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Old November 9th 09, 12:46 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.setup
John Dulak
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Posts: 101
Default CMOS battery in laptop is dead, can I use MS-DOS date & timecommands?

SlickRCBD wrote:
The CMOST battery in an old laptop of mine is dead. I need to be able
to open & edit Word documents away from computers once a week for the
rest of the month. It's not worth it to shell out several hundred
dollars for a new laptop when this is the first time I've needed this
one in years. Is there any reason why I can't stick a batch file in
my startup items folder in Win98 First Edition with two lines
date
time
to prompt me to set the date and time like some of my friends used to
have to do with their MS-DOS systems when I was a child? The default
settings for the laptop seem to work just fine, the only problem I
see with the dead CMOS battery is the messed up clock. Is there
anything else I might not be noticing? When I've checked Setup (hit f2
to enter setup) everything except the clock looks fine.

Oh, should I use startup items or edit the traditional autoexec.bat? I
can't recall if that gets used by default, or only when booting to MS-
DOS mode.


SlickRCBD:

The referance to a batch file, or the equilivant commands themselves,
in Autoexec.bat should work just fine for now since you say the
default CMOS settings work for you. Windows 98 does not REQUIRE an
Autoexec.bat file but will use one if it is present. Legacy hardware
often required configuration parameters and the install program would
put them there for Windows to use.

You may be able to change the CMOS battery in the laptop yourself. See
if you can track down a SERVICE manual for your make and model. The
most difficult pare is often figguring out how to get it appart.

HTH & GL

John
--
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'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - 40.4913ºN,79.904ºW - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6