this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Itβs possible they had a dead BIOS battery, and whenever they had to boot up, they had to reset the BIOS clock, or the system would go haywire thinking it was Jan 1, 1992 or whatever the default date was.
That is the answer.
Some boards will prompt you to press the key to enter the BIOS as the only option when the CMOS battery is flat. Whether or not you set the clock, you still have to enter the bios to boot.
The battery is a standard CR2032, so it's easy to replace, but it's not something that most people experience, so it's not common knowledge.
Personally I went about 6 months doing the same thing before I even bothered googling "how much does a CMOS battery cost" because it was an old pc anyway.
Some boards position their battery in really awkward and annoying places that force you to remove components to get to it. A real pain... don't make me remove the CPU cooler just to get to the battery... >.>'
Dell seem to be the worst at it. You cannot access any component without removing every other component.
I seem to remember at one point I had a computer where you couldn't easily access the RAM unless you removed the graphics card. Because one of the RAM clips couldn't be undone because it literally hit the graphics card.
Really? Their laptops (Latitude, at least) are some of the most serviceable ones I've ever seen, only second to Thinkpads.
Perhaps their laptops are ok but their prebuilt PCs (they type you parents buy without research) are awful cost cutting junk.
When companies go out of their way to make designs that are as obtuse as possible just for the sake of doing so, it's especially aggravating. Like pre-built PCs that solder their components on or disable elements so that you can't upgrade them.
I worked for Dell tech support in the 90s. sometimes that arcane troubleshooting knowledge still comes in handy!
I had taken out the CMOS on my PC battery when I was a kid so that it would reset the time every startup and I could use the 30 day test version of windows and other programs indefinitely.
Yeah, I think it was because the CMOS was dead. But not sure because I don't have the computer anymore. Thanks for the answer
oh, Iβm so glad I could scratch that memory itch!
it was a problem form another time. but, honestly, Iβm so glad to be able to answer a tech support issue from, what, 20 years ago? yay!