CMOS battery problem or something... - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Stiltzkin · 07-05-2003, 10:31 PM

I'm on a different computer right now, just to get that out of the way. I think my battery is dead, but I'm not sure. The computer affected by the condition is a Compaq Presario 6000-- piece of junk. My floppy disk drive went kaput so I bought a new one, swapped it with the old one, booted it up, and got a message about the new stuff having been detected, blah blah blah. After this it goes to an empty prompt with a blinking cursor and never enters Windows-- just sits there forever. Reboot several times until I get a message saying the CMOS battery might be dead, and "if this message persists, contact the vendor" or some nonsense to that effect. Next to the power button to the left of it is a little light that's supposed to turn green "When lit, indicates the power is on." It now turns red, and its never done this before. I'm really hoping its just the damn battery, even though the bugger costs $3 to replace. I know all of this should be a really big tip-off that its just the CMOS battery, but... anyone think it might be something else?

Scott · 07-05-2003, 10:58 PM

I'll start off by asking is the computer still under warranty? If so, I'd suggest just sending it back to them to be fixed, or else you'll be voiding your warranty tinkering with the hardware of your computer.

That said, I would begin by unplugging the floppy drive that you recently installed into your computer and see if it boots up like normal. Although that should have no effect, from your description that was the only thing that you changed. If that didn't fix the problem, there could be a lot of things causing your computer not to boot. For starters, it could be heat. Check in your bios and make sure your external temperature isn't over 50 degress celcius if any. On die shouldn't be over 70 max (some bios' show one and not the other and vice versa). If it isn't running hot, what I would do is basicly rebuild the machine one piece of hardware at a time. Take everything out except the motherboard, processor (obviously), video card, and ram, and just see if the video card will still post. If it does, then add the hard drive and make sure the motherboard is seeing it and find out if it will continue to boot. If it won't boot, check in your bios and make sure it's set to be in the boot sequence still. It shouldn't have anything to do with any jumpers on the hard drive because you haven't changed anything. Basicly, just continue building your computer one piece at a time back to normal until it no longer boots to narrow down what the problem is. While doing this, you'll find a better idea about what is wrong with the machine.

When you have more information about what it is and isn't doing, come back and post and see if we can help out some more. With the current information you've given, it's really really hard to say what it is and isn't.

Scott

Stiltzkin · 07-05-2003, 11:39 PM

Hmm... thanks. I'll try replacing the CMOS battery before I go crazy taking it apart, though. Yeah, the warranty was voided about ten days after I bought it because I installed a second hard drive to it

Couldn't resist. ::sighs:: I'll let you know what happens after I install the new battery.

Stiltzkin · 07-06-2003, 10:02 AM

Ok, I replaced the battery, and it still behaves exactly the same. I don't get any video output at all. The computer turns on, green light for hard drive activity, the fan spins, everything seems ok. Just that I don't get any video outout at all, and I really doubt that its my video card. If it is, I'm going to shoot myself, because the piece of shit is a Compaq Presario 6000 and the chipset is built in. I'd have to replace my entire motherboard! Damn it... this was just supposed to be a simple floppy-drive swap, but instead has turned into my worst computer nightmare yet. ::sighs::

messy · 07-06-2003, 11:51 AM

I had this same exact problem with a brandnew motherboard. I got it for free, so I just junked it.

I tried everything and couldn't fix the lil fuker. May it collect dust in peace.

Stiltzkin · 07-06-2003, 12:09 PM

Well thats reassuring, now isn't it. I'm taking it to a friend's house in a few hours. There we shall open up the big Bible of Computer Knowledge and read scripture and light candles. The book is in Latin and Hebrew, so its going to be all Mosque style... erhmm... whatever that's supposed to mean. Nah, he thinks it might be the power supply. We'll see.

Stan · 07-10-2003, 05:20 PM

Do you get any POST (Power On Self Test) PC speaker beeps? It sounds like your monitor brightness/contrast may be all the way down, or the monitor cable isn't plugged in right (maybe some pins broke off), or possibly the AGP/PCI boot sequence is wrong, or your video card is borked. Try swapping in a new video card, unless it's onboard, in which case you'd have to find a way to disable the onboard one.

Oh, IF your battery died, and you put a new one in, you HAVE to enter your BIOS and re-input all of your settings over again, because all of your old settings got wiped. I highly recommend getting a knowledgable computer person to do this.

You should also try taking expansion cards out of the machine, 1 by 1. Take one out, try to bootup, if it fails, put it back and take out the next card. Same deal with the RAM and IDE devices. A computer guy is also recommended for this.

Hope it works out for you!

Stiltzkin · 07-29-2003, 11:40 PM

Guess it doesn't really make sense to post in here anymore, but it simply turned out that my motherboard and power supply were fried by the power spike. I had those replaced and my computer is better than it was before, because now none of the hardware is proprietary

Also bought new case for it... which makes it look cooler

07-05-2003, 10:31 PM	#1 (permalink)
Stiltzkin Junkie	CMOS battery problem or something... I'm on a different computer right now, just to get that out of the way. I think my battery is dead, but I'm not sure. The computer affected by the condition is a Compaq Presario 6000-- piece of junk. My floppy disk drive went kaput so I bought a new one, swapped it with the old one, booted it up, and got a message about the new stuff having been detected, blah blah blah. After this it goes to an empty prompt with a blinking cursor and never enters Windows-- just sits there forever. Reboot several times until I get a message saying the CMOS battery might be dead, and "if this message persists, contact the vendor" or some nonsense to that effect. Next to the power button to the left of it is a little light that's supposed to turn green "When lit, indicates the power is on." It now turns red, and its never done this before. I'm really hoping its just the damn battery, even though the bugger costs $3 to replace. I know all of this should be a really big tip-off that its just the CMOS battery, but... anyone think it might be something else? __________________ The most important thing in this world is love.

07-05-2003, 11:39 PM	#3 (permalink)
Stiltzkin Junkie	Hmm... thanks. I'll try replacing the CMOS battery before I go crazy taking it apart, though. Yeah, the warranty was voided about ten days after I bought it because I installed a second hard drive to it Couldn't resist. ::sighs:: I'll let you know what happens after I install the new battery. __________________ The most important thing in this world is love.

07-06-2003, 10:02 AM	#4 (permalink)
Stiltzkin Junkie	Ok, I replaced the battery, and it still behaves exactly the same. I don't get any video output at all. The computer turns on, green light for hard drive activity, the fan spins, everything seems ok. Just that I don't get any video outout at all, and I really doubt that its my video card. If it is, I'm going to shoot myself, because the piece of shit is a Compaq Presario 6000 and the chipset is built in. I'd have to replace my entire motherboard! Damn it... this was just supposed to be a simple floppy-drive swap, but instead has turned into my worst computer nightmare yet. ::sighs:: __________________ The most important thing in this world is love.

07-06-2003, 11:51 AM	#5 (permalink)
messy Insane	I had this same exact problem with a brandnew motherboard. I got it for free, so I just junked it. I tried everything and couldn't fix the lil fuker. May it collect dust in peace. __________________ If I say a chicken can pull a boxcar, hitch it up.

07-06-2003, 12:09 PM	#6 (permalink)
Stiltzkin Junkie	Well thats reassuring, now isn't it. I'm taking it to a friend's house in a few hours. There we shall open up the big Bible of Computer Knowledge and read scripture and light candles. The book is in Latin and Hebrew, so its going to be all Mosque style... erhmm... whatever that's supposed to mean. Nah, he thinks it might be the power supply. We'll see. __________________ The most important thing in this world is love.

07-05-2003, 10:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
Scott Tilted	I'll start off by asking is the computer still under warranty? If so, I'd suggest just sending it back to them to be fixed, or else you'll be voiding your warranty tinkering with the hardware of your computer. That said, I would begin by unplugging the floppy drive that you recently installed into your computer and see if it boots up like normal. Although that should have no effect, from your description that was the only thing that you changed. If that didn't fix the problem, there could be a lot of things causing your computer not to boot. For starters, it could be heat. Check in your bios and make sure your external temperature isn't over 50 degress celcius if any. On die shouldn't be over 70 max (some bios' show one and not the other and vice versa). If it isn't running hot, what I would do is basicly rebuild the machine one piece of hardware at a time. Take everything out except the motherboard, processor (obviously), video card, and ram, and just see if the video card will still post. If it does, then add the hard drive and make sure the motherboard is seeing it and find out if it will continue to boot. If it won't boot, check in your bios and make sure it's set to be in the boot sequence still. It shouldn't have anything to do with any jumpers on the hard drive because you haven't changed anything. Basicly, just continue building your computer one piece at a time back to normal until it no longer boots to narrow down what the problem is. While doing this, you'll find a better idea about what is wrong with the machine. When you have more information about what it is and isn't doing, come back and post and see if we can help out some more. With the current information you've given, it's really really hard to say what it is and isn't. Scott

07-10-2003, 05:20 PM	#7 (permalink)
Stan Upright Location: Canada	Do you get any POST (Power On Self Test) PC speaker beeps? It sounds like your monitor brightness/contrast may be all the way down, or the monitor cable isn't plugged in right (maybe some pins broke off), or possibly the AGP/PCI boot sequence is wrong, or your video card is borked. Try swapping in a new video card, unless it's onboard, in which case you'd have to find a way to disable the onboard one. Oh, IF your battery died, and you put a new one in, you HAVE to enter your BIOS and re-input all of your settings over again, because all of your old settings got wiped. I highly recommend getting a knowledgable computer person to do this. You should also try taking expansion cards out of the machine, 1 by 1. Take one out, try to bootup, if it fails, put it back and take out the next card. Same deal with the RAM and IDE devices. A computer guy is also recommended for this. Hope it works out for you!

07-29-2003, 11:40 PM	#8 (permalink)
Stiltzkin Junkie	Guess it doesn't really make sense to post in here anymore, but it simply turned out that my motherboard and power supply were fried by the power spike. I had those replaced and my computer is better than it was before, because now none of the hardware is proprietary Also bought new case for it... which makes it look cooler __________________ The most important thing in this world is love.