Windows 7: Battery Meter shows CMOS battery not charging

pramit · 07 Dec 2012

I have just replaced my CMOS/BIOS battery today, as , I have faced some critical problem regarding regular BIOS date/time reset after system shutdown. But I want to know how do i recognize, that my new batter is totally ok or functional.

Battery Meter gadget shows that "battery Not charging"
Is it a gadget problem?

Is there any method available so that I can track that my new installed CMOS battery in PC is working fine?

Please help me.

Dwarf · 07 Dec 2012

The battery you have replaced is solely there to maintain the clock and other BIOS settings (if you have changed them from their defaults). It will not prevent you from booting your system if it is dead/missing; all it means is that you will have to enter the BIOS each time and make the correct settings and time. This battery is not rechargeable.

Do you still have to enter the correct time, or is the BIOS maintaining this now you've changed the battery?

**Pauly** · 07 Dec 2012

The only way to check a battery is to place test meter on battery terminals to see if it still has charge, probably best done out of motherboard, 1.5V = good, much below this = bad

pramit · 07 Dec 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by Dwarf

The battery you have replaced is solely there to maintain the clock and other BIOS settings (if you have changed them from their defaults). It will not prevent you from booting your system if it is dead/missing; all it means is that you will have to enter the BIOS each time and make the correct settings and time. This battery is not rechargeable.

Do you still have to enter the correct time, or is the BIOS maintaining this now you've changed the battery?

Thank you for your reply.I will confirm it tomorrow, because, previously, I used to change my BIOS regularly as the changes made in BIOS cannot be held due to the battery failure, after immediate restart or shutdown the old battery kept all the bios changes but not after several hours(say 5-6 hrs). So I will confirm tomorrow.

But as you have advised, the Motherbaord battery just holding the correct information of BIOS, so is there no option to check( say gadget or software or trick) before it gets completely damaged causing the loss of BIOS current settings?

alphanumeric · 07 Dec 2012

The CMOS/BIOS battery is isolated from the OS. The OS has no way to read the voltage or status of the battery without the necessary circuitry being added to the motherboard. I don't know of any motherboard manufacturers that currently do this. The BIOS will notify you of a possible CMOS battery problem with a checksum error or BIOS settings lost error message. That's as good as it gets at the moment. Those battery gadgets are for monitoring the main battery in a laptop. If your running one of those on your desktop PC it will show not charging because there is no battery. Not as far as its concerned anyway.

pramit · 07 Dec 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by alphanumeric

The CMOS/BIOS battery is isolated from the OS. The OS has no way to read the voltage or status of the battery without the necessary circuitry being added to the motherboard. I don't know of any motherboard manufacturers that currently do this. The BIOS will notify you of a possible CMOS battery problem with a checksum error or BIOS settings lost error message. That's as good as it gets at the moment. Those battery gadgets are for monitoring the main battery in a laptop. If your running one of those on your desktop PC it will show not charging because there is no battery. Not as far as its concerned anyway.

OK, Thanks, got the exact point, many thanks for help. This thread can be closed now.