E510 CMOS battery

Thank you jsktx.

 This PC was sitting/stored unplugged for 4 1/2 years [only used for 6 mo.] They thought it had been hit by lightning. Turned out that the external switch on the power supply was accidentally turned off when the PC was moved on the desk. Lucky me, huh? So I felt the battery would be dead by now but the clock is still "right on" every day.

So my main question was going to be: As long as this battery is so very easy to get to, why not pop it out of there carefully with my little plastic screwdriver and replace it while in standby mode. I was hoping to avoid any "resetting".

Thanks,

Mike

Thank you jsktx.  This PC was sitting/stored unplugged for 4 1/2 years [only used for 6 mo.] They thought it had been hit by lightning. Turned out that the external switch on the power supply was accidentally turned off when the PC was moved on the desk. Lucky me, huh? So I felt the battery would be dead by now but the clock is still "right on" every day. So my main question was going to be: As long as this battery is so very easy to get to, why not pop it out of there carefully with my little plastic screwdriver and replace it while in standby mode. I was hoping to avoid any "resetting". Thanks, Mike

Thanks Bev,

I know you are right and I will do it right. It's just that I've always got so much to do and so little time to do it. Always looking for a quicker way ya know, but I "surely" DO know better.  ["and don't call me Shirley" - Leslie Nielsen, really miss him].     [:)

Thanks again Bev,

Enjoy the day,

Mike

I had to change my CMOS battery, on my C521 and now I keep getting a "disk drive 0 search failure" message.  I've tried all the hints others said to do when they got this message but none of them work.  I go into F2 but I can't change anything in the BIOS setup; I don't have a CMOS Features on the list. One message said to go into F2 and re-enter the drive settings.  I don't seem to be able to reset them.  In the HDDP Boot section, I did have a SATA 0 and a SATA 1 plus a Boot list; now I only have  the SATA 0 setting; SATA 1 disappeared and I have no clue how to get it back or if that is the problem.  Nancy

Yes, I installed the battery right side up - it is clearly shown how in the manual directions.  The F2 setup clearly states when I enter it (using Enter and Arrows) that none of the fields can be modified.  The manual says the same thing in the System Setup Options appendix.

Did you install the new battery right-side-up?

Power off, unplug and press/hold power button on tower for ~15 sec

Open the case and remove the battery

Press/hold power button again for ~30 sec

Reinstall the battery (right-side-up!) and see if you can change BIOS settings now

If that doesn't help, you can also try using the jumper <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell to reset BIOS and see if that solves the problem.

Ron

...and are you using the arrow and Enter keys to move around in BIOS setup? The mouse typically doesn't work in BIOS Setup

Ron

Thanks Bev, I know you are right and I will do it right. It's just that I've always got so much to do and so little time to do it. Always looking for a quicker way ya know, but I "surely" DO know better.  ["and don't call me Shirley" - Leslie Nielsen, really miss him].     [:) Thanks again Bev, Enjoy the day, Mike

Don't know about the C521, but the manual has been wrong about the battery for other Dell models. I do not suggest you reverse it.

Don't know where you read that none of the BIOS Setup fields can be modified. The C521 manual  <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell > says:

Options List — This field appears on the left side of the system setup window. The field is a scrollable list containing features that define the configuration of your computer, including installed hardware, power conservation, and security features.

Scroll up and down the list by using the up- and down- arrow keys. As an option is highlighted, the Option Field displays more information about that option and the option's current and available settings.

Obviously there are some things you can't changein BIOS setup like the  Processor Info or Memory Info. But, you should be able to  change the  Diskette Drive option to OFF.

Ron

The Diskette drive is set to OFF.  The legend on the right field says "Off = all floppy drives are disabled."  But I still get the Drive 0 seek failure when I boot up.

ngc,

Try running the Dell Diagnostics either from F12 option during boot or booting from the Drivers and Utilities disk.  It's possible the hard drive has failed.  The diagnostics should confirm this or not.

That's interesting.  I can do F1 and the computer boots up just fine and I can work from my C drive.  I would have thought if the hard drive had failed, I wouldn't be able to continue to work??  I am not yet connected to the Internet; I was going to sign up for Verizon wireless access but was not sure if the seek failure would be a factor in accessing the internet.

Thanks.  I don't have either an internal or an external floppy drive.  The error only showed up after I changed the battery.  The time and date are running just fine, show the correct time and date.  I'll try the F12 route.

That's interesting.  I can do F1 and the computer boots up just fine and I can work from my C drive.  I would have thought if the hard drive had failed, I wouldn't be able to continue to work??  I am not yet connected to the Internet; I was going to sign up for Verizon wireless access but was not sure if the seek failure would be a factor in accessing the internet.

If BIOS Setup is showing the floppy drive is OFF but you're still getting that floppy drive error message at each boot, this is starting to sound like a motherboard issue. Reboot and press F12. Go to Utilities partition and run all the tests.

BTW: Do you have an internal (or external) floppy drive on this system?

The floppy error shouldn't affect your ability to access the internet, unless it is a sign of a bigger problem on this motherboard...  :emotion-7:

Ron