keep getting this screen. advice please

[Fred Blogs]

Without the above troubleshooting initially, i fail to see how you come to the conclusion of it being a faulty CMOS battery....

Because it's 99% certain that it is the CMOS battery. The Cmos battery is also the easiest thing to check first and if it isn't the CMOS battery then go all the gumf that you mentioned.

 

[opps]

I too would go with the CMOS battery needing to be replaced.

A give away is that the BIOS will not know what the date is if you leave it unplugged for a prolonged period.

 

[opps]

If you're still having the issue, the issue is likely caused by the motherboard, main board that everything plugs into, not finding the hard drive with windows installed.

Firstly, try removing any USB devices, (keyboard, mouse, USB Storage) then reset and try rebooting.

Assuming that doesn't fix the issue, you'll need to replug the keyboard and mouse in and change the boot order of the drives around, or force boot from each drive to see which, if any, goes to windows. Difficult to say exactly where this option would be for you, as all motherboards show this slightly differently.

If this still doesn't fix the issue, you may need to open the machine up and see if any drives are disconnected, or have loose cables.

Failing that, it's difficult to really say remotely sorry.

The BIOS seems to flagging up before even searching for the MBR (master boot record). Hence, most of us assume that it is down to the CMOS battery. From memory, if it can't find the MBR, it will ask which drive has the MBR.

+++++edit++++++

I once had to repair a PC that had a dodgy USB port that had been mullered. One of the pins was touching the earth. The BIOS wouldn't even reach POST, this one seems to POST and identify the drives.

 

[JD2012]

Don't bother with cheap ones. They usually fail after a short time in my experience.
Bought a pack of 6 watch batteries and had used them all within 12 months. Bought a single one from a jeweller, for roughly the same price, (£8.99), and it's still going strong over 2 years later.

True enough with the cheap ones.

 

[Diver Fred]

The CMOS battery could be a rechargeable cell - the symptoms you describe are the same Toshiba laptops have when the cell is pat it's working life.