ODD FIX FOR DEAD BOX

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael

Sorry for crossposting...

Very weird.

Yesterday I read a Usenet post about a guy with a laptop which wouldn't
boot. Ive' been dead for a week...

Well, of the several items---only two applied to me.


I tried the first.

Remove CMOS battery (unplug machine first). Wait two hours---REPALACE
BATTERY. IF the systme "starts" it will "stall"--thats good--(at least
it's awake)...re-boot---enter BIOS --- re-do setup.

Did that---two hours later...nuttin'--blank screen, as always.

Plan two, remove battery, LEAVE BATTERY OUT and restart. No, I still
have to shut down---(CMOS is clear, right?) Again, immediately go to
BIOS, run set-up.

Well, I did that.

I hit the power (NO BATTERY IN).

I hear a beep. Well, I know something good had happened --- (at that
time I was supposed to shut it down and enter the BIOS to run set-up...

But my monitor was blank!..... as it had been off for so long. I sort of
froze and forgot to shut it machine down....

I expected to see an error message---hoped to reboot and hoped I could
run setup.

Well, by the time I could see the screen, it is already finding my IDE
devices!

This is too weird, the CMOS was supposed to be cleared---there had not
been a battery in the machine for hours and the battery was still out as
it booted.

It continued to boot === right into W2k. I ran all sorts of diags..
nuttin't was wrong. All devices---all memory---no conflicts--it was if
noting happened.

Well, I never shut it down. It's still on, without the battery. I plan
to get out and find a battery.

NOTHING in my 144 page manual suggests this was supposed to happen. I
never received a low battery error---either before or (odd) without the
battery in.

Further, without the battery, with power drained--I shouldn't have
gotten anything out of the BIOS...

I don't know if\how\why a new battery will help---after all, the only
way it booted is WITHOUT any battery.

Yes, I'm afraid to turn it of (not without a battery---as if that seems
to matter). But I have to get a battery in and "hope".


Michael
 
Michael said:
Sorry for crossposting...

Very weird.

Yesterday I read a Usenet post about a guy with a laptop which wouldn't
boot. Ive' been dead for a week...

Well, of the several items---only two applied to me.


I tried the first.

Remove CMOS battery (unplug machine first). Wait two hours---REPALACE
BATTERY. IF the systme "starts" it will "stall"--thats good--(at least
it's awake)...re-boot---enter BIOS --- re-do setup.

Did that---two hours later...nuttin'--blank screen, as always.

Plan two, remove battery, LEAVE BATTERY OUT and restart. No, I still
have to shut down---(CMOS is clear, right?) Again, immediately go to
BIOS, run set-up.

Well, I did that.

I hit the power (NO BATTERY IN).

I hear a beep. Well, I know something good had happened --- (at that
time I was supposed to shut it down and enter the BIOS to run set-up...

But my monitor was blank!..... as it had been off for so long. I sort of
froze and forgot to shut it machine down....

I expected to see an error message---hoped to reboot and hoped I could
run setup.

Well, by the time I could see the screen, it is already finding my IDE
devices!

This is too weird, the CMOS was supposed to be cleared---there had not
been a battery in the machine for hours and the battery was still out as
it booted.

It continued to boot === right into W2k. I ran all sorts of diags..
nuttin't was wrong. All devices---all memory---no conflicts--it was if
noting happened.

Well, I never shut it down. It's still on, without the battery. I plan
to get out and find a battery.

NOTHING in my 144 page manual suggests this was supposed to happen. I
never received a low battery error---either before or (odd) without the
battery in.

Further, without the battery, with power drained--I shouldn't have
gotten anything out of the BIOS...

I don't know if\how\why a new battery will help---after all, the only
way it booted is WITHOUT any battery.

Yes, I'm afraid to turn it of (not without a battery---as if that seems
to matter). But I have to get a battery in and "hope".


Michael
Click to expand...

Your laptop has two batteries:

- The big battery (to power the laptop)
- An internal button cell (to power the CMOS)

When you left the machine without the big battery, you did nothing
at all to the CMOS - it continued to hold its information (and the
date/time) because of the internal button cell.
 
When you did this you reset the CMOS back to it's default settings. Those obviously
are good enough for you.
 
BeamGuy said:
When you did this you reset the CMOS back to it's default settings. Those obviously
are good enough for you.
Click to expand...
could be, or he was just lucky.. i would back up all important data before
doing anything else!
 
Sorry for crossposting...

Very weird.

Yesterday I read a Usenet post about a guy with a laptop which wouldn't
boot. Ive' been dead for a week...

Well, of the several items---only two applied to me.


I tried the first.

Remove CMOS battery (unplug machine first). Wait two hours---REPALACE
BATTERY. IF the systme "starts" it will "stall"--thats good--(at least
it's awake)...re-boot---enter BIOS --- re-do setup.

Did that---two hours later...nuttin'--blank screen, as always.

Plan two, remove battery, LEAVE BATTERY OUT and restart. No, I still
have to shut down---(CMOS is clear, right?) Again, immediately go to
BIOS, run set-up.

Well, I did that.

I hit the power (NO BATTERY IN).

I hear a beep. Well, I know something good had happened --- (at that
time I was supposed to shut it down and enter the BIOS to run set-up...

But my monitor was blank!..... as it had been off for so long. I sort of
froze and forgot to shut it machine down....

I expected to see an error message---hoped to reboot and hoped I could
run setup.

Well, by the time I could see the screen, it is already finding my IDE
devices!

This is too weird, the CMOS was supposed to be cleared---there had not
been a battery in the machine for hours and the battery was still out as
it booted.

It continued to boot === right into W2k. I ran all sorts of diags..
nuttin't was wrong. All devices---all memory---no conflicts--it was if
noting happened.

Well, I never shut it down. It's still on, without the battery. I plan
to get out and find a battery.

NOTHING in my 144 page manual suggests this was supposed to happen. I
never received a low battery error---either before or (odd) without the
battery in.

Further, without the battery, with power drained--I shouldn't have
gotten anything out of the BIOS...

I don't know if\how\why a new battery will help---after all, the only
way it booted is WITHOUT any battery.

Yes, I'm afraid to turn it of (not without a battery---as if that seems
to matter). But I have to get a battery in and "hope".


Michael
Click to expand...
Sorry for the wrong impression---Mine was not a laptop. Baby box Mustang
m-548..p233 96 meg of ram. (And it really moves, w/w2k)

No settings were changed---not even the clock.

If my box was unplugged---battery out, shouldn't the CMOS cleared?

Second...why did nothing happen (after unplugged for two hours/battery
out (the first time) then *with* the battery back in...I nearly gave
up..Why I tried what I did next...? Luck?

After two hours more--battery out, again and not replace the
battery...it did reboot...no error(s)---Um, low battery might be an
expected error?

Again---all settings were intact--and more than a few were not *set-up*.
I replaced the battery this morning.

I think it's weird! I didn't cancel the order for the new Dell, but it
will be a lot easier moving my data over with a live box!
 
quoting:
Your laptop has two batteries:

- The big battery (to power the laptop)
- An internal button cell (to power the CMOS)

When you left the machine without the big battery, you did nothing
at all to the CMOS - it continued to hold its information (and the
date/time) because of the internal button cell.
Click to expand...


I have kind of an older laptop. It has the main NiMh battery, and a small
NiMh that is behind a small door on the bottom. To clear the CMOS, I have
to remove BOTH batteries. (or take apart the computer and hit the jumper).
It looks like this laptop pulls power from the main battery, then only used
the the small battery for backup.
 
quoting:




I have kind of an older laptop. It has the main NiMh battery, and a small
NiMh that is behind a small door on the bottom. To clear the CMOS, I have
to remove BOTH batteries. (or take apart the computer and hit the jumper).
It looks like this laptop pulls power from the main battery, then only used
the the small battery for backup.
Click to expand...

You missed my earlier post, Jason? I don't have a laptop.
Desktop---one battery..

Michael
 
Michael said:
On 9/15/2004 7:34 AM, Michael wrote:
Sorry for the wrong impression---Mine was not a laptop. Baby box Mustang
m-548..p233 96 meg of ram. (And it really moves, w/w2k)

No settings were changed---not even the clock.

If my box was unplugged---battery out, shouldn't the CMOS cleared?

Second...why did nothing happen (after unplugged for two hours/battery
out (the first time) then *with* the battery back in...I nearly gave
up..Why I tried what I did next...? Luck?

After two hours more--battery out, again and not replace the
battery...it did reboot...no error(s)---Um, low battery might be an
expected error?

Again---all settings were intact--and more than a few were not *set-up*.
I replaced the battery this morning.
Click to expand...

Yes, the CMOS was cleared, meaning that everything was reset to the default
BIOS settings. These cannot be changed unless you flash the BIOS, and are
unaffected with the CMOS battery in or out.

Any changes you make to the BIOS screen will be saved and that is what the
battery is for, these setting over-ride the original BIOS ones, but they
don't replace them. Once the CMOS battery is removed and the system has no
power to it, the over-ride setting will disappear, meaning that the default
BIOS setting will be used. This is what your system was running on, and they
seem to have fixed the problem. Things like your system clock, boot device
order etc will be the most common setting stored with power from the CMOS
battery.

Desktop systems can usually run without a CMOS battery in, but it gets
annoying having to set the clock up again unless you have a Windows Time
Server updating the clock every time you boot into windows.

Might be an idea to replace the CMOS battery with a new one, as it might, as
you said, be running a bit low.

As for why it took 2 tries to clear the CMOS.... I dunno, one of those
strange unexplained PC related things that baffles us all :)
 
Michael said:
Very weird.

Yesterday I read a Usenet post about a guy with a laptop which wouldn't
boot. Ive' been dead for a week...
Click to expand...

,,,, there's your problem right there (:-)

(Sorry ... couldn't resist .... I'll go away now).
 
Yes, the CMOS was cleared, meaning that everything was reset to the default
BIOS settings. These cannot be changed unless you flash the BIOS, and are
unaffected with the CMOS battery in or out.

Any changes you make to the BIOS screen will be saved and that is what the
battery is for, these setting over-ride the original BIOS ones, but they
don't replace them. Once the CMOS battery is removed and the system has no
power to it, the over-ride setting will disappear, meaning that the default
BIOS setting will be used. This is what your system was running on, and they
seem to have fixed the problem. Things like your system clock, boot device
order etc will be the most common setting stored with power from the CMOS
battery.

Desktop systems can usually run without a CMOS battery in, but it gets
annoying having to set the clock up again unless you have a Windows Time
Server updating the clock every time you boot into windows.

Might be an idea to replace the CMOS battery with a new one, as it might, as
you said, be running a bit low.

As for why it took 2 tries to clear the CMOS.... I dunno, one of those
strange unexplained PC related things that baffles us all :)
Click to expand...

I agree with your premise...but the CMOS didn't clear--my settings
should have reverted back to "set-up".

However, even after being unplugged, and without the battery (no battery
at startup) no settings were lost/changed. Not even the clock?

Yeah, that's puzzling---

Butt I don't know why the first try (remove battery for two hours and
restart, *with* battery in didn't revive the system).

But a restart with *no* battery, not only allowed booting, but didn't
"clear" any settngs? I have not spoken to one person who can
explain/justify that...

(Desktop, not lapper---no known sourse of "power" w/out battery power
cord-in)

Michael
 
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