ERROR 0280 Previous boot incomplete

Question

I was listening to some songs on my inspiron 600m laptop (windows xp home edition) when all of a sudden my computer shuts down and restarts.. but it only reaches uptil the dell icon comes up and then restarts again.. it kepps doing this over and over. i have not downladed any thing on my computer for days although i did transfer some videos from another computer recently. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME. Ive read somewhere that this has something to do with the CMOS battery??? but how can i check if that is the case? i havent changed any settings.. so im sure it cant be that. the only error message i get is 'ERROR 0280 Previous boot incomplete' press F1 to continue and then it starts to reset itself again n again. is this a software , hardware problem?? or a virus/malware/spyware??? HELP!

mombodog · Answer

0280Previous boot incomplete. Run the BIOS Setup Utility and Load Setup Defaults DIMM   (bad memory module) System board  (bad motherboard) most likely 1 Strike F2 when given the oppourtunity, and look in the bios for 'Load defaults' or similar   cmos (reserve) battery here, if there is no 'Load defaults' option in the Bios, remove the battery for 15 minutes and then reinsert.  <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Mexxx · Answer

Hey mombodog.. thanks for the reply.. and since i had no reset default option i loooked for the cmos battery.. i found the battery latch and evrything like it says in the documentation but there is no battery in there! is that normal?? the space is completely empty..??

mombodog · Answer

Well then it is a hunt, there is no reference in the Doc's about the cmos battery, this makes me think it is a non serviceable part, maybe soldered to the mobo, so there must be a way to reset the nvram, have not found it yet.   < ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>  in case you want to do surgery.

mombodog · Answer

Then turn the computer on, F2 for bios, Alt-F to restore BIOS defaults

Mexxx · Answer

Factory setting doesnt help either.. all it does is change the time and date to when the computer was made.. but the probelm still remains.. NO BOOT

mombodog · Answer

Move on to step 2   Then suspect a bad memory module, if there are 2 installed, remove 1 and try to boot, if no success, swap out the memory sticks.. If only 1 stick in the system, you need to find a known good stick of memory for testing purposes.

Windows General

ERROR 0280 Previous boot incomplete

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