CPU starts up in DOS

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

After a replacing the main power source. My CPU starts up in DOS instead of Windows Vista - Why? How do I change the CPU to boot up in Vista? When the CPU starts up it ask me to press F1 to continue - then it finds Vista and opens up the operating system.

I did replace this CMOS battery before I replaced the main power source.
Do I need to take the CMOS battery out and reinsert it again?

Thanks for everyone's input. I have not solved the issue yet - I am all over the set up in utilities, and see most of the items everyone is suggesting.

Here is the order of information on the 1st screen in DOS (maybe this additional information will help us all)

Diskette drive 0 seek failure
Press F1 to continue, F2 to enter setup

I then press F2 to enter setup which takes me into the utilities - I have performed the suggestions given on this forum - I just haven't found the right configuration and I assume each time I make a change, I need to save to the CMOS battery.

boosted1g · Mar 25, 2014

You need to replace your CMOS battery on yoru mainboard (round disc battery like a watch)

Your PC has reverted back to default sytem time and default settings.

One you replace the CMOS battery then you can save your bios settings/time and it should boot straight to Vista

noidea_77 · Mar 25, 2014

It seems to be an older machine? Obviously not only the PSU was faulty, but in addition the cmos battery is empty after all these years. Because of that, the PC lost the bios configuration. Enter bios, set the date / time and the boot sequence (hdd fist), but first replace the battery.

danny2000 · Mar 25, 2014

It sounds as if you need to reset the boot order to boot to the hard drive first.
You would need to go into the BIOS (usually by pressing F2, Esc, or F10 as the computer first turns on) to let the BIOS know to boot to the hard drive first.

boosted1g · Mar 25, 2014

Any settings he changes wont stay until he replaces the CMOS battery

boosted1g · Mar 25, 2014

Battery is a CR2032 that you can get at walmart or anyplace with a half decent battery selection.

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

boosted1g :

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

I did replace this CMOS battery before I replaced the main power source.
Do I need to take the CMOS battery out and reinsert it again?

Thank K Weed

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

boosted1g :

danny2000 · Mar 25, 2014

If there was not a request to reset to the date and time, then it was not the battery.

On some systems, if floppy disk drive has become the primary boot device in boot order, and there is no actualy floppy disk drive in teh computer, it will state to press F1 to continue. This can happen if the user has reset the bios to default bios configuration.

boosted1g · Mar 25, 2014

Ok, so you replaced the CMOS aleady with a new one.

Make sure you have it facing the correct way.

Otherwise you should just need to go into bios, set your first boot device, system time and all of that, save and exit, and then you should be good to go.

danny2000 · Mar 25, 2014

boosted1g :

Any settings he changes wont stay until he replaces the CMOS battery[/quote

User gave no indication that settings were not kept. There wasn't a mention that he went into the bios to change and settings like the date and time, and that each time he rebooted, it did not keep the date and time. Your assumption was to automatically change the battery before ANY trouble-shooting like changing the boot order, to see it that setting would keep.

Also the user never mentioned that it prompted him to set the date and time,,,,,,,so that would tell you what? It would tell me that there never was a cmos battery problem.

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

danny2000 :

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

danny2000 :

Hi Danny - This is the case with mu CPU - I do not have a floppy drive & I see in set up that this does come up 1st - I did reset the bios to default - Please profide and example of what my start up order should be - there has been no request to reset the date and time - Thanks for the info, K

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

danny2000 :

boosted1g :

Thanks for the information - what should be the boot order - I did change the battery before replacing the main power source and I did check that it was installed correctly. I was not asked to change any date or time settings - K

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

boosted1g :

Thanks for your help - I did check that the battery was installed and facing the correct way - print on battery facing up - K

danny2000 · Mar 25, 2014

I forget the exact location, but usually, somewhere in the bios, there is an option to turn off Floppy Disk drive detection, or sometimes listed as Drive A: The Dell Inspiron 530 has this setting in the bios to turn off or not detect anything on Drive A: and that is what you should do also.

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

noidea_77 :

Thanks for the help, I did replace the cmos battery before I replaced the main power source. Does hdd stand for harddrive? When I go into bios the date / time is current, do I need to reset to when the power source went down? I think I am close to solving the issue - K

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

danny2000 :

Thanks again. I know I am close to solving the issue, however, I am dance around in the set up - I believe I have seen this - is it a simple on/off or enable/disable. When I make changes, I am asked to save to the CMOS before exiting, I am assuming this would be a Yes - K

K Weed · Mar 25, 2014

Thanks everyone on the forum for your suggestions. All of the suggestions solved the problem. I took each suggestion and put into logical order and started over.
#1. Shut system down and replaced the CMOS again.
#2. Went into setup (F2) utilities and relooked @ the bios
#3. Re-entered the time/date & looked for Drive A
#4. Clicked onto the A Drive and change it to None sence I have no internal A Drive
#5. Shut down system - waited for a few minutes befor a re-boot
#6. Booted up system - it showed the intial Dell logo then went directly to Windows Vista
#7. Issued Solved - All Is Well

Best Regards - K !!!

danny2000 · Mar 26, 2014

Cool beans. cheers.

CPU starts up in DOS

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