After 2.1 Upgrade - Clock Battery Needs Replacement - HOW?

latnjazfan · Post by **latnjazfan** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:44 am

We just updated my Kronos with the 2.10 upgrade and it all went great. Love the new "tone wheel" sounds!! And all of my existing Combis were unaffected. Wonderful, seamless, quality enhancement effort by our friends at Korg.

However, now a new popup appears on bootup:

THE CLOCK BATTERY IS LOW.
PLEASE REPLACE THE BATTERY, AND SET THE DATE AND TIME IN DISK MODE

Is this a serious issue that needs immediate attention?

The manual says to use a Korg authorized support source to perform this procedure.

Can this be done by the user instead?

I haven't seen this topic before - and a search of this forum didn't turn anything up. Comments anyone??

rex888 · Post by **rex888** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:51 am

If you know how to open it, you can just buy CR2032 battery and change it.
It should be located at the motherboard near the RAM or SATA (red) cable.

billysynth1 · Post by **billysynth1** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 10:08 am

Why would the battery on these go after two years. I notice in your signature that you purchased in oct 2011. I thought the battery would last much longer surely??

Regards
Billy

rex888 · Post by **rex888** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 10:27 am

True. The battery should last at least 5 years. It's weird.

AMK · Post by **AMK** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 9:39 pm

I have the same issue and I had buy my Kronos 2 months ago.

however I can replace it by my self if I can find the same sort of battery in the local market.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 12:16 am

rex888 wrote:True. The battery should last at least 5 years. It's weird.

I am wondering about the validity of the pop up warning and if anything actually should be done. As you state, these low volt batteries are supposed to last 5 yrs.

it would be a little surprising if this Kronos got a half life battery just by chance.

danatkorg · Post by **danatkorg** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 1:46 am

GregC wrote:
rex888 wrote:True. The battery should last at least 5 years. It's weird.
I am wondering about the validity of the pop up warning and if anything actually should be done. As you state, these low volt batteries are supposed to last 5 yrs.

it would be a little surprising if this Kronos got a half life battery just by chance.

According to Intel docs, the nominal figure for these motherboard batteries is 3 years when unplugged, although please don't take that as an official statement from Korg. The actual time may vary depending on usage; when power is on, the life of the battery may be extended. My guess is that the battery warning is correct. Note btw that one of the bugs fixed in 2.1, listed in the release notes, is "Low battery voltage did not prompt the error message “The clock battery voltage is low.” This has now been fixed."

latnjazfan · Post by **latnjazfan** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 3:59 am

From DAN PHILLIPS: According to Intel docs, the nominal (and unofficial) figure for these motherboard batteries is 3 years when unplugged. . .
The actual time may vary depending on usage; when power is on, the life of the battery may be extended. . .

The thing is, my Kronos has been plugged in constantly since I got it about 24 months ago. And as to use, I'd bet I average 2-3 hours a day of practicing (I'm obviously a slow learner!). So maybe the battery going low could be caused somewhat higher usage? Anyway, the CR2032 OEM battery isn't the rechargeable type, it is? And battery life can vary from batch to batch, right?

Never the less, if Dan thinks it should be replaced - I'll have it replaced.

geoelectro · Post by **geoelectro** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 4:28 am

The battery is a Lithium Ion non-rechargeable. Shelf life does play into longevity. When the instrument is powered up, the load is mostly removed from the battery since the power supply takes over. So battery life depends on how long it's off. That's when it is powering the memory.

Geo

Oldretro · Post by **Oldretro** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:22 pm

danatkorg wrote:
GregC wrote:
rex888 wrote:True. The battery should last at least 5 years. It's weird.
I am wondering about the validity of the pop up warning and if anything actually should be done. As you state, these low volt batteries are supposed to last 5 yrs.

it would be a little surprising if this Kronos got a half life battery just by chance.
According to Intel docs, the nominal figure for these motherboard batteries is 3 years when unplugged, although please don't take that as an official statement from Korg. The actual time may vary depending on usage; when power is on, the life of the battery may be extended. My guess is that the battery warning is correct. Note btw that one of the bugs fixed in 2.1, listed in the release notes, is "Low battery voltage did not prompt the error message “The clock battery voltage is low.” This has now been fixed."

Must the battery be replaced, or can the Kronos do without a replacement battery altogether?
Or will it render the Kronos inoperable if the battery is not replaced after a certain time?

geoelectro · Post by **geoelectro** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:52 pm

I'm not positive what exactly is saved with the battery but. Ertainly something important is. Likely programs, combi's, and set lists.
Those can be saved to the SSD but with a bad battery you would need to load them every time you powered up.

Geo

TheWolf · Post by **TheWolf** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:14 pm

The battery is there to keep the CMOS clock on the motherboard running while the power is switched off. If the battery is dead, then the clock will start with the same time whenever the Kronos is switched on. As a consequence, the timestamps of everything you save to disk will be incorrectly set to a date way in the past -- unless you set the date and time manually every time after you have switched on your Kronos. In principle, incorrect timestamps should not pose a problem with well written software -- but who knows?

Furthermore, the timestamps when the various partitions of the internal SDD were last mounted and unmounted may, as seen from the incorrect system time, be in the far future. This is known to have caused problems during the Linux boot process some years ago. I'm not sure about the current state of affairs. This may have been fixed in the meanwhile.

But if this still causes a problem, then the automatic file-system check as well as the automatic mounting of the file-systems carried out right after the system start-up may fail and drop the system into the so called »single-user mode« -- from which these issues can be easily repaired on a Linux PC. But the Kronos not being a PC may not support an accessible single-user mode. I would guess that this will result in one more instance of the red progress bar during start-up simply stopping somewhere and not moving on.

To make a long story short: If you want to play it safe, replace the battery. If you are more daring, wait and see what happens.

MoonMusic · Post by **MoonMusic** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:58 am

I bought an old keyboard that was glitchy and when I opened it, the culprit was an old battery that was dead for a long time that leaked acid out all over the board pretty much rusting out any component that was around it....I didn't bother at that point and resold it "as is".....moon

latnjazfan · Post by **latnjazfan** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:02 pm

TheWolf wrote: To make a long story short: If you want to play it safe, replace the battery. If you are more daring, wait and see what happens.

TW - You make a very elegant argument for changing the battery.

Thanks to all for the comments. As usual, my Korg Forum pals came through again.

Bald Eagle · Post by **Bald Eagle** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:12 pm

Does replacing the battery yourself void the warranty?