CMOS Battery

Dr.Death · Post by **Dr.Death** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 1:04 pm

OK, I have a problem. My system crashed last night and I have been haveing problems since I moved. It seems when I turn on my comp. it registers my processor as an XP 1350 and I'm running an XP 2200. I have to go into bios and change it back. This has led me to believe that my MB battery is on its way out. When I moved it had been unplugged from a power source for about a week and this I believe has killed the battery. Is there any speciale way I should go about changing this battery? Also last night when it crashed, I'm running XP, a blue screen came up and said something about an IRQ and some hardware/software I recently installed may have failed. It also told me to restart in safe mode, but I could not get shit to come on. Could this be a result of the battery dying or something else? Also I know that there is a series of beeps that tell you something is not right when you first fire up and I can't remeber what they mean. But this beep was one long beep. Any clue?

XoR · Post by **XoR** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 1:59 pm

Once your system is up and running and configured, the CMOS battery has almost no purpose, so I'm not so sure if this is your dilema (although it could be). Your batteries purpose in life is to retain BIOS settings and time while its turned off.

Depending on your BIOS, which alot are AWARD, One long beep would be RAM (try reseating your sticks) , if its 1 long and 2 short that would be your VIDEO. If its 1 long solid high/low sound, thats your CPU. If you have a different BIOS than AWARD, just type in their name in google with POST BEEP CODES appended.

Basically, depending on how comfortable you are on stripping compnents out on your rig, I would re-seat your video card and RAM and make sure all periphials are snuggly plugged in.

Hope things smooth out. Post here again if you need additional help!

Good Luck!

Dr.Death · Post by **Dr.Death** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 2:24 pm

Ya know thats one of the first things I did. I actually switch vid cards and it worked. Then I put my the I took out and put it back in and so far everythinf has gone ok. But my bios settings keep changing as far as my processer goes. I also got an error messages during start up that read "CPU over speed" or something like that. When I went into bios I only had half of the normal info displayed. One more question. I thought I read some where that the battery basicly works when the power supply is turned off or unpluged. Is this true?

Dr.Death · Post by **Dr.Death** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 2:33 pm

Ok 1 more thing. Now I'm about to throw this fuckin computer out the window. I can't even close the door on my case without my computer reseting. Whats the deal? I swear I'll never move again!

bvbvbv · Post by **bvbvbv** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 3:51 pm

Sounds like your cmos is corrupt, I'd try resetting it by removing (and or replacing) the MB battery. Batteries are cheap and if older than 3 years, good insurance. Make sure your power supply is off (best to unplug it from the wal). Some motherboard still get power from the PS when it looks off.

This will return ALL Bios settings to default, so expect to set all the settings to your needs.

Sorry I type slow and dont have much time to respond, but I have seen this type of problem many times before, and this is the first step to trouble shoot this problem.

Bill
AKA "bvbvbv"

XoR · Post by **XoR** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 4:30 pm

Death, if its restarting by simply closing the case ... sounds to me something more than a mere battery. Again the battery is just a way for your computer to retain settings and time. But a corrupt CMOS may do more than I am aware of. Bill also brings up a good point to RESET the BIOS beyond it simply leaking the info from a possibly dead battery. You may also want to flash the BIOS with the newest version so it reprograms the whole thing.

Also, you may want to strip it down to just MB, CPU, RAM and VIDEO. Remove Hardrive and CDROM IDE's and all PCI cards.

Then, boot into BIOS. Adjust the time and settings, and then power it OFF, unplug it and wait 30 seconds. Power it back on and go into the BIOS. If the settings are gone, replace the battery. If the battery replacement doesn't fix it, flash the BIOS... if that fails, I would swap power supplies and test a different one.

I think the error messages are the HAL in windows trying to adjust to the fluctuations of change from your BIOS.

Hopefully a simple replacement of a part is all that's needed.

Dr.Death · Post by **Dr.Death** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 6:31 pm

Well I just finished. I replaced the battery, pulled RAM and cleand the DIMM slot and re-inserted. I also checked all connections and I reformated. Lets see what happens.

midnightservice · Post by **midnightservice** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:46 am

okay here is the problem and the answer to fix the it.....first off your cmos battey is dead replace it is like a watch battery it requiers the CR 2032 battery just remove it and place in anew one you can pick them up for 1.89 from any electronic store or even wal-mart...........second when your cmos battery failed and reset your cpu settings and you fired it up well win xp said sorry you must reinstall do to a major hardware change.........the error message you get is mor than likely the irq_less_than_or Equal_to error means you must reinstall win xp do the the cpu status change..........sorry about the answer but that is they way of the XP issue.

Dr.Death · Post by **Dr.Death** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:05 am

Did all that and it is working great. Thanks for all the help. Being self taught, there are still things I need to learn. Again thanks for all the help.