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CMOS Battery

CMOS is a type of memory on a computer motherboard that stores BIOS settings like the system time and date. It is powered by a small lithium coin cell battery, typically a CR2032 battery. Signs that the CMOS battery needs replacing include incorrect time/date and loss of BIOS settings. Replacing the dead battery restores power to the CMOS and prevents loss of settings when the computer is powered off.

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1K views

CMOS Battery

CMOS is a type of memory on a computer motherboard that stores BIOS settings like the system time and date. It is powered by a small lithium coin cell battery, typically a CR2032 battery. Signs that the CMOS battery needs replacing include incorrect time/date and loss of BIOS settings. Replacing the dead battery restores power to the CMOS and prevents loss of settings when the computer is powered off.

Uploaded by

SRL MECH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CMOS battery

Introduction

CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) is the term usually used to


describe the small amount of memory on a computer motherboard that stores the BIOS
settings.
The CMOS is usually powered by a CR2032 cell battery. Most CMOS batteries
will last the lifetime of a motherboard (up to 10 years in most cases) but will sometimes
need to be replaced. Incorrect or slow system date and time and loss of BIOS settings are
major signs of a dead or dying CMOS battery.
CMOS is an acronym for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS are used
as a simple form of memory on a computer motherboard. The CMOS holds user
customizable information. Items such as passwords, the time, the date and drive
configurations. CMOS is also known as BIOS Memory.

CMOS is used as a form of nonvolatile memory. It needs power supplied to it in


order to maintain the data that is stored in it. The CMOS battery is that power source.

BIOS are another one of those pesky computer acronyms it stands for Basic
Input/Output System. The BIOS is started with the power switch. Once you have
powered your computer up, the BIOS takes over. It reads information from the CMOS
and from, possibly a ROM (Read Only Memory) or EPROM (Erasable Programmable
Read Only Memory). It begins to initialize components on the motherboard.

It starts the clock generator, the processor(s), the PCI (Peripheral Component
Interconnect) slots, and gives them their bus numbers and tells them which resources
have been allocated to them, it starts the memory controller, then loads itself into memory
and continues on. Next the I/O controller is started. The video is started and then the IDE
(Integrated Drive Electronics) and SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)
controllers. It then reads the boot sector on the first start up device in the list and allows
that drive to take over control of starting the computer.
Without the CMOS, or its battery, the BIOS would not have enough information
to start a computer. If you start losing the date or the time on your computer, or you start
getting drive error messages, it may just be time for a new CMOS battery. They are fairly
inexpensive and can be purchased even at your local Wal Mart store.

The most commonly used CMOS battery in the desktop or tower computers today
is the CR2032 Lithium battery.

The memory and real-time clock are generally powered by a CR2032 lithium coin cell.


These cells last two to ten years, depending on the type of motherboard, ambient
temperature and the length of time that the system is powered off, while other common
cell types can last significantly longer or shorter periods, such as the CR2016 which will
generally last about 40% less than CR2032. Higher temperatures and longer power-off
time will shorten cell life. When replacing the cell, the system time and CMOS BIOS
settings may revert to default values. This may be avoided by replacing the cell with the
power supply master switch on. On ATX mother boards, this will supply 5V power to the
motherboard even if it is apparently "switched off", and keep the CMOS memory
energized. In general one should not work on a computer that is powered.

Some computer designs have used non-button cell batteries, such as the cylindrical "1/2
AA" used in the Power Mac G4 as well as some older IBM PC compatibles, or a 3-cell
NiCd CMOS battery that looks like a "barrel" (common in Amigas and older IBM PC
compatibles), which serves the same purpose.

Resetting the CMOS settings

To access the BIOS setup when the machine fails to operate, occasionally a
drastic move is required. In older computers with battery-backed RAM, removal of the
battery and short circuiting the battery input terminals for a while did the job; in some
more modern machines this move only resets the RTC. Some motherboards offer a
CMOS-reset jumper or a reset button. In yet other cases, the EEPROM chip has to be
desoldered and the data in it manually edited using a programmer. Sometimes it is
enough to ground the CLK or DTA line of the I²C bus of the EEPROM at the right
moment during boot, this requires some precise soldering on SMD parts. If the machine
lets you boot but does not want to let you into the BIOS setup, one possible recovery is to
deliberately "damage" the CMOS checksum by doing direct port writes
using DOS debug.exe, corrupting some bytes of the checksum-protected area of the
CMOS RAM; at the next boot, the computer typically resets its setting to factory defaults.

Difference between the CMOS and BIOS

CMOS is a semiconductor chip of SRAM (Static Random Access Memory);


while BIOS is executable code stored in ROM.

The CMOS chip is an ultra low power memory that can retain its data with only a
simple watch type battery for a long time. Computers often store hardware configuration
information in CMOS RAM.

BIOS are the programming that a computer uses during power on to get booted. It
is also often the interface between the software and the hardware. BIOS used to be stored
in read-only memory (ROM), and as such, was unchangeable; but more recently, BIOS is
stored on an EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory); this
allows for the ability to upgrade the BIOS code to provide support for changes in
technology, or repair bugs discovered in the older code.

BIOS = Basic Input Output System 

CMOS = Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor 

BIOS is the interface which is built-in to a computer system's firmware used to


configure the computer system hardware in very basic ways. BIOS can be used to enable
or disable hardware integrated into the motherboard such as IDE controllers, USB hosts,
audio controllers, video, and more. 

It is often accessed by pressing F2 during startup, but this can change from
manufacturer to manufacturer.

CMOS is a type of battery often used to power the circuit which allows the
information in BIOS to be stored. If the CMOS battery is drained or removed all the
system configuration data in BIOS will be reset to factory defaults every time the
computer is shut off. CMOS batteries are also commonly used in calculators, hearing
aides, and wristwatches. 

Due to the close relationship between BIOS and the CMOS battery in the
computer system, the two phrases are often incorrectly used as synonyms for each other.
Some users will refer to opening the BIOS menu as "going into CMOS" or replacing the
CMOS battery as "fixing the BIOS battery." However, none of this is seen as
grammatically incorrect in common day-to-day conversation.

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