The battery is polarizing



There’s a small round battery on the motherboard of your computer. What function does this battery provide?

A) Provides enough voltage to start the hard drives platters

B) Drives the power needed by the keyboard during the boot process

C) Maintains the computer CMOS BIOS configuration settings

D) Powers the LED lights used on the computer case

E) Plays my hip MP3 collection without starting the computer. Bust a move.


The answer: C) Maintains the computer’s BIOS configuration settings

While the computer isn’t powered, the configuration settings for the CMOS BIOS must be maintained. The battery is usually a small flat “button” battery.

Want to know more? Watch “BIOS and CMOS.”

We rely on the BIOS to test our computer and start our operating systems, but what is really happening under the surface? In this module, you’ll learn about the BIOS works and we’ll demonstrate the basics of starting and configuring BIOS settings.