Bios not retaining settings

Hi Folks,

Sorry I don't have the full specs for the PC in question (I don't have it in my possesion to find out, although I have had it before), I hope you may be able to offer some ideas though.

Basically it's an old Packard Bell running a P4 or maybe a P4D, it has 2 gig PC3200 ram occupying the 2 ram slots available, an 80 Gb IDE Drive and a dedicated Graphics card on AGP (I think).

Basically, the PC started to forget some if not all of it's Bios settings. This info I've gleaned from the PC owner as she has to re-set the time and date every time she starts up the PC (she does this via XP Clock after it's booted).

I changed the cmos battery for a brand new one, and this I thought had solved the problem. However, a month later the symptoms have re-appeared.

I will be replacing the battery again (could have been a dodgy one?), but I'd like to get some pertinent info should there be another issue.

The owner has stated that she thinks the problem started after she upgraded her monitor to and LED one, could this be an issue?

When not using the PC it is shutdown and powered off at the wall, given the PC is used daily for approx 2 or 3 hours, could this be an issue?

Is it possible that some hardware is draining the battery at a rate that is not normal?

Anything else I should be considering?

Many thanks in advance

Phil

It will quite possibly turn out to be a bad battery. When you replace it, give the contacts in the battery holder a good rub, in case there is a bit of corrosion in there.

Hopefully that's all it is, but if it keeps draining the battery very quickly, it is usually a sign that a motherboard component has failed, and there really isn't a lot you can do about it other than constantly replace batteries. It wouldn't be worth replacing the mobo in a PC that old.

Thanks for the prompt response.

Lets hope it is just the battery

Thanks again

phil