why can't a PC-laptop boot without datetime?

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨lystopad@mbin.twink.men⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

recently my laptop ran out of charge, and when i turned it on it beeped a few times and asked to set date in bios. but when my android phone has powered off suddenly, it successfully booted but with a nonsense date many years ago. why does a PC-laptop require setting date before booting the full OS?

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Lasherz12@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
TPM chip relies on it for security. If you’re not using that it would work but you’d still have network issues.

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- lystopad@mbin.twink.men ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  thank you! yes i have a tpm on the laptop
  
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__siru__@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I am fairly certain that I have had a PC before that had exactly the issue that the CMOS battery ran out. It was able to boot just fine, I just couldn’t get it to connect to the internet properly. Took me ages to figure out that the date and time in the OS were completely wrong, because I never really use my computer as a clock anyways.

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Toes@ani.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Sounds like a bad CMOS battery. They are typically a small cr2032 battery cell.

Your specific model should hopefully have a technicians manual or iFixit guide you can follow to fix it. If your computer is still under warranty they can fix it for you.

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- lystopad@mbin.twink.men ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  thank you, is there a way to check the cmos battery?
  
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  - Toes@ani.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They are about €1 for a small pack. So it’s easier to replace it than to test it directly.
    
    But if you mean to see if it’s the problem without taking it out.
    
    After running the computer for a few hours. Turn it off, unplug it from the mains and disconnect the main battery for 24 hours. Connect the main battery and power it on, go directly to the bios and see if the time and date are still correct.
    
    If they are not, it’s likely a bad CMOS battery.
    
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unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Are you sure there was no way to just skip that dialogue? It makes sense that it would ask about it, in case the device is supposed to run offline while still having a correct date/time set. It usually allows you to just hit Esc or some F key to continue booting tho. Might just be an odd BIOS.

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BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The BIOS on that is clearly a bit odd, I haven’t seen that as a requirement before. That said, the BIOS battery is probably dead. Replace that and it should fix the issue.

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