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Issue

An old laptop computer with XP loses date every time it boots. It has no more battery pack so it has to be plugged permanently in to wall.

What I already tried

  • Replaced the little button shaped 3V battery (2 times) but system still lose time.
  • Checked 3V battery's jumper correctly set.
  • Set up NTP to the nearest server. This is not a good workaround because the system should have the correct time BEFORE Windows network startup, scheduled tasks and installs finalizations.
  • Wrote a batch DOS than ran DATE and TIME commands and deposit in "Startup" group. This is not a good workaround because the system should have the correct time BEFORE Windows startup.
  • Edit registry's "BootExecute" to run the DOS commands DATE and TIME. Perhaps I made a syntax mistake ?
  • Look for another laptop but no money :'-(

Question

  1. Anyway to ask user to confirm/set date and time BEFORE Windows startup?
  2. What are the rules and syntax with registry's "BootExecute" to use other than autocheck ?
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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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A better solution may be to set up time synchronization. So-called NTP servers (Network Time protocol) do nothing but tell the time to any interested party. There's a big pool of free servers run by volunteers.

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  • I will setup NTP but my need is to boot Windows with correct date. System must be on time before Windows start up (so NTP service is not started).
    – LaPeche35
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 7:11
  • You might want to clarify why you think that's necessary. At the moment NTP starts, no regular programs can run yet. Certainly user input is not possible (no user logged in yet).
    – MSalters
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 8:06
  • NTP will not set clock immediately but runs clock virtualy faster until system comes to date and time.
    – LaPeche35
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 9:38
  • With others computers having empty battery, I encountered weird system behavior sometimes. Probably due to scheduled tasks, swap file, updates waiting for finalization, protected software, etc... BSOD occurs !
    – LaPeche35
    Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 9:51
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Seems like you have no proper jumper at motherboard, which feeds the power from battery to RTC or this jumper set in different position. They were used widely to clear the CMOS settings to factory reset by disconnecting power for a short period (like one-two minute(s)). If the mother board has such a jumper then it can be easily found in the Main Board Manual. Hope this helps.

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  • 3V battery is fine and CMOS jumper is set correctly. Must be an EPROM's CMOS issue or a power controler chip issue. I am looking for a software solution. "BootExecute" value in Registry seems interesting but how to use it in order to display DATE then TIME MS-DOS commands?
    – LaPeche35
    Commented Jun 6, 2014 at 12:43
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Okay, I found the right solution!

That motherboard requires 3 wires (red, white, black) to be soldered to the 3V battery. When you look at for 3V CMOS batteries for Acer 1610 series on Interent, most vendors propose 2 wired battery (with red and black wires).

Of course, I bought one 2 wired battery. Its connector had 3 females pins but only 2 wired. So I added a wire in the middle of the connector to the black !

I remain interested by knowing how to run operation before Windows startup...

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2
  • You can probably add a lightweight Linux installation that will boot by default, set the time over NTP, then tell the bootloader to boot Windows once (so the next time it reboots it'll go back into Linux again).
    – user256743
    Commented Jun 19, 2014 at 0:17
  • Launch another OS to chain to Windows sounds complicated. Anyway to use the registry's "BootExecute" value?
    – LaPeche35
    Commented Jun 25, 2014 at 8:28

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