You’re the entrepreneur. You’re supposed to have all the answers.

Somewhere along the line you decided to bootstrap your startup. They told you: Everybody’s going to have to multi-task. Everyone will have to wear more than one hat. Especially you, the entrepreneur. You’re the Most Many Hatted one of them all. You told yourself: Sure, that’s cool. We can do this.

Now, one of the computers that somebody depends on is acting funny. It can’t remember the date. And the wrong date looks really stupid on the invoices you just emailed. What’s more, the blue start screen on the computer has changed from English to Japanese. Can’t be good.

If you ignore it, maybe it will just go away?

Why do we really need this thing? Everybody in Silicon Valley is using some kind of Apple computer. (Don’t believe me? Visit any coffee shop.) Oh, yeah. Twenty miles outside of Silicon Valley everybody else has a Windows PC. So, we really have to look at our website on this computer.

What are you going to do now? Get it fixed? Throw it away and get a new one? You’re the entrepreneur. You’re supposed to have all the answers.

Get Out Your Screwdriver. You Can Do This.

Okay, this time you lucked out. All you have to do is replace the battery on the computer motherboard. If you’re really, really careful you can probably replace it. Plus, it proves that you’re the kind of high tech genius that can bootstrap your own company, right?

For sentimental reasons, the online resources that help you debug this kind of thing call it a CMOS battery. It’s not. It’s an ordinary coin-sized lithium battery that you can get at any convenience store.

You’re seriously going to have to turn off the computer, disconnect everything, and let it sit there for a while if you’re even going to consider removing the cover. But, I did it.

Turn the computer on. Fix the date and time. Everybody’s happy. That part about the computer suddenly speaking Japanese? Not likely to happen, but I had to mess with the BIOS.

Believe me, you don’t want to go there.