Computer problem

[elissaann]

Dear LJ Friends, who know everything,

When I turn my computer off and unplug it, it forgets what time and day it is. When I leave it plugged in, it remembers. This has been going on for a few months. How can I tell it to remember the time?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[wcg]

There's a little battery on your motherboard that provides the computer with electrical power when it's unplugged so that it will remember the time. My suspicion is the battery has died. It's basically a watch battery. The trick, of course, is that you have to get to the motherboard to replace it.

[fourgates]

+1

[pir_anha]

+1

[flarenut]

Sometimes they're shaped like watch batteries, sometimes like little cylinders. The bad news is that sometimes they're soldered in, and getting them out can be more trouble than it's worth. You can also tell the machine to query an NTP (network time protocol) server more often, or even on startup. (Details of that will vary with your operating system, and should probably be handled by a local geek.)

[necturus]

Is this a laptop or a desktop computer?