internal clock issues

Question

I figured this might have something to do with bios so ill post it here

about a week ago I spilled a little water on my laptop, shut it down, took it apart, let it dry, and then turned it back on a few days later and everything looked and worked fine. Now I am starting to notice a few things that have sprung up with the computer's clock which I am sure is related to the spillage.

when I turned the computer on for the first time after the incident the computer's clock read december 7th or something like that, so fixing that was the first thing I did, but apparantly it didn't fix the underlying problem.

the start menu informs my that I have new programs installed which I have installed months ago and also norton tells me everyday that my definitions are out of date yet when I try to run liveupdate I get a message saying that it could not connect to the symtantec server and to make sure that my computer's clock settings are correct (which they now are)

I read a few forums talking about a busted cmos battery...could this be the case?
if so where is it on a 5150 and how do I replace it?

NemesisDB · Answer

i don't think it's mentioned in the service docs actually...  i believe that dell sells it as part of the mainboard, so i'm not sure if you're going to have problems finding a replacement or not...

tyrack · Answer

could you send me a link or something of where this thing is after I remove the keyboard? is it in plain sight? thanks for posting

bacillus · Answer

You will have to remove your keyboard in order to access the CMOS battery.

tyrack · Answer

thanks a lot, but im not even entirely convinced it actually is the cmos which is causing the issue, id obviously like to replace it if possible to test the theory but it sounds like I might not be able to. Could it possibly be anything else?

NemesisDB · Answer

that would do it ...  if the clock time doesn't reset or loose time when the primary battery and AC is removed, then the CMOS battery is likely fine

tyrack · Answer

an embarrassing post...

I opened up another program that said something was 343 days old....
I forgot to change the year along with the time and date, so I expect thats whats been giving me problems.

my bad
thanks anyway

bacillus · Answer

Don't consider your post embarrassing as it adds to the all-round general knowledge within these forums.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

internal clock issues

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