Date time & windows boot
 

Got a little problem my clock battery on laptop has given up the ghost completely, so have to manually reset date/time, to which buggers Xp up, whether that is the sole problem for it failing to boot up properly 1st time, or whether its because its an older laptop - i dont know :confused: its had a clean install as well.

As with laptops being 'fragile' & compact getting to the motherboard is a problem & could cause more damage than just changing the little battery - otherwise works well [as know a previous laptops motherboard:(].

Is there a another way to update time via net synchronizing ok wont cure the boot up problem, keep it as it is tho dont mind manually resetting time/date its less annoying than the booting up of windows or overwite with another OS:confused:

Any ideas
TIA

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Usually teh CMOS battery is hidden behind a small cover underneath so it isn't a major problem to change it.

You can use network time servers to keep it up to date but as this wouldn't be available till XP has booted and established a network connection your underlying problem would still exist.

What make/model of lappy is it?

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Its a easy one silver 2121 PBell.

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Its a standard CR2032 available for ~£3 from asda and teh like. Location is next to the CPU as in this picture

Easy One Silver easy one silver Mitac 7521 7521c 7521p 7521T 7521N cmos bios battery cr2032 bare cell

You need to look underneath teh laptop. Usually there are little panels that come out allowing you to upgrade memory/disk drives etc. I would be surprised if there isn't one that lets you get to this battery.

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Thats cheap & local then, i've changed my HD so i know its not under there & theres only one slot [otherwise its the whole back off] for memory sticks but again will have to take the whole back off [after with other lappy fiasco i dont want to mess really]

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Nope think i've got more of a problem than just the clock battery, it wont boot up proper now just on a permanent re-boot as soon as windows xp loads, same on safe mode & other boot up methods, seems windows maybe goosed:(

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

You can check teh hardware is OK by trying a Linux Live CD. Basicaly an OS that runs from CD. Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu is a good place to start.

By running teh laptop with this you will find out if there is an underlying hardware issue as it will also affect this

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

That wont ****** up the laptop will it as not familiar with linux & sceptical about doing something worse

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

It doesn't touch anything unless you tell it to install. It runs purely from CD(a bit slow obviously as CD is a slow medium compared with Hard disc).

If you need to rescue any data from the drive before re-installing windows it will allow you to squirt the data off the hard disk to either mem stick or over a network (local or interweb) or if there is more than one cd writer in teh machine (laptops obviously tend to just have 1, desktops don't) to disc.

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

What if its a windows problem would linus still work or would it better a clean install with linus than windows:confused:

Downloading the disk, how do u save it as to work - been told if its not right it wont work anyways??

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

If its just a windows problem the disc will run and allow you to do stuff (There is a load of software included. If it keeps falling over/restarting etc then you have a hardware issue

Save the ISO to disc, use whatever software you normally use to create a bootable CD (Look for Burn disc image or ISO options). i.e. you don't want to burn the one large data file to disc, its actually a disc image containing hundreds of programs that gets 'unpacked' as it is burnt.

Linux vs Windows is a discussion for another thread. Depending on what you use your PC for will say whether you could use Linux or not. Windows programs don't work on it but there is normally a Linux equivilant.

I'm happy to chat through what Linux is and can do as is Cyfr and some of our other Penguin based members.

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

If you do make the move you might find THIS page helpful for finding equivalent programs

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Thanks everyone for your help much appreciated & sorry to have wasted anyones time but laptop is a duffer:(

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

How did you come to that conclusion?

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

At a guess the window cleaner has nothing to clean next week :rolleyes:

Re: Date time & windows boot
 

Damn right quite a bit drafty now - answer Neil neither boots up in windows nor linux so thats the conclusion before it got a throwing:mad: