2032 Battery on Mobos

How Often Do you Change Your 2032 Battery in your MoBo

  • I change it every year or at a certain time I decide

    Votes: 2 4.9%
  • I don't change it

    Votes: 34 82.9%
  • What's a 2032 battery? I like Pie

    Votes: 5 12.2%

  • Total voters
    41
Only when there is a BIOS halt that complains about date/time. Usually seems to be 4 years. We started to have some of the older LGA 775 stuff started to complain at the office. Those computers are generally plugged in 24/7 so only after power outages a few complain.
 
Only when there is a BIOS halt that complains about date/time. Usually seems to be 4 years. We started to have some of the older LGA 775 stuff started to complain at the office. Those computers are generally plugged in 24/7 so only after power outages a few complain.

This pretty much.

I've had to replace the Li battery on two laptops and an old Socket A motherboard because they couldn't retain BIOS settings and the correct time anymore.

It got annoying because stuff I have activated would tell me I had to renew because of the incorrect system time.
 
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I'm not sure I've ever had to replace one, perhaps because most machines are always plugged in.
 
I've never had a motherboard battery go bad on me... and this goes all the way back to Apple IIe days.

Lucky I guess.
 
I have never replaced one. Oldest system I still use has P45 board in it, so decently old.
 
I am thinking never and I am talking about 100s of machines between work and home and 17+ years at the current job. Although I have seen a few 10 year old machines with bad batteries but by that time its time to scrap the system..
 
It's been well over a decade since I've come across a dead CMOS battery. Even then, I've done it only once or twice total.

Personally I don't support the idea of changing it yearly. That's irresponsible. The material used for these batteries is limited and toxic - they shouldn't be discarded with significant useful life left just because of someone's OCD. Not saying you should go to jail for doing so, but regardless, don't do it.
 
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I only change it when the board complains about it/won't keep settings/time.

I've actually seen a couple new Dell machines back in the P4 days that the battery that came in them from the factory was faulty. It didn't happen very often, but I did have to replace a few on machines that were still in warranty (less than a year old, up to about 2 years old).

I've also had to replace one or two in systems I have owned. Usually they were really old systems and it was not surprising at all that the battery went dead.

The CR2032 batteries are supposed to be good for about 7 years before they need replacing.
 
On a personal system I've never replaced the 2032 battery. I usually don't have a mb long enough for the battery to die.

Working on pcs I have seen the die. Usually it is after the 4+ year mark.
 
I don't think I've ever replaced one. I have 2 P45 boards that are probably 6-8 years old and still working fine. Realistically you should never have to replace the bios battery over the life of the board.
 
On a personal system I've never replaced the 2032 battery. I usually don't have a mb long enough for the battery to die.

Working on pcs I have seen the die. Usually it is after the 4+ year mark.

The 4 year mark is a big one for many things... ;)
 
I've had many a p4 system have good batteries still, I've changed a few but bad batteries are not a common issue that I run into
 
Crap poll.
It doesnt include the one method that is most likely to be used.
Change it when it causes a problem or goes flat.
They last anywhere from a year to well over 5 years.
 
I had to change one in a customer's system once. I had just put the system on my bench, hooked it up, and pulled the cover off, getting it ready to troubleshoot. Turned it on and was waiting for it to boot when the phone rang. While I was talking to a customer on the phone the system exploded! I'm not talking about a -plink-, it was like someone fired a shotgun right next to my head. Scared the bejesus out of me! The whole shop filled with smoke. I yanked the power plug out of it and told the customer I was (still) talking to that I would have to call him back and everybody bugged out. After the shop aired out I checked out the PC to find that the battery had exploded. Bits and pieces of the battery were all over the inside of the computer but surprisingly there was no real damage. Replaced the battery and the system booted up and I was able to continue with diagnostics. Wasn't a CR2032 though. This was back in the early '90s - the battery was in a black plastic box about the size of a AA battery.

The REALLY scary part? About two feet from my bench there was a wooden shelf at exactly my eye level when seated. Embedded about a quarter inch into that shelf was one whole side of the plastic case from that battery. If I had been leaning forward instead of back that piece would have probably hit me either in the temple or in the eye.

Never had that happen before or since (except for that one time when I watched my dad blow up a car battery he was trying to jump with the cables on backwards! :eek: Tried to tell him...)
 
That sounds like a fault developed in a rechargeable battery pack.

Yeah, IIRC, most mobos back then used rechargables, some used a plastic battery holder with AAs. Can't count the number of mobos I replaced because the soldered-on battery had corroded the traces around it. Or the ones with the soldered on (rather than socketed) Dallas chips (actually had the battery built into the chip package).

Damn, that was a long time ago.
 
Omg, I'm the only one who likes pie! Wtf! Anyways, the only time I ever changed one was for troubleshooting purposes.
 
I have changed one once a few years ago.... however, I have an ancient Blue & White G3 that is still running with the same battery that was in there the day I got it from Apple...and that was a L O N G time ago :)
 
I've only changed them on really old systems (well over 5 years old) when they needed them.
 
This thread has taken off nicely...wow... I'm amazed at how many haven't changed thier 2032's... well...I think people are replacing mobos more often today with all the new technology coming out... 3 years and you really don't need to change the battery..I'm thinking that 4th year though you probably should...
 
This thread has taken off nicely...wow... I'm amazed at how many haven't changed thier 2032's... well...I think people are replacing mobos more often today with all the new technology coming out... 3 years and you really don't need to change the battery..I'm thinking that 4th year though you probably should...

There's really no need if it's kept plugged in. And for the boards that are just sitting in the closet for years that might need a new one, most of the time you either keep letting them sit or you eventually plug those in for an extended period and set the bios/rtc only once. A fresh battery would be useful though for an older mobo that is constantly getting unplugged though.
 
I have a Dell Powerede 2500 from 1999 at work that has the stock battery in it. It still works fine so why replace it?
 
This thread has taken off nicely...wow... I'm amazed at how many haven't changed thier 2032's... well...I think people are replacing mobos more often today with all the new technology coming out... 3 years and you really don't need to change the battery..I'm thinking that 4th year though you probably should...

Why?
If the clock holds its time and the CMOS holds its data when the machine is off, there is no need to change it.
When the above issues occur, change the battery.
There is no pain or consequences if you leave it until needed.
 
I have an ancient Abit AMD Athlon board I pull out once in awhile to see if it still works for the hell of it.
It won't keep time so when I fire it up I have to manually change it to current.
It needs a new battery but since it's way past EOL I probably won't even bother.
 
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Why?
If the clock holds its time and the CMOS holds its data when the machine is off, there is no need to change it.
When the above issues occur, change the battery.
There is no pain or consequences if you leave it until needed.

Bingo, why change it if it is working as intended. :)
 
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