Question on Q12 COMPTIA A+?

LouTech

I have a new question??? Why would a low bat. make a clock run slow
when a computers clock is digital and not mechanical? I have been a tech for years a I know that this will not happen. Ok you got me on the inkjet question, but I don’t agree with this answer sorry. The only thing it would do to a clock is make it lose time by jumping back to it’s default setting which most the time that’s 12:00 Although it might seem that it’s running slow because when the last time you looked it was 1:00 and now it’s 12:15 making you believe it was slow, I don’t know all, but this I do know.
Thanks Louie

/usr

My post came across as being mean, sorry about that.

Plantwiz

I'll need to read the actual question, but I would think the reference is to the computer battery which keeps your CMOS powered and therefore saved.

If your CMOS resets due to a low battery, then your system clock speed may continuely reset itself to the default. (I had an ASUS A7V series that use to do this). The default was 100 slowing the CPU back to 1GHz when it in fact had a Athlon 1.6 installed. So, in this instance, it (the whole system) was running slower than necessary because the CMOS defaulted to a 'safe' range as the battery was failing.


On older systems (back when DOS 3.3 was hot) when you booted, you'd enter the 'time' for the system so the system clock was current. When you powered-off it was lost. This wouldn't affect the speed of the computer, just would default to 12:00:00 each time you booted and files could be time stamped incorrectly.

Once batteries were added, the CMOS holds that information.

Johan, may jump in here soon, but that's what I'd think without reading the question
note to self.....read all the test questions before Friday

Plantwiz

/usr wrote:

I have been a tech for years a I know that this will not happen.

I guess you should be writing the A+ guides then.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=CMOS+battery+losing+time&btnG=Google+Search

All of those links give reasons why you're wrong.

Of course, you can read the nice link that /usr provided while I was typing my history

Webmaster

The answer Louie is referring to is:

"The CMOS clock begins to slow down"
(question asks first thing you notice when battery is low)
I admit that that isn't the best English sentence I've written, but than again, I (as well as most people) could teach CompTIA a thing or two about wording. Whether it's technically slowing down, is a matter of how you look at it: a second may be just a second long, during an hour or day for example, it may have lost time several times (the time didn't increment), which makes an hour or day of the system clock shorter than an actual hour. From that perspective, it is slow, and it will happen more often eventually, so it 'begins to slow down'. (you can expect similar slightly vague wording in the CompTIA exams). From the search results /usr provided, this is a very good one:
www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/mbsys/cmosLosingTime-c.html

Tough audience tonight

I won't say how many years I've been a techie, and on how many PCs I actually noticed it losing time (instead of resetting to fact default), but I will say that our A+ exam has been used over 50,000 times in the past three years. Feel free to be critical though, it can only help us improve.