Question New CMOS battery does not work (red and black wires are switched)

[Emile007]

Hi there!

I have a MSI Trident 3 desktop pc with a clock not keeping it's time. Known issue and I replaced the CMOS battery with some help from

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNIDfi-kOms

Battery has a Molex wire connections, so piece of cake I would assume.

Unfortunately not.

PC has now problems booting (always need a second try) and the time is still wrong.

I looked closer and the 2 batteries (old and new) and noticed the black and red cables were switched in the connector, Actually the old battery has wrong in cabling if I look at pictures like https://www.jameco.com/z/CR2032-J03...Wires-with-Molex-51021-Connector_2321447.html (I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B08QG6S8NV/)

Making it work would mean I have to switch the cables and solder it 'the wrong way' for the new battery.

But before I try I would like the brilliant brains on this forum is I am missing something...

2 more question:

• Does it hart if the wires are switched (look like it right now, but I am not sure)
• How can I test if everything is ok easily? I tried yesterday and everything looked fine (not sure about the restart), but this morning it was wrong)

 

[Emile007]

Never mind! Switched the cables and now it seems it's working!

Strange though that there's not any kind of standards for this. Why bother with a connector while everybody is choosing it's own way...

 

[dudio]

Glad you got it working!
It isn't entirely clear how you 'switched the wires', but a word of warning to anyone that tries something similar: It is not adviseable to solder wires to a battery unless it can be done incredibly fast..heat build up in a battery can cause it to explode. Other options in this case is to shave the guides on the molex connector so that it fits either way in the header, or, with some finesse, the wires and connectors can be released from the molex connector and reinserted the other way.

 

[Emile007]

Thanks for the advice, but I just soldered the wires, far from the battery. I should have switched the wires in the connector, I do that next time

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, with a battery, polarity matters.

Put a flashlight battery in backwards and see what happens.