Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Where’s my CMOS battery?
Q My Packard Bell OneTwo L5710 all-in-one PC is acting strangely, making me suspect a dying CMOS battery. It switches itself off after a period of use, or restarts during power up. It runs Windows 10 and has all the latest drivers. I removed the rear case to look for the CMOS battery, but there is no sign of one or even a slot for one. I’m baffled, but searching online has surfaced virtually no information about this model. Any ideas? With the case removed it appears there is provision for an SSD. Are you able to confirm this?
Tony Webb
A There’s more depth to your question than first appears. Let’s start with the apparent absence of a CMOS battery on the motherboard, which is used to maintain the BIOS settings when the power is off. Your PC dates back to 2009, so is around 13 years old now. That’s certainly beyond the expected life of a typical CMOS battery, where up to a decade would be expected.
We also struggled to find useful information about this model. The Packard Bell brand is long gone as a commercial entity, and the support site maintained by Acer – the firm that picked up the remnants – doesn't include much information. The one image we could find of what we think might be the motherboard does indeed appear to lack a battery or slot for one. But it’s also clear that this is a custom all-in-one motherboard, so perhaps Packard Bell integrated a small rechargeable component somewhere.
However, we don’t think that the problems you describe are typical of a dead CMOS cell. Rather, they could be indicative of a heat fault. As a self-preservation measure, a computer’s processor will typically shut down when it senses it’s getting too hot.
Alternatively, a loose power connection or cracked motherboard could cause
