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Thread ID: 22164	2002-07-13 08:11:00	cmos battery state	tones_malones (611)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
62210	2002-07-13 08:11:00	hey guys, my friend gave me her computer to take a look at to see if i could get it going, when i turn it on it tells me that "cmos battery state low cmos batter mis match Run setup utility Press f1 to resume Rom Bios (c) 1990" any ideas, all she wants it for is the old skool games that is on it, its damn old with windows 3.1 i think.... Tones	tones_malones (611)
62211	2002-07-13 09:05:00	With that age of motherboard, the battery is probably soldered in and, if not already, will be about to leak out over the board. The best way is to cut it off with snips, dont try to unsolder. You may be lucky and get hold of another one to solder onto the stubs. Some boards also had a connector for an external battery and a jumper to disconnect the onboard one, if yours has this feature then you could make up an external battery of 2 AAA cells, checking that you get polarity correct.	Terry Porritt (14)
62212	2002-07-13 09:06:00	I'm not sure what your question is exactly..does it continue on when you press F1? If so don't worry as it will probably come right after a few boots. The battery in question is a small single cell on the motherboard which maintains the boot info when the computer is turned of. Some are small flat cells smaller than a 5 cent coin which just unclip an can be replaced easily..others are soldered on and are a real problem to replace. I think possibly when the computer hasn't been used for a while the battery can be down a bit and when it is turned on again there is a little warmth from the motherboard which lifts it up again. This cold weather doesn't help either. When it is dead flat nothing happens when you turn the computer on.. Does that help at all?	dum dugie (432)
62213	2002-07-13 09:41:00	here some more stuff about it, there are 4 error msg's that come up after booting it numerous times 1)cmos battery state low cmos battery mismatch run setup file utility press f1 to resume 2)cmos system options not set cmos display type mismatch ren set up utility 3)cmos memory mismatch 4)HDD controller failure f1 to resume ------------------------------------------------- (c) American Megatrends Inc. 30-0500-zz1218-00101111-070791-acer1217-8 does that thing above mean that it is an Acer?	tones_malones (611)
62214	2002-07-13 10:27:00	With a computer of that age, you will need to get hold of second hand parts probably. A duff battery will give those CMOS errors, so that is the first thing to fix. The HDD failure is either a bad connection where the controller card plugs in, or a cable, or, the most likely, the card has failed. These cards have HDD and FDD controllers, com ports, parallel port and game port connectors. You may need to try getting hold of one from someones junk-box. The AMI message is the bios details, but cant tell you what it means, it could be an Acer. Looks like you will have to open it up and have a good look inside.	Terry Porritt (14)
62215	2002-07-14 04:30:00	All those messages indicate that the battery is dead . If you are lucky, it will be a NiCd or replaceable Lithium pack . The NICd are cylindrical (about 13 mm diameter and about 25-30 mm long) . The replaceable Lithium are a rectangular box (usually fixed with Velcro to the chassis) and a pair of wires going to a 4 pole connector . The cheapest replacement is an AA battery holder . The lithiums are 4 . 5 V; the NiCD are 3 . 6V nominal . 2 AA cells will give 3 V which is perfectly OK . (You can buy both sorts, but the lithium are very expensive, and the NiCd are soldered in . If you are unlucky, there will be a "thick IC" a box about the size of a 32 pin 0 . 6" ROM chip, but 13 mm high --- =usually with the trademaker "Dallas" . These have the BIOS rom, CMOS circuitry, and a battery . They are not usually replaceable . (Some are plugged in, but where do you get them?) . I don't like the "setup programme" reference . Some computers do not have a BIOS setup programme in the rom; they need a programme on the hard disk (and a copy on a floppy for emergencies) . You might be able to boot from a floppy (after pressing F1) and see if you can "see" the HD . Then look for any programme with "setup" in any part of its name (my Tandy 3800HD laptop has "setup380 . com") . Basically, you might not be able to access the HD without the size and physical information about it being loaded in the CMOS tables . And if the only copy you have of the setup programme is on the hard disk . . . Of course you could install the HD on another machine, and look for the setup programme . The manufacturer's web site might have a copy of the programme . That's how I got my Tandy HD going . Old computers offer a challenge . :-(	Graham L (2)
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