BIOS not saving boot drive info...

Hey guys, ever since i burnt out a power connector pin on the power connector leading to my graphics card (which i replaced using the one for my CD drive), my computer keeps forgetting which HD it has to use to boot from.

Everytime i switch it on, it says NTLDR missing, which usually means it can't find the boot info, thus requiring a fixboot.

But, it's always accessing the wrong HD. I go into the BIOS advanced settings and look at the HD boot sequence order check, and the non OS HD is always listed first, regardless of how many times i change it to the correct one and save changes.

Is my BIOS battery dead? If so, how come my BIOS version is still the new version?

The BIOS doesn't go blank when the battery dies, it resets to its default settings.

Its likely the battery is toasted. Get a new one to be sure, need a CR2032 type, cost you about a quid. Don't go to PC World though, go to a car spares shop as they're commonly used in remote central locking units. You shouldn't be paying more than about 50p-£1.

If you replace the battery and you still have this problem. Check whether if any othere CMOS settings are resetting them selves to default. If they are then it would mean that the CMOS memory is fried and you will have to buy a new mobo (I had a ASUS board doing this).

Thanks guys, i'll do that... Be as well buying a new computer at this rate.

Well, the battery is your cheapest option so you need to try swapping that out first.

BTW: With CR2032 batteries make sure to only hold it at the edges. The edges and the bottom are positive, the top is negative. If you hold it any other way you can short it and it'll be as useless as the one you already have.

The battery only gives power to a cmos ram (RTC: real time clock) that holds config data used (read and write) by the bios, if you have done an upgrade of your bios, it is stored in an non volatile memory (the flash or eeprom that stores the bios itself) so, your version is the latest you have upgraded.

I agree with others about that the battery is dead.

When you remove the battery, a capacitor near the chip still has charge enaugh to power the cmos ram for a while, so only removing the battery will not clear a password, for example.

Always is better than you insert the battery with the cmos ram unpowered, so first do a short between the 2 pins of the jumper (with a screw).

Edit: I'm sorry, there is a jumper near the battery, if set, only removing the jumper, will cease the power from the battery, but a capacitor holds power for the cmos ram, so if you want to be shure that the memory is unpowered and lost all the info, remove the jumper caps and do a short.

Juan

Ah righty, cheers. My computer is like an old car. Falling apart :o) Suppose £1 is a fair deal ;o)