how to tell if coin cell battery is working correctly?

[freedda]

I'm wondering about the coin cell battery in my laptop that I believe runs the BIOS. What would be the signs that this battery is dead or not working properly?

On my laptop this is accessed from bottom in same compartment as one of the DIMM slots. The battery has a metal strip lying across the top that I thought was to remove it but I instead pulled out this metal strip. I've tried to shove it back into the slot I think it came out of, but I'm not sure if I've messed it up or not, and was it grounding it or serving as contact for positive poll on the battery?

Best, David.

[Jamie Nixx]

Oh dear, thats the CMOS battery.

So what exactly happened, has anything broken off, you didn't snap the metal off did you ?

[freedda]

Well, I pulled on the ribbon thinking that it opened the second SIMM compartment. I've put it back as best I could, and there doesn't seem anything wrong with the computer, but I'm trying to find out how I could tell if there is something wrong.

Best, David

[Jamie Nixx]

The computer would still work but your bios settings would not be saved, you could also experience BSOD and malfunctions.