Hi Guys, I'm in the process of moving to Texas, & my desktop PC has been in a box for awhile, due to real estate SNAFU. I'm concerned that the little battery inside the PC may become drained. 1. Will just plugging the PC in (not turning it on) re-charge it? 2. Should the battery be dead, how can I "easily" restore the settings? The PC has been in the box (no power) since 2/25 Thanks Rico
Do not think the CMOS battery is of the rechargeable type. If the BIOS settings are at factory default, then other then resetting the time\date, you should not have any problems. The battery life varies from one to another. Also the ambient temp. of where it is stored. Cold reduces battery life. Overall age of the PC\battery has more bearing then what is a relativley short storage period.
I would not worry about it. These batteries generally do not leak or explode or anything like that. That's a big if, and not likely the case. By removing the battery - or should the battery fail, the BIOS is reset. But that affects more than just the date and time. You may also have to enable on-board sound, networking, video, and other on-board devices that may be disabled by default. So my advice is to just leave it. Then on first power up at your new location, boot directly into the BIOS Setup menu and verify the date/time, drives are properly identified. At this time, you can also move through the menu options to ensure any used on-board devices are enabled. Note that should the battery die, they are only a couple dollars at your local battery/camera/watch counter. Typically, they are CR2032, but take the old one with you - most counters will recycle the old to keep them out of the landfills.
Are we talking the 25th of February 2009 or 2008? If 2009 you should be ok. If you receive a checksum error on boot up then you may have to replace the batt.
