How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

[gastorgrab]

I was volunteered to change a display in my sisters laptop. The display works fine but the machine is doing some wierd things.

About halfway through the project i realized that the battery was still powered up. The USB port doesn't seem to be active anymore and the XP Product Validation is calling the installed copy "Invalid".

I wouldn't think that a display alone could change the Windows PID but if the bios is hung so that certain hardware isn't detected correctly it might.

I don't remember seeing a battery like my many desktops have. So how do laptops keep the firmware active?
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[gdement]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

On the Thinkpads I've worked on, there's a coin cell battery which is accessible from one of the panels. It's all wrapped up in tape and has wires hanging off of it. I'd assume (perhaps foolishly) that most laptops put the CMOS battery within reach, though it might not be obvious where to find it.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

The batteries are usually 1 to 3 coin cells in heat-shrink with a lead and plug similar to a cell phone battery. (Some have a socket like a desktop.)
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Some (not many) laptops have a reset button accessible through a hole on the bottom of the laptop. (Does the same thing as the jumper on a desktop motherboard.)

[bgavin]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

I wrote an ASM utility that ripples zeros through CMOS. This causes a checksum error, and forces the machine to reload CMOS from NVS.

PM me, and I will send you a copy.

[gastorgrab]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

Update:

I think that the USB connector is just worn out. I was able to wiggle the plug and get it working.

Some of the other quirks were smoothed by loading defaults in bios, rebooting, and then resetting the specifics.


I have no clue why 'Windows Genuine Advantage' would report this as an invalid copy of Windows. This is a Compaq Presario R3000 with a Compaq branded WinXP Pro, that until two months ago was worked on exclusively by Compaq.


At least it works well enough for me to post this message from.
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[bgavin]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

Your Win registration is probably broken or some hardware has changed sufficiently to invalidate the registration hash of the original hardware.

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/

This is free ware that will retrieve the installed keys for Windows and Office. Use it to check your installed key vs. the box. If different, the tool will update it on the machine.

You may have to run the registration wizard and force the machine to re-register (it will fail), then call MS with hat-in-hand to have them issue you a new registration code. Tell them the machine crashed and you replaced the system board.

[gastorgrab]

Re: How is the CMOS cleared in a laptop?

I ended up using XP-antispy to turn off the annoying message. When my sister stopped by to pick it up i questioned her about it and.........

It seems that her husband 'fixed' it once before. The copy of XP could be a "special" public version of Windows......she wasn't really sure.

It wouldn't have been nice for her to tell me that Windows wasn't broken before i attempted to fix it.

Also, the USB connector was already broken.
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