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PAUL161

PAUL161

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When a message referring to the internal battery is displayed, are they talking about the button battery? If this battery looses it's power, what can happen?

Another question for another computer; If a computer boots normal on a cold boot, but flashes a blue screen on a reboot, (hot boot?)and goes to the black boot question screen, what could cause this situation? Shutting the computer down and immediately cold booting it up, it will boot normal every time. Crazy, never had this happen before. Both computers are lap tops. PJ
 
Hi Paul - I assume you're talking about a laptop or desktop computer that displays that message when you power it up?

Just about 100% sure it's telling you that the internal ("motherboard") battery needs replacing. Usually costs about $5 - a "button cell".

If that cell goes totally kerflooey, the computer forgets it has things like keyboard, display, hard drive, graphics, etc. Not pretty.

Usually those button cells (used to be called CMOS batteries) last five or six years.

Second issue: I'd need to know what the "black boot question screen" actually says. Could be many things - power supply, loose video/memory card, failing cpu, loose cables inside or out, etc.

Tom
 
PAUL161 said:
When a message referring to the internal battery is displayed, are they talking about the button battery? If this battery looses it's power, what can happen?
Click to expand...

Generally it will refer to the internal battery on the motherboard. If this battery goes flat, the machine will lose the current settings in the BIOS. If you have made any changes to these settings you will lose those changes, and the settings will return to the defaults. The biggest thing you would notice is the machine will not display the correct time and date.

re reading your post- since this is a laptop- the message could be referring to the laptop battery itself. With most likely the same results.

Here is a link to a battery monitoring apps that may be helpful.

PAUL161 said:
Another question for another computer; If a computer boots normal on a cold boot, but flashes a blue screen on a reboot, (hot boot?)and goes to the black boot question screen, what could cause this situation? Shutting the computer down and immediately cold booting it up, it will boot normal every time. Crazy, never had this happen before. Both computers are lap tops. PJ
Click to expand...

Not sure on this would need more info.


m
 
NutmegCT said:
Hi Paul - I assume you're talking about a laptop or desktop computer that displays that message when you power it up?

Just about 100% sure it's telling you that the internal ("motherboard") battery needs replacing. Usually costs about $5 - a "button cell".

If that cell goes totally kerflooey, the computer forgets it has things like keyboard, display, hard drive, graphics, etc. Not pretty.

Usually those button cells (used to be called CMOS batteries) last five or six years.

Second issue: I'd need to know what the "black boot question screen" actually says. Could be many things - power supply, loose video/memory card, failing cpu, loose cables inside or out, etc.

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom, The black screen says. Start windows Normal, Advanced start with last Normal start, Safe mode start with C:\ screen and Safe mode. When a reboot is called for, a flash of blue screen flys by, but is too fast to read. I was told it was the master boot record on the hard drive and I took care of that by reinstalling the MBR, but as soon as it calls for a reboot, all the mess starts over again.
Now remember, if I shut the computer down and make a cold boot, everything is fine. PJ
 
OK - now *that* sounds like Windows files may be corrupt. Could be due to a virus/worm etc., or could be corrupt Windows files due to hardware problem.

When's the last time you scanned the entire computer with an antivirus/antibad stuff program? Boot into Windows Safe Mode, then run the "deep" scan.

Again, assuming that "black screen boot" problem is the only problem you're having with that machine.

Tom
 
Tom, I have Nortons 360 in the machine in question and have run 3 or 4 full scans. No viruses picked up. The blue screen flash on initial boot, when rebooting, (warm boot), seems to be the culprit. To take it to a guru, the charge would be more than a new hard drive, which for some reason periodically drops the MBR. To me, that would indicate a hard drive problem? There easy to change, but then again it might be a software problem. ???? PJ
 
Well, Norton is usually 90% successful :jester:

So IF it's not a virus/trojan corruption problem, before I'd replace the HD, I'd use Windows built-in System Restore.

Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore.

Restore won't affect your personal files (photos, documents, etc.). Choose a restore point prior to when this problem started up again.

Give it a shot and let us know what happens.

I'm still thinking hardware problem, but the Restore will help pin things down.

Tom
 
there is a website called bleepingcomputer.com which can be very helpful for this sort of thing.
 
Hi Paul,
You might want to run a scandisk on your boot drive. See if that finds or fixes any problems with bad sectors. Check both options on the scandisk window to scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors.
 
Greg - Scandisk is an excellent suggestion for the symptom Paul describes. I'd certainly run that before the System Restore. Completely forgot that one.

My ol' brain jumped a couple decades from CHKDSK /F to SystemRestore, and forgot all in between.

Tom
 
Well, found out it might be a memory problem. Not saying it's a fix but, I sent for a couple new CPU batteries as I think the one in the computer in question is bad. We'll see. Who invented these things anyway? Drive you nuts.
 
Wait 'til we're all segue'd into hand-helds... They'll be hermetically sealed. "No User Serviceable Parts Inside."
 
DrEntropy said:
Wait 'til we're all segue'd into hand-helds... They'll be hermetically sealed. "No User Serviceable Parts Inside."
Click to expand...

Yeah, kinda like Apple products.
 
You mean throwaways? :sick: or this! :hammer:
 
The "black screen" you're referring to appears when the operating system was not shut down properly. If you force a reboot, such as pressing a reset button on the computer rather than shutting down through the OS, then that screen automatically appears upon reboot to allow you to choose in what manner you would like to boot - normally or in diagnostic modes. If this screen is appearing after a normal software reboot then I would agree that there is probably something flummoxed in the system files. Shouldn't be difficult to remedy.
 
So Paul, what's the status? What action have you taken?

Tom
 
I just tried scandisk... no joy. :devilgrin: :rolleyes:
 
NutmegCT said:
So Paul, what's the status? What action have you taken?

Tom
Click to expand...

I ran a diagnostic check on the whole system and got a feed back that the cmos battery is not being recognized! I sent for a couple of them and will see if that does the trick when they come.
Question, are all the cmos batteries with the same pig tail the same voltage, or do different brands, such as, Dell, HP etc require different voltages for the board? PJ
 
They can be different sizes, voltages and connector types. Model specific.
 
Thanks Doc! I ordered a couple that are supposed to be for a Dell, the subject computer. If one of those, a 3.4 volt, doesn't work, it's off to the shop! PJ
 
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