I got a phone call from a new business this week. When I arrived, the contact showed me the inside of their Dell computer. They tried changing the CMOS battery because a message said the battery was low. Somehow they broke the battery mount holder and a plastic piece was visible in the case. The battery isn’t held captive anymore and he said he tried to tape it. It won’t stay in the holder any longer.
The computer was taken back to my office and put on the workbench. It wouldn’t respond with any video signal and it just beeped meaning it had a hardware error. I considered removing the CMOS battery holder and reinstalling one from another computer. but felt it might be too risky. It would have required removing the motherboard from the case which has severai screws that had to be removed. And I’d have to do it to the replacement computer also. I would have needed to de-solder the holder and find a replacement.
Rather than waste time on this probably damaged motherboard, I found a similar Dell computer in my inventory and installed the two hard drives in it. The video card was moved over to the replacement computer as well. The client was using HDMI and the VGA signal for a dual monitor setup. I moved his two hard drives which was a SATA 500 gig the other one was a 500 gig IDE. I connected my VGA and HDMI monitors then powered on the computer. Everything worked and I was relieved Windows 10 saw and setup all the hardware from the new computer.
I delivered the new computer back to the client and they were pleased. They were informed I had no control if their printer will work or not.
