Computer Battery

Why does my pc need a computer battery?

Most of our electrical stuff have a battery, and our computer has a computer battery aswell. In many cases the computer battery is implemented directly onto the motherboard, usually though, its in some kind of holder so its easily replaceable. And computers are not the only things that have small batteries like this, other electrical items like camcorders or for example digital cameras often have them too. Just about any gadget which keeps track of the time will have a computer battery.

What does a computer battery do?

Your computer battery powers a chip inside the computer that’s called the “Real Time Clock” or, the “RTC” chip. What this chip actually does, is run all the time whether your computer is turned on or turned off doesn’t matter. The computer battery is the little magic thing that powers this clock. When you press the on button, on your computer, part of the process is to query the RTC so that your PC gets the correct time and date.

The computer battery usually allows this little clockwork to run for about 5 years, after then, its about time to replace it.

Why won’t my computer start if the computer battery is flat?

This computer battery isn’t a critical component in itself, but the RTC chip is. The reason is that the chip contains 64 byte of “Random Access Memory” or “RAM” as its more commonly referred to. This is what your computer battery powers, the clock itself only uses around 10 bytes, leaving 54 for other purposes.

Your “BIOS” uses this space to store information like the number of hard disk drives, the hard disk types etc. If your computer battery isn’t functioning proper, the bios don’t know anything about the hard disk settings and therefore cannot boot up.