Black screen on Dell Dimension XPS 410 after replacing CMOS battery

silversmithy

Distinguished
Nov 13, 2012
458
12
18,785
A friend of mine has forgotten their password, and was locked out of making any changes in the set-up menu. Instead of pulling the jumper on the motherboard, they took out the CMOS battery, and reinserted it. It is my understanding that how long that battery is out makes no difference, but he informed me that he left it out all night before reinserting for some reason, not sure why. What prompted all of this was that he could not get the DVD drive to work, even though the computer recognizes it, and shows it is working properly in device manager. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't have the heart to tell him his machine is now a door stop, so I hope that there is something that can be done.
 

silversmithy

Distinguished
Nov 13, 2012
458
12
18,785
All of the above. Started with dvd drive not working, then forgot password so unable to try to make changes in set-up, (locked out), thought that removing the battery would help with password reset, and after putting battery back in black screen.