Toshiba A45-S121

[omad108]

I have a Toshiba A45-S121 that I got from a friend that left the country...
I keeps going back to the same message over and over again and can not turn it on because it keeps doing it over and over.
The message is: "RTC battery is low or CMOS checksum is inconsistent, press F1 to reset date/time. It would have been great if that was all I should have done, but at this point No key does anything, and the only thing I can do is restart... I looked up on the net, and someone said to recharge, the main battery for 8 hrs, will do it... NOT. another said to let it sit with charger on for 15 hrs, and have the laptop on at the same time... NO help there.
Another said to change the Cmos battery... Done that... NO help.
Tried the F12 trick... the computer sits at the Toshiba start up logo, and as soon as I press ANY other key, it goes again to that message... I can not get in to the Bios, and I can not start from a CD, until I pass that message.
HELP PLEASE.
anyone can e-mail me about this, or post a solution?
macabia2004@yahoo.com
Thanks very much.

 

[frozenlead]

The battery on the motherboard is in need of replacement. And that board probably needs a BIOS update.

 

[omad108]

O.K. How do I do that when I can not even get to the bios, or start it with any CD, or other device? You mean the CMOS battery? Already replaced it...

 

[frozenlead]

...that is an excellent question. I suppose I should read better.

Under warranty?

 

[omad108]

So.... Can you or anyone else help? what am I to do next? what is the cause of that?

 

[dwellman]

Sounds electrical

Remove the hard drive and optical drive and the internal mini-pci card(s). . .

Basically you want to stip it down to the minimal configuration needed to post: processor +RAM.

Memory could be a problem too so if you have a known good module from a different source try that. If you have two sodimms in there, try one sodimm then another.

By all means do leave the main battery out during all this. When li-ion batteries die they can cause all sorts of weird things to happen even when it's replaced with a new one, untill the new one is recalibrated (Compaq, Gateway, Acer have this problem-- stupid battery controllers)

 

[cheaptofix]

your bios battery is low you need to change it (not the battery under the laptop) its a watch size battery hidden inside the laptop, your laptop must be old like over 4 years that's why. change it and problem is solved

or always keep it charged and plugged into ac.

 

[omad108]

Dwellman. Your advice seems to be working... I did not do anything special yet, just took off the battery, the HD, and the CD drive out. then when rebooting, there was a message,, ID#0 error, then ID#1 error, then I pressed the F12 button, and it went in to the bios menu!! GREAT.. Now that was in the morning befor rushing to work so I just left in this position, and will re post furthere advances.. THANK YOU SO MUCH SO FAR...

 

[dwellman]

Those errors, I think, are just the BIOS complaining the drives are missing. . . quaint.

 

[omad108]

Dwellman. YOU DID IT MAN!! That was all that was needed to get in to the bios, that was sitting at 01/01/2000 for some reason... Reset the time and date, and was back in business in no time.
Thanks again, and save this solution for the next hair pulling guy...

DWELLMAN ROCKS!!

 

[dwellman]

Sure. No problem.