is this a dead one?

[usm76]

Hi.
Been having some problems with a laptop firstly it was giving me an cmos error message and i changed the battery (tried starting without it and it recognised that it was missing). So now the battery is changed and i get a normal start exept it says "press f2 to enter system configuration" or something like that, the problem is that nothing happens when i press f2 it just stays still with an annoying blinking line it's mocking me hehe.

Well any ideas to what could be the problem here...it's realy driving me nuts been working on finding a sollution for a long time now.

[edwin]

make and model?

[usm76]

Amitech freenote 4705 - insyde software mobilepro bios version 4.00.01

System bios R1.06

That help?

BTW. i also tried booting without HD and ram stick : with no ram sticks at all = nothing laptop start dvd starts spinning but nothing on screen. With one stick inserted i get the same error with or without HD (that is "press f2...."

[edwin]

checked all connection in particular the keyboard cabling? I suspect in order to get to the cmos battery you had to wiggle about near the keyboard connector?

[usm76]

Aha...i will check that thank you

[usm76]

ok i checked the connector from the keyboard to the base of the laptop (some thin flat wire) it goes down into a connector i removed it and put it back again but no difference.

I'm beginning to wonder if something in this thin wire is broken, maybe i can use a ps/2 keyboard to check if that works (can i use an external keyboard to enter bios settings you think?)

[edwin]

that would be the next step indeed.

[usm76]

i will to to get hold of an old ps/2 keyboard then (using a wireless keyboard on this one) i'll try it and post my results thanx.

[usm76]

ok tried it...but no luck i also tried this trick with the internal keyboard disconnected but the same problem stands: it doesn't recognice me pressing the f2 button for some strange reason. The Amitech support said that i should try to disconnect the dvd drive - tried it and guess what? nothing

[usm76]

An uppdate: A "strange" thing just occured i tried to reseat the cmos battery again and when i started the laptop i got an "Warning CMOS error please run syset" but nothing happened with f2 again so i restarted and no warning this time but i'm still "locked out".

Another thing woth mentioning is before all this i removed the cmos battery and left it out for about a week (forgot to test laptop) and when i seated it it went pased this f2 thingy but stopped later on (probably because if i recall correctly windows has crashed on the HD), the f2 problem occured after i restarted the laptop after that time.

Don't know if this shines any light on the problem but i thought it was woth mentioning.

BTW. just talked to the Amitech support again and he said that it was prob. the motherboard gone bad and i should buy a new one from them, now nothing bad against Amitech but i really don't trust someone just telling me to buy a new one when they work at the company selling them . And in my experience (with other computers, not laptops that is) you get a series of beeping noices telling you something is wrong.