CMOS Problem?

[Linus]

I am running an eight year old Pentium 4 and multi booting Windows ME and two

local language versions of Windows XP.



Recently, every time I boot ME I see a message that says “Preparing to start

your new computer, this will a few minutes.†Then the system spends 15

minutes loading data, then boots up and works fine.



I suspected the CMOS battery but I was puzzled because both language

versions of XP boot up just fine. I checked the 3volt battery and it only

registered less than one volt, so I replaced it but that didn’t have any

effect on my problem with ME.



Now I suspect that I need to reset the CMOS, but don’t understand how all

three operating systems share it and don’t know what will happen to my XP

systems, or how to reset it just for ME.



Any guidance you can give me will be appreciated.





--

Linusverl

 

[Elmo]

Linus wrote:

> I am running an eight year old Pentium 4 and multi booting Windows ME and two

> local language versions of Windows XP.

>

> Recently, every time I boot ME I see a message that says “Preparing to start

> your new computer, this will a few minutes.†Then the system spends 15

> minutes loading data, then boots up and works fine.

>

> I suspected the CMOS battery but I was puzzled because both language

> versions of XP boot up just fine. I checked the 3 volt battery and it

> registered less than one volt, so I replaced it but that didn’thave any

> effect on my problem with ME.

>

> Now I suspect that I need to reset the CMOS, but don’t understand how all

> three operating systems share it and don’t know what will happen to my XP

> systems, or how to reset it just for ME.

>

> Any guidance you can give me will be appreciated.



It's more likely that the settings aren't being remembered, possibly

because the profile is damaged. Run scandisk first to see if that

repairs a damaged file or two. Here are a few search results I found:



From a 2003 post:

http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=2145.0



After reading a looong thread with no solution, I suspect that either a

registry file is damaged or missing, or there's a registry entry that

needs to be removed, possibly a Runonce entry. Here's the fruitless

thread, which does show many suggestions to NOT consider:



http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/165870-48-question-reinstalling-hard-drive



A lone post, with no replies, suggested that FDISK /MBR could possibly

solve the problem.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/1056466154



Much less likely a solution: KellysTweaks suggests the following

registry repair for XP if your settings aren't saved. You could

possibly look through those registry entries on the Win Me install to

see if the entries are there, and whether the values are "1" or "0".



--



Joe =o)

 

[T Shadow]

"Linus" wrote in message

news:5A3DDCB4-7725-4635-9939-6FDD83826362@microsoft.com...

>I am running an eight year old Pentium 4 and multi booting Windows ME and

>two

> local language versions of Windows XP.

>

> Recently, every time I boot ME I see a message that says "Preparing to

> start

> your new computer, this will a few minutes." Then the system spends 15

> minutes loading data, then boots up and works fine.

>

> I suspected the CMOS battery but I was puzzled because both language

> versions of XP boot up just fine. I checked the 3volt battery and it only

> registered less than one volt, so I replaced it but that didn't have any

> effect on my problem with ME.

>

> Now I suspect that I need to reset the CMOS, but don't understand how all

> three operating systems share it and don't know what will happen to my XP

> systems, or how to reset it just for ME.

>

> Any guidance you can give me will be appreciated.

>

>

> --

> Linusverl



At one volt the battery has probably been dead a long time. The system only

uses it when power isn't received from the power supply. The loss of power

from the supply may have something to do with it but more likely a

coincedence that clouds the situation.



Elmo's scandisk recommendation would be the place to start but after I'd try

to find info on fixing ME. As if it has nothing to do with multi-booting.

Could be that it doesn't start correctly because it(ME) doesn't shut down

correctly. Win9x/ME really have stabiliy issues and are very prone to

problems.