CMOS battery replacement in Dell Inspiron 4100

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi everyone,

I have a Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop that has recently stopped keeping
track of time and this morning it forgot I had a CD-ROM drive. On a
desktop this would be a problem with the CMOS battery going dead, but
what I am running into is that the Inspiron 4100 doesn't have a CMOS
battery. Since the CMOS information is stored in nonvolatile memory
on this particular model, how would I "recharge" the long-term power
source for the nonvolatile memory?

Thanks in advance,
Isaac

--
Are you losing $14,200 per year without your knowledge?
http://bigmoneyandfreetime.web1000.com

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Sounds like one of those Dallas CMOS chip deals (or similar). Think of it
as a chip that includes the CMOS + clock+ battery all built into a tiny
chip, then "manufactured" onto the motherboard. The idea is that these
battery will last thru many years - and the machine will be obsolete and
retired long before that. But of course, these components are nickel &
dime nowadays, and failures are to be expected.

If you call the Dell folks, they'll keep insisting it's the CMOS battery
(or give you the runaround that Windows or something else could've caused
it and get you to try and fix it). It's a waste of time.

There's no good fix for this. Like having a car with a bad cd player but
to replace the cd player you've gotta replace the car...