Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Notebook CMOS battery failure AND removing company software?

Apr 12, 2015 3:37AM PDT

I have some Toshiba NB100 notebooks which were given freely to me from work (no longer needed), meaning they have my workplaces own login software installed on them.
I wanted to remove my works software from them (since I do not know the Username/Password to actually log in to the notebook.) So I needed to install a fresh copy of Windows XP onto them. However the BIOS was locked, but I managed to boot from a USB memory stick (which had XP Service Pack 3 on it).

The installation worked and I then installed the necessary drivers onto them. All notebooks were working perfectly fine. However, when I left the notebooks charging overnight and turned them all on again in the morning, each one came up with the message "CMOS Battery failure", and then booted - back into my workplaces own software again (how they were when they were first given to me).

I tried to boot them into the last known configuration, but they would still just boot back up onto my old workplaces software. So I took apart the notebook but could not find the CMOS battery anywhere (even on the motherboard). So what can I do please? Even if I don't find the CMOS battery, is there a way of permanently removing my companys software from the notebooks (I had intended to sell them). That way, even if there was another CMOS battery failure, at least the notebook wouldn't boot back into my companys software - all that would happen is the time and date would reset.

Another question. Why was the "last known configuration" my companys software again - when a fresh install of XP was working perfectly the night before?

Thanks so much for reading through my rambling on question!!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
That was expected.
Apr 12, 2015 3:42AM PDT

I looked up this model and it appears to have SATA HDDs so XP doesn't know how to handle that. Some BIOS include an IDE or other emulation mode so what to do next?

Sorry if I shortchange you on the XP and SATA discussion as it's all been done 1000s of times.

Find an online teardown of that model to fit new CMOS batteries and set the bios to what XP likes. Or catch up on how to install XP to SATA with the floppy disks/drivers and such proper. It's all been written about so many times that again I'll defer to the web.

I can't see what you did to wipe the drive so it's possible you didn't really clean off the drive.
Bob

- Collapse -
(NT) Didn't SP3 support SATA?
Apr 12, 2015 3:45AM PDT
- Collapse -
Not really.
Apr 12, 2015 4:54AM PDT

I still had to either turn on IDE emulation or supply drivers. On top of that the install might look OK but in some systems the old OS survived.

XP is rough on folk in this area unless they've been at it for long and learned about it all.

Toshiba went on a tear and removed online manuals.
http://www.tim.id.au/blog/2012/11/10/toshiba-laptop-service-manuals-and-the-sorry-state-of-copyright-law/

If you are new to laptop repair you may not know what these batteries look like. Toshiba has the service manual and you have to ask them for it. Their rules.
Bob

- Collapse -
So basically what your saying is...
Apr 12, 2015 4:05AM PDT

that I need to install XP from the USB as I had done before, and then on the installation setup screen, "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" - and then install the drivers there and then from a memory stick.

Also I still cannot find the CMOS battery anywhere

And finally, how can I fully clean off the drive without knowing the BIOS p/word? When I freshly installed XP, I thought that by doing so would automatically remove all pre-existing company software.

- Collapse -
Re: install
Apr 12, 2015 4:40AM PDT

- If the install goes OK, my guess is that it's not a SATA issue.
- For the CMOS battery, look in the tech manual.
- You don't need to enter the BIOS to install XP, assuming the PC boots from the XP CD. If it doesn't see if you can reset the BIOS to default (via a jumper on the motherboard, also to be found via the user manual).
- Since the XP install (once you booted from the install disk) lets you partition and format the hard disk, you can use it to remove all existing software.

Kees

- Collapse -
Cleaning a drive without a BIOS password. Easy.
Apr 12, 2015 4:55AM PDT

Put the drive in some other PC and run DBAN on it. Simple pass will do.

As to resetting that password, Toshiba seems to have taken most online content offline. Sad.
Bob