If the CMOS battery runs out will it stop the computer from booting?

Question

About 2 weeks ago i got a message after boot up saying that my cmos battery was low - this resulted in my boot-up sequence changing (instead of the text identifying all the hardrives, cd-roms etc i got a screen with the logo "msi the link to the future") and windows forgot the date and time but everything still worked. However now my computer will not run windows, it always restarts itself just before the windows logo appears (the bit with windows xp and the green or blue? colours going across it) or if it doesn't restart then it just sits there doing nothing. I have tried booting off my other hardrive but no success. I have also tried reinstalling windows but after the very 1st bit where it says "press f6 if u want to install raid and scsi drivers" it then goes blank and there is no more text on the windows install screen. I have 2 copies of xp and both discs to exactly the same. So i was thinking that this problem was due to my cmos battery running out? any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

i reckon you're right, simple as that! CMOS has forgotten where all the computer's gonads are to be found. The better name for the CMOS is "Basic Input Output System" (BIOS), which means, "list of where all the things are that I need to do anything - absolutely anything - at all!" Replace the battery and try to figure out what the settings ought to be - that may take expert help. But once your settings are restored and it finds the disk, everything should get back to normal.

If you don't get some of the more subtle settings right, windows may still load but some hardware may not work. Again, expert required.

Note for future: when you get a new computer, go into the BIOS and write down all the settings in a safe place...

Answer 2

When the CMOS battery went dead, you probably lost some of the memory and devices settings stored in CMOS. Without knowing the model/make of the PC, what CMOS/BIOS is has, what your memory and hardware devices are, etc, it is difficult to guess what settings those would be.

The PC is hanging at the desktop background and before anything appears because is it attempting to configure something that it can't. Have you tried booting the PC in Safe Mode? Often that will allow it to bypass the configuration files and load. Sometimes just getting the PC up in Safe Mode will allow it to reslove the issue. (To get to Safe Mode, press the F8 key repeatedly during boot up.)

You can also try checking in the BIOS itself to see if it has a place to reset the BIOS to its default settings. That may resolve the issues. If not, you may have to work your way throught the BIOS settings until you find the solution.

Goood luck.

Answer 3

Eventually it will. It's usually a lithium battery that will function properly when your computer is turned on, but when it's off, it loses time and date information. Once you replace the battery you may have to edit your cmos settings... making sure that the hard drive type, size, sectors, etc. are correctly set.

Answer 4

buy new battery and keep one spare

Answer 5

yes i think so