Reason for posting this question - my laptop battery died and it turns out the bios gets reset every time I turn it on now.
Made me think of the old phones I have which cannot be repurposed without getting new batteries…
I guess mandating replaceable batteries is enough but IMHO it should go further
If your bios is getting reset it’s possible your system uses a cmos battery and it is dead. It’s separate from the main battery and handles date/time/bios.
Just look for something that looks like a button battery inside your laptop. Sometimes it’s wrapped in plastic. My old Dell had it wrapped in rubber which held the wires in place and had a special connector.
Newer systems don’t have them - they just rely on the main battery. But if yours is losing time/settings you might have one with a separate battery. It’s usually a cr2032 or similar.