UMMM laptops, Bleah

N

NeverBeGosu

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
108
Ok so heres the low down. My freind bought a old laptop from a gentleman and she gave it to me to format and reinstall windows. The guy has all the software bundles with windows and all so i dont have to worry about fraudulant use of software. So I get the stuff set up in my room and put in the dell os disk to reinstall but the bios has hd on first boot. So I tried to enter the bios, but it was password protected. So first thought was to flash with floppy. So i made a floppy boot with flash for the right version and placed it into the floppy drive, but again guess the thing isnt set up to boot off floppy either. So then track down the guy who sold her the laptop and asked him the password. He said he didnt know it, then proceded to give me like 15 passwords to try. Which is kinda scary cuase they were probably universal :)... Dumb old guy... So anyways, then i take the laptop apart, FIRST TIME DOING A LAPTOP, and found out that its not like a desktop. I couldnt find a cmos. So now im out of ideas. And if at first you dont succeede. Find a GEEK that knows what there doing. And scince im a proud GEEK and know theres many others out here, where better to go then to HARDFORUM. :) If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
 
there should be a small battery on the motherboard
you can try unpluging it and waiting awhile (30 seconds) then plugging it back in. if there is not plug then short the battery out for 2 seconds and your cmos settings should be restored please attempt the first option before trying the second one
 
ok thanks, anyone know hwere this little cmos is usually at on a dell? cuase i searched for it. :) must be hidden somewhere. :)
 
you have compartments on the bottom of your dell, usually a small glasses screw driver set can take out the screwns, remove teh covers, you'll see the CMOS battery below either the ram or add-on cards. Its there dont worry :D
 
What model Dell is it? I know most of their newer models and can tell you exactly where the CMOS battery is. (On Inspiron 8xxx and Latitude C8xx it's actually in the palm rest)
 
thanks, all ill hit it up tonight, been busy, and got act to take in the morning so i need something to lift my spirits. Maybe if I fix it it will boost my test scores :). BUt then again if i dont, ill be pissed, then ill take the test pissed :)
 
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