000s.
      - drewzero1 5y ago
        Not exactly a CMOS chip, but the Dallas Semiconductor DS1287[1] real-time clock chip had a built-in battery that was notorious for failing. [1] https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2009-10-10-renovating-a-dallas-battery-chip.htm https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2009-10-10-renovat...
    - mdip 5y ago
      This model (and every other that I've seen, though, admittedly it's been a while since I've looked at a typical rack mount server) had an easily removed battery.
- mdip 5y ago
  I'm not sure what that engineer's reason specifically was, but I'll chock it up to laziness. The CMOS batteries, themselves, have a shelf life and for whatever reason, we probably had none of the specific size required on hand. Being that the device was on battery backup in a rack, it probably led to the engineer thinking "it'll never be rebooted, a label will do"
- jcpham2 5y ago
  Not all batteries on 486's are replaceable and serviceable. Yes, we've soldered airplane batteries to 486's to keep them running longer

dylan604 5y ago

Why not just replace the CMOS battery so you only have to do it once every 4th blue moon vs everytime the thing reboots?

BizarroLand 5y ago
You can even replace most CMOS batteries on a running machine without causing any issues. The power from the system will keep the BIOS set, and it's a 1 minute job for many servers, slide out the rack, pop the top, thin phillips screwdriver to the CMOS battery to pop the old one out, pop the new one in and button her up. Heck, you can buy 2 CMOS batteries for a buck at the dollar tree. They'll last a year or more with the light usage that would be.
- diroussel 5y ago
  Assuming the battery is not soldered in.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    In machines of this age, I don't think anyone would have considered soldering something in like that. That didn't happen until halfway through the 2000s.
    - drewzero1 5y ago
      Not exactly a CMOS chip, but the Dallas Semiconductor DS1287[1] real-time clock chip had a built-in battery that was notorious for failing. [1] https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2009-10-10-renovating-a-dallas-battery-chip.htm https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2009-10-10-renovat...
  - mdip 5y ago
    This model (and every other that I've seen, though, admittedly it's been a while since I've looked at a typical rack mount server) had an easily removed battery.
mdip 5y ago
I'm not sure what that engineer's reason specifically was, but I'll chock it up to laziness. The CMOS batteries, themselves, have a shelf life and for whatever reason, we probably had none of the specific size required on hand. Being that the device was on battery backup in a rack, it probably led to the engineer thinking "it'll never be rebooted, a label will do"
jcpham2 5y ago
Not all batteries on 486's are replaceable and serviceable. Yes, we've soldered airplane batteries to 486's to keep them running longer