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September 3rd, 2009 18:00
Windows will not start after replacing cmos battery
Dell Dimension 8400
Windows XP Pro Bios A01
I recently replaced the cmos (motherboard battery). Foolishly, I did not record the BIOS settings and so was getting the "diskette 0 failed" error and had to reset BIOS settings. Now, I get through POST (past the "hit F1to proceed or F2 to enter set up) stage. But I end up with a blue stop screen that mentions running a CHKDSK but I cannot boot into the OS in any mode (safe, etc.) nor can I boot from the Windows recovery disk. At the same time I replaced the battery I removed two sticks of memory (256MB) and replaced them with two sticks of 1 GB memory. All from crucial. Total memory now is 3GB (two 1GB sticks and two 512 MB sticks). In set up all the memory is recognized. Any suggestions?
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Mary G
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20.1K Posts
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September 3rd, 2009 20:00
You probably realize this now--you should not perform 2 or more upgrades or changes at the same time. I have a Dim 8400 and the bios settings have to be tweaked after resetting to the defaults. Go back into the bios and go through each page to see which setting needs to be changed. It might be the raid setting. I think that's the one I had to change when I reset to the defaults. You can try each raid setting. It will just give you an error if it's wrong and you can go back and change it. You should not even see "hit F1 etc" unless there is something wrong with the bios settings. Here are the bios settings and explanations from the 8400 manual. Another thing that needed changing in mine was the hard drive connections. I added a second boot drive for a dual boot. If you have just one drive it will be drive 0. But 2 drives on mine were connected to Drive 0 and Drive 2 connectors on the motherboard. This might not apply to your setup, but that Chkdsk message suggests something is wrong with the boot drive or the system files. Check the boot order and make sure the main hard drive is first on the list of drives. Use the F12 key to select the cd drive to boot to the windows disk and put the windows cd in the upper cd-dvd drive which is the master.
I can't see why changing the bios battery would cause problems. Make sure it is installed properly and is tight in the clips. It could be the memory. You must install matching chips in slots 1 & 2 and in 3 & 4 and the slots are not adjacent to each other. They are from the top--slot 1, slot 3, slot 2 and slot 4 as shown here. I hope this helps. There are more informative pages in the manual at the links above.