(update) Bios Not Accepting Changes?


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I was given another old laptop :thumbsup: , this time from my mother (she hasn't used it in more than a year I think) anyway she found it gathering dust in the closet and missing one part, and decided it to give to me (lucky/unlucky me?) anyway thing is I went into the bios to change the order to boot at start up, since there's no OS in it, I changed it to CD as the first in the boot screen list order, I saved changes and exit, however after rebooting the settings remain as default every time (floppy disk is the first one in the list as default) so I can't boot from a CD and I want to do this in order to check how good is the system working. Does anyone know why the changes I make at the boot screen list don't stay? I want to change it so it will boot from the CD drive first

Edited by intocomputing2
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I'd change the CMOS battery first & foremost. Does the BIOS keep time?

Actually I took out the battery and I was trying out without it

I would *assume* that when the PC restarts after you leave the bios that the battery would be needed to save your changes. Im not 100% about that though (not quite sure if current is cut from the mobo when it restarts).

If you are referring to the clock in the "Date/Time" section option in the BIOs, it is running

But does it keep time or does it start back over from 12:00 each time?

Either way, run down to Wally world and get a battery. $2-$3 to rule that out... Sounds like a typical dead CMOS battery issue.

Edited by Bubba Bob
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I agree 10,000 percent with Bubba Bob. The battery is what holds the BIOS information. You do need it to hold any changes to the BIOS. Other wise when you turn it off. It is off.

It works like a battery in an electric alarm clock. The battery keeps the time when the power goes off, and the time will still be correct when the power is restored. If you have no battery, it will default to 12:00 and flash at you. Same with the BIOS.

Basically that is all the battery in your PC does. It keeps the BIOS running at the correct time until the power is turned back on. other wise it just flashes the default setting at you. instead of 12:00. It's the boot order or any other settings you make changes to.

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There's one thing though at the beginning when I reboot the computer I get 2 options:

F1 for IBM BIOS setup utility

F12 to choose temporary boot device

After I choose any of them, the laptop gives 2 beeps, then I get the following message in the screen still black

ERROR

0271: Check date and time settings

Press <F1> to Setup

I have checked "Date/Time" and the following date is in there:

System Date [01/01/1988]

so I proceeded to change that date to today's date

System Date [01/24/2008]

but still no luck ...

Edited by intocomputing2
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Did you put a new battery in or the old one? You need to install a new CMOS battery. Not only that, but just how old is this laptop? What is the make and model? What OS was installed on it previous?

The laptop is a Thinkpad A31, Windows XP Service Pack 2 was installed on it previously, so I was told. It's lacking the hard drive and the caddy for it, and it still has its battery, so I placed it

Edited by intocomputing2
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When you state you "placed" the battery, do you mean replaced it with a new one? Which battery did you change, the internal CMOS or external power? The Thinkpad A31 has an internal HDD plus a bay that a second HDD or other bay drive can be inserted. Is the internal HDD missing?

Thinkpad A31 User's guides and manuals

Thinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installation

Other TP A31 movies and instructions

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yes i agree with tt

the laptop probably needs a new battery

not replace the old one

when tt asked about the time

the important thing is the current time correct

as well as the date

if the date is wrong the compt will revert back to that time

the goddam battery only costs 40cents

marty

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When you state you "placed" the battery, do you mean replaced it with a new one? Which battery did you change, the internal CMOS or external power? The Thinkpad A31 has an internal HDD plus a bay that a second HDD or other bay drive can be inserted. Is the internal HDD missing?

Thinkpad A31 User's guides and manuals

Thinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installation

Other TP A31 movies and instructions

It was the battery that she used for the system, it is not a new one, and about the video you posted I guess they are taking out the internal battery right?, because the battery I took out is not the one in the vid, it's the battery you use to power up the laptop when you want to work on the road, I'm explaining it like this because I'm not quite sure which the internal CMOS or external power battery are, about the hard drives, yes, there seems to be space for 2, one with a caddy, and another without a caddy I guess? since the space is smaller, which one of the 2 is considered internal? and why is it important if it's missing?

Edited by intocomputing2
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When you state you "placed" the battery, do you mean replaced it with a new one? Which battery did you change, the internal CMOS or external power? The Thinkpad A31 has an internal HDD plus a bay that a second HDD or other bay drive can be inserted. Is the internal HDD missing?

Thinkpad A31 User's guides and manuals

Thinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installation

Other TP A31 movies and instructions

It was the battery that she used for the system, it is not a new one, and about the video you posted I guess they are taking out the internal battery right?, because the battery I took out is not the one in the vid, it's the battery you use to power up the laptop when you want to work on the road, I'm explaining it like this because I'm not quite sure which the internal CMOS or external power battery are.

Ahh. That clears up the confusion.

The CMOS battery (about the size of a penny) is attatched to the motherboard. It's job is to keep power to the BIOS when the laptop is off. Do you have experience disassembling laptops, or atleast computers?

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When you state you "placed" the battery, do you mean replaced it with a new one? Which battery did you change, the internal CMOS or external power? The Thinkpad A31 has an internal HDD plus a bay that a second HDD or other bay drive can be inserted. Is the internal HDD missing?

Thinkpad A31 User's guides and manuals

Thinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installation

Other TP A31 movies and instructions

It was the battery that she used for the system, it is not a new one, and about the video you posted I guess they are taking out the internal battery right?, because the battery I took out is not the one in the vid, it's the battery you use to power up the laptop when you want to work on the road, I'm explaining it like this because I'm not quite sure which the internal CMOS or external power battery are.

Ahh. That clears up the confusion.

The CMOS battery (about the size of a penny) is attatched to the motherboard. It's job is to keep power to the BIOS when the laptop is off. Do you have experience disassembling laptops, or atleast computers?

I have upgraded some parts on a computer before, but it has been simple stuff (RAM memory, hard drive, caddy)

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I just tried something, I went and disabled the options in the boot device list for all the components except the optical drive and the hard drive, since there's no hard drive I tried booting up the laptop with a GParted disk just to see if it works (there's no hard drive so GParted won't do a thing), it loaded and booted up, I tried a Ubuntu live CD after that, but I didn't have the same luck, I ended up with error messages:

Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block [insert different number here]

Edited by intocomputing2
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This is the internal hard drive Hard disk drive removal movie - ThinkPad A30/p, A31/p. If it is missing than you have nothing to work with. The internal hard drive (HDD) is the one that the operating system is loaded on.

You need to replace the internal battery to get things working.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I bump this thread for an update, yesterday in the afternoon my mother gave me the old hard drive for this laptop which she no longer uses, it's an old 40 GB hard drive, I proceeded to install it back into its system and now I have the A31 thinkpad laptop running, I tried out the DVD drive that was me giving issues before and it seems to be working fine now. Therefore, I have 2 systems now: an R40 Thinkpad and an A31 Thinkpad, because of this, I would like to use only one and leave the other laptop for an emergency (in case something goes wrong with the first), I'm inclined on using th R40 as my main system since it has a 2GHz processor in comparison with the A31 that only has an 1.50GHz processor, also the R40 has a touchpad for the laptop, but strangely enough the A31 doesn't, now I would only be using one, which implies that I need only one license for windows, I'd like to use the one from the A31 laptop, but there's a problem, I don't have the original disks for that system, I have only the license key (thanks to Berlac advisor) so I was wondering if it's possible to just use another WinXP CD to install it in the R40 and use the license from the A31 (this way I can save my copy of WinXP with a CD that I was using in my R40 for a later time), by the way, will I have any troubles if I place the license of the A31 on the R40, after it was registered for the A31?, and another thing, can I upgrade the RAM memory on the R40 using RAM memory from the A31?

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I am having a tough time following what you said.

1. Do either of the computers have COA stickers on the bottom with the key?

When some computers leave the factory the use a generic key to install windows. This key is different then what is on the COA. If belarc retrieved the generic key, you will not be able to activate with that. Another problem you may have is needing the correct version of your install disc. if the key in XP pro OEM, you will need a OEM xP pro cd.

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