odum_chumblee said:
I tried removing the battery by the two-pin connector, but it wouldn't really budge and the plastic tabs of the connector started to break off. Does that mean to replace it I'll need to cut the wires and solder the new one on that way? And will having a new battery reset the BIOS and fix the model number?
It's very likely (I can't say for sure yes here) that replacing the CMOS battery will bring all back to life. As far as pulling it, I've come to use plastic tweezers, not to actually pull but to place against the little tabs then tap or push the connector out with my other hand (it's just that it's nearly impossible to grip those tabs with fat fingers). A plastic or wooden pry stick might work also
odum_chumblee said:
As for my other goal of reformatting, would using winnt32.exe or a recovery partition work? I tried doing the Toshiba HDD recovery by holding down "0" at startup to no avail. I'm not sure if it's because I may not have a recovery partition, if I'm using the wrong method to start recovery, or if it just won't work because of the model number.
I'm thinking the CMOS battery is playing a role in that also, give it whirl after replacing the battery, see where you get then