{"id":167,"date":"2018-08-23T07:01:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T11:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2018-08-22T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T18:30:35","slug":"a-reader-asks-is-there-a-hidden-timer-on-the-mainboard-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/23\/a-reader-asks-is-there-a-hidden-timer-on-the-mainboard-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"A reader asks: Is there a hidden timer on the mainboard? (Yes!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q:\u00a0 “Is there a timer on the motherboard after the PC has been completely drained of power?” <\/strong>(via Quora<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>A:\u00a0Yes, usually.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Many systems have a small cell or battery on the mainboard to\u00a0power\u00a0a few basic, internal housekeeping functions. These functions stay alive even when the rest of the system is\u00a0shut down and switched off, with the plug pulled.<\/p>\n

For example, the battery provides the trickle of power needed to keep the internal system clock running (there’s your timer!); to refresh the memory locations where volatile\/custom\u00a0system settings are stored; and so on.<\/p>\n

Mainboard batteries typically last at least several years.\u00a0But I’ve had some last for many<\/em> years, sitting unused in a closet with the battery-powered mainboard clock\/timer ticking away all that time.<\/p>\n

(One way to tell a mainboard battery is dying is when a system can’t keep time between uses; or forgets things like which disk type it’s connected to.)<\/p>\n

And note: If\/when you want<\/strong> to purge a conventional mainboard of all prior operational memory — including time, date, system settings, and so on — just\u00a0find and remove the mainboard battery. Within a few tens of seconds (the time it takes various system capacitances to dissipate)\u00a0the mainboard will then be 100% dead; all volatile data and settings gone.<\/p>\n

Permalink:\u00a0https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-2H<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0(Ask your\u00a0question\/Contact Fred via the CONTACT link at the top of the page)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q:\u00a0 “Is there a timer on the motherboard after the PC has been completely drained of power?” (via Quora) \u00a0A:\u00a0Yes, usually. \u00a0Many systems have a small cell or battery on the mainboard to\u00a0power\u00a0a few basic, internal housekeeping functions. These functions stay alive even when the rest of the system is\u00a0shut down and switched off, with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-2H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2040,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/14\/a-reader-asks-how-do-i-unfreeze-my-laptop-ive-pressed-ctrl-shift-del-but-it-did-not-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “How do I unfreeze my laptop? I’ve pressed ctrl-shift-del but it did not work.”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-02-14","format":false,"excerpt":"If a laptop is completely unresponsive to normal keys and switches, your only option is to kill the power. Try pressing and holding down the PC's power button for 15 seconds or so: Many electronic devices (not just PCs) will perform a forced power-off after the power button is continuously\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3982,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/10\/does-leaving-stopwatch-constantly-running-on-your-smartphone-drain-its-battery-significantly-faster-or-is-it-not-a-big-deal\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":1},"title":"“Does leaving stopwatch constantly running on your smartphone drain its battery significantly faster, or is it not a big deal?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-01-10","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Nikola Cvetanovski) It's probably not significant, but that really depends on a host of variables. Let's try a thought experiment, where you can make assumptions about the variables: Let's say the phone is on, but with the screen off. No non-system software is running (ie no other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4975,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/14\/computers-have-an-internal-battery-for-the-clock-to-keep-it-running-even-when-the-computer-has-no-power-why-do-stoves-not-have-this-feature\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":2},"title":"“Computers have an internal battery for the clock to keep it running even when the computer has no power. Why do stoves not have this feature?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-05-14","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Reese Horn) The batteries in PC aren't just for the internal clock; that tiny trickle of power also helps the turned-off PC to \"remember\" some basic information about its hardware components, so it will know what to do right away, when the power comes on. If the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1062,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/15\/a-reader-asks-why-do-files-on-an-external-hard-drive-run-slower-than-files-on-my-internal-hard-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: Why do files on an external hard drive run slower than files on my internal hard drive?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-11-15","format":false,"excerpt":"A reader asks: \"Why do files on an external hard drive run slower than files on my internal hard drive (not SSD)?\" They use two very different means of connection, and the speeds aren't even close. Internal drives usually connect directly to the mainboard via purpose-built high-speed interfaces meant specifically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3629,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/22\/what-was-the-most-weird-computer-you-have-ever-used\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":4},"title":"“What was the most weird computer you have ever used?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-10-22","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Chris Fisher) Hmmm. Several come to mind. There were a series of early Soviet-era PC clones I saw in Russia and Hungary in the early 90's, shortly before the USSR dissolved. Many of the computers were in the \"close but no cigar\" category, superficially emulating Western PCs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IBMPCprototypemainbooard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5686,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/from-bad-to-worse-a-repair-goes-awry\/","url_meta":{"origin":167,"position":5},"title":"From bad to worse: A repair goes awry","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2021-05-10","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, well-intentioned repairs can actually make things worse than before. That\u2019s what happened to a reader who was trying to correct a Windows login error but ended up with a completely unbootable PC! Is it possible for him to get Windows running again with its already installed software still intact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}