# "system battery voltage is low" message on bootup



## darkosmo

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 PC, XP Professional w/ SP2.

The problem i am having is, about 9 out of 10 times when i start up my computer, it first goes to a black screen that says at the top:

"Alert! System battery voltage is low." and says to press F1 to continue, or F2 to go to setup. I don't really know what I could do in setup to fix this, and when I just hit F1 it seems to start up fine, and the computer seems to work perfectly fine once I get past that, but I am worried that it might be something I want to address so that it doesn't become something more serious.

If I was on a laptop or something I would think that there was something wrong with the battery, but it is just a PC, plugged in to the wall, and I wasn't even aware that it had a battery of any kind. 

So, does anyone know what this means, or what I can do about it? Let me know if you need any more information and I will try to figure it out. Thanks.


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## Nik00117

Its your BIOS battery, gotta replace it. 

BIOS has a battery on it, and its what keeps the ROM with the BIOS on it with power even when the PC is shut off. I hihgly suggest you get that new BIOS battery asap. 

If your not sure what a BIOS battery is/where its located I suggest taking it to a shop.


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## dai

you will see it when you look at the m/b bright shiny silver about 1/2 inch in diameter


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## darkosmo

okay thanks a lot, i will try to get that fixed then. any idea what the consequences might be if i didn't get it replaced soon enough?


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## robert diggs

Hey,

There aren't any consequences perse, more so annoyances. Windows checks the time against your BIOS, this CMOS battery holds the time, so your time will be off no matter how many times you fix it. It holds all of your CMOS configuration (boot order, overclocking). So, you'll constantly have to fix that. It's about a $2.00 battery and it's very easy to replace. Like DAI said, it looks like a quarter and it's on the motherboard. If it does not pop out easily, DO NOT FORCE IT. Take it to a shop and let someone else do it.

Regards,

Brandon


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## linesman

http://www.smartcomputing.com/Edito...cle=articles/2004/w1510/32w10/32w10.asp&guid= 

instructions how to change the battery ,with pictures


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## charlton916

Hi, 
I also seem to having this issue also. My friend actually helped me to replace the battery with a brand new one and yet my computer still shows the low battery message during the startup. Is there a particular reason to why this is still happening?


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