intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) I was given another old laptop , 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 February 12, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubba Bob Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 I'd change the CMOS battery first & foremost. Does the BIOS keep time? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) Does the BIOS keep time?If you are referring to the clock in the "Date/Time" section option in the BIOs, it is running Edited January 24, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubba Bob Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) 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 itI 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 runningBut 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 January 24, 2008 by Bubba Bob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JSKY Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 no luck I've placed the battery and it still doesn't save my changes for the boot order Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) 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 ERROR0271: Check date and time settingsPress <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 dateSystem Date [01/24/2008] but still no luck ... Edited January 24, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 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? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) 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 January 24, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 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 manualsThinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installationOther TP A31 movies and instructions Quote Link to post Share on other sites
martymas Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 yes i agree with ttthe laptop probably needs a new batterynot 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 timethe goddam battery only costs 40centsmarty Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JSKY Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) wrong spot.... Edited January 24, 2008 by JSKY Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 (edited) 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 manualsThinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installationOther TP A31 movies and instructionsIt 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 January 25, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubba Bob Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 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 manualsThinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installationOther TP A31 movies and instructionsIt 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? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 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 manualsThinkpad A31 backup battery removal and installationOther TP A31 movies and instructionsIt 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) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 (edited) 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 January 25, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block [insert different number here]That's a CD-ROM read error, if I'm not mistaken. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted January 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 You need to replace the internal battery to get things working.What does the internal battery looks like?, and where can I get it? when I tried Thinkpad A31 on ebay this is what I got: http://search.ebay.com/thinkpad-A31-batter...ksid=p1638.m120 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 you need to search for a cmos batteryhttp://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?s...earch&fgtp= Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 This is the battery you need. IBM P/N 02K6572, FRU P/N 02K6541The one pictured is a Panasonic CR2032-WR which is a direct replacement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted February 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 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? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 12, 2008 Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
intocomputing2 Posted February 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 (edited) If you mean the product key sticker at the back of the laptop, then yes the A31 has one, although I haven't compared it with the license key Berlac Advisor gives. Edit:They are not the same Edited February 12, 2008 by intocomputing2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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