HP d530 losing time and date

[jonnoaus69]

I've had a d530 for a few years & it's worked fine.  My op system is Windows XP Professional. In the last week it has twice not booted up to Windows.  (I switch it off at night to save power). Instead it goes to setup and says that the hardware has lost the clock's time and date.  It tells me that maybe the onboard battery is failing.  Once I re-enter the time and date, it boots up to Windows OK.  In between theese two failures it has booted up OK.

I have no idea where the onboard battery is and how I can replace it.  Can someone help please?

[James652]

The onboard battery is a little circular battery. 

It should look like this 

http://www.technibble.com/articlecontent/2007/12/remove-battery.jpg

They are usually CR2032, and you can use the ones you buy in shop.

But first, make sure your battery is in propally, as my desktop had a bios battery issue, which was resolved by making sure the battery was in propally.

[jonnoaus69]

Hi: thanks for the info.  However, where do I find the battery in the PC, that is, which part do I open to retrive it?  I'm not really a tecchie!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Below is a picture of the d530 CMT motherboard. The SFF motherboard looks the same, except for the heat sink/fan.

What you need to replace as posted above, is the coin cell battery, which is that silver circular thing appearing in the upper left side of the picture.

Below is the link to the service manual. Please refer to chapter 6, section 6.15 for the procedure on removing the battery.

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00072736/c00072736.pdf

Paul

[jonnoaus69]

Hi: Thanks for your reply.  It's taken time for me to come back as a local computer guy (who's really an Apple specialist) neverthelesss put me onto a couple of sources.  But it's sort of raised more Qs than As.  I've got a full download of the d530 Service Reference Guide.  I've found that my chassis type is SFF (Small Form Factor) [i.e, a flatbed rather than a tower] rather than CMT as in your photo. 

A couple of things bothering me: the guide says before you remove the battery "it is important to back up the computer CMOS settings........refer to the Troubleshooting Guide for  information on backing up [these]'"(I don't have this guide).

But the local guy pointed me to another forum-type page (it's on Yahoo!, not HP) where people say all you lose is time and date, and that's what I've been having to re-insert anyway.

However, some people say you will lose lots more if you take the old battery out, take it to a store to find replacement then come back half an hour or more later, that it's better to have the new one ready before taking the old one out.

There are also some serious warnings (in the service manual) about static electricity and grounding yourelf (!) before opening the case.  Bit of a puzzle to me..

Re the battery type for this model I've seen it quoted as CR2302 OR 2032.

I'm still a bit nervous about this, but want to go to shops tomorrow (Friday) to try and get the replacement.  Any comment on the above would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is no real need for concern.

More than likely you have not made any changes to the BIOS and the settings (other than the time and date) will be the default settings and you will be fine.

The only thing you will need to do is to reset the date and time.  You will not lose anything else.

I would definitely have the new battery ready to go, and follow all the precautions and steps in replacing it. Don't take the battery out and then go an buy another one. You can open the case and get the number off the battery since the number will be facing up, then go get one and then remove and replace the battery.

I have never had any issues with static electricity. Just keep touching the case every now and then and don't shuffle your feet or anything. I think the battery # you need is CR2032.

The hardest part will be to make sure you can remove the battery from the holder without breaking the clips that hold it in.

Be careful with that is all I can say.

Paul