As a tech enthusiast, I’ve often wondered what can cause my computer to fail. After doing some research, I discovered that one of the possible culprits is an old or malfunctioning CMOS battery.
These batteries are responsible for maintaining the settings in your system’s BIOS, and if they aren’t working properly, it could lead to startup issues with your computer.
In this article, we’ll explore how a CMOS battery can prevent your computer from starting up and what you can do about it.
Let’s get started!
What Is CMOS Battery Used For?
A complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) is a small memory installed on the motherboard, and it stores basic input/ output system BIOS settings.
It can also be responsible for controlling your computer’s time, date or other basic features.
Can CMOS Battery Cause Computer Not Start
No, a dead or faulty CMOS battery cannot cause your computer to turn on. However, in a few cases, such as; if you’re a dual hard drive, it will cause a bootup issue on your PC.
Because a dead/faulty CMOS battery will cause the computer’s BIOS settings to reset. As the BIOS settings are responsible for booting up your PC.
When the BIOS settings are reset, you’ll not be able to set an appropriate boot drive. And the PC will try to boot up the default drive.
Suppose the OS system isn’t installed on the default drive; you’ll see a boot error. It can be solved by;
- Change CMOS battery
- Plugging the boot drive into the default slot.
- Selecting boot drive manually.
Replace CMOS
In this situation, you should take a look at the CMOS battery and ensure it isn’t dead. If the battery is dead, you should replace it with a new one.
Replacing the CMOS battery on your computer will help you to select the appropriate boot drive and boot your PC smoothly.
The replacement of the CMOS battery will cost you about $10-20; you can purchase it from manufacturers or online stores.
Plug boot drive to default
If you cannot replace the CMOS battery, the other way you can boot your PC is by plugging the boot drive into the default slot on the motherboard.
Most motherboards come with several M2 SATA slots that you can use to plug into a hard drive. You can check a default port on the motherboard by numbers.
A SATA3_0 is typically the default slot on your motherboard; you should remove your boot drive from the other slot and plug it into this default slot.
Whenever you face an issue with your CMOS battery and the boot drive isn’t in the default slot, you can follow the steps mentioned in this article.
Select boot drive
Another way to solve this problem is to manually select your boot drive from the BIOS menu whenever you turn your PC on.
In this way, your computer will be able to find the OS files and boot on your PC. You can follow the steps below:
In POST, press F1, F2, and Del keys from the keyboard (specific for different make & models) to access the boot settings.
After accessing the boot menu on your PC, you can select a drive that has an OS installed on it. And it will help you to boot up your PC smoothly.
Final Words
A CMOS battery cannot cause your computer to turn on. However, it can occur if you have multiple boot drives. And dead battery will cause BIOS settings to reset, and then you’ll not be able to select the correct boot drive.
When your PC doesn’t have access to an appropriate boot drive, it will not turn on. It can also cause wrong time, date, or time & date format issues.
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