quote:
Originally posted by Napbree
All the CMOS battery does, is powers the little bios chip to stop it from dying (am i right?)
depends on what you mean by "dying"
If the battery is removed or empty, all bios settings in the CMOS are lost. You'll probably notice this first by looking at your clock, because the hardware clock will start from 0:00 every time you boot.
At least that's how it used to be in earlier days
Modern PCs often have a 5V standby voltage, which can also power the CMOS, so as long as they are plugged in and the PSU is switched on, they will keep their settings, even without a CMOS battery. (I use this 5v standby voltage to charge my phone through USB while my pc is turned off)
The PC will function, regardless of the amount of energy left in the CMOS battery.
edit: On topic
: roflmao, to be able to test all pins on you power supply, take a look at
this article for info on how to "power it on" without having it plugged in your mainboard (I destroyed my mainboard once while trying to measure the PSU while it was still attached to my mainboard... spark, poof
)
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