System Battery Low Warning

[Bruce Johnson]

On one of my shop computers, a Dell 8200, I'm getting a warning during boot-up of "Alert! System Battery Low. Press F1 To Continue".

I haven't been able to find any info about what this is. Is the System Battery the small battery onboard the motherboard? If so, is there anything special about replacing it? Does the Bios get erased when you pull it out?

[Steve Conner]

Yes, it's the lithium coin cell on the motherboard.

Yes, the CMOS settings (not the BIOS itself, which is in ROM) may get erased or corrupted. This is less likely if you're quick whipping the old battery out and the new one in. But since the battery is going flat, the CMOS is going to get corrupted anyway.

Top tip: Try not to touch the new battery with bare hands. The grease from your skin is slightly conductive and will cut the battery life a little. (Or maybe this is just an urban myth )

Modern computers have an autodetect routine in BIOS that will automatically set up all the hard disk, CPU and memory settings anyway. Probably all you'll have to do is reset the real-time clock.

[Bruce Johnson]

Thanks, Steve!

After I posted, I found the "factory" instructions on Dell's site. It took some digging, but it's in the Manuals section of Support. Duh!

Essentially they tell you to bring up the System Setup Program first, and write down the settings. Then you swap the battery (with a non-conductive prying device). Restart, and check the settings, redoing them if needed.

Here's the page: Documentation

Something I learned: If you unplug the computer, then press the Start button while touching the metal frame (or the ground lug of the cord plug), you've static discharged all of the innards.