This could be a silly question but I recently found my old DS Lite that hasn’t been turned on since 2011. When I turned it on after over 10 years it had the accurate date and time, how does it know that?
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Most devices have a small battery that runs the BIOS and continues to do low-level tasks (like updating the clock) even when the device is powered off.
It’s generally a piece of technology called CMOS. It’s basically a microchip that stores crucial system data, powered by a small battery.
Many electronic devices have tiny watch batteries on their motherboards to power their BIOS or whatever the equivalent is for handheld consoles. Your device is technically “on” all the time, and it keeps track of the date, as well as other critical information/processes.
They tend to have small watches with watch batteries built in.
Those batteries can keep the small internal watch running for years.
Cmos battery or if it has a network connection it can sync the time with what is called ntp. I know that’s not eli5 sorry
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