PW_Ranger, what are you talking about? Clearing the CMOS resets your BIOS! Your computer won't become rubbish, it'll just boot with default settings.
joshd: yeah, the battery is there to keep the CMOS alive while there is no power, and it does last very long. However it's not rechargeable, so eventually it will run out.
This just happened to my girlfriend's computer. She's used the computer like twice in the past two years (the horror!), so it was off all the time. The CMOS was thus relying on the battery to save the BIOS settings. What ended up happening? The battery died. So now every time she turns off her computer and then reboots, the BIOS is reseted.
joshd: yeah, the battery is there to keep the CMOS alive while there is no power, and it does last very long. However it's not rechargeable, so eventually it will run out.
This just happened to my girlfriend's computer. She's used the computer like twice in the past two years (the horror!), so it was off all the time. The CMOS was thus relying on the battery to save the BIOS settings. What ended up happening? The battery died. So now every time she turns off her computer and then reboots, the BIOS is reseted.