Hello All!

I was having a problem with my mouse pointer freezing on the monitor. I was told by one of our tech employees to fix this I would need to remove my CMOS battery for a few minutes and remove any drivers for my graphics card then reinstall the old drivers from the CD that was packaged with it. (I have an Asus motherboar with nVidia chipset . . . I think, so I used that CD.) I did just that and everything was fine until I shut down my computer for the night and tried to use it the next day. Now my computer doesn't recognize or show my 2 hard drives, it recognizes the floppy but doesn't read from the floppy and then a message after POST tells me to insert systems CD in drive.

Well, I don't have a systems CD; can I download something from another computer to make one? Should I try to do a repair on my OS (Windows XP) and if so will that erase my files?

I need major help . . . I'm lost. Any suggestions? Thanks.

My Computer: Asus A7N8E-Deluxe (?); AMD Athlon 3000 (Barton); 1 Gig of RAM - I believe these are my stats if I remember correctly.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Hi Jacqie,

Welcome to PCHF!

How do you know that your system doesn't recognise your hard drives? I'm assuming you can't get into windows at all? When you removed and re-installed drivers, exactly what drivers did you remove?

Hi Scouse!

Well before when I was able to get on my computer, I went to the Control Panel and removed everything that had to do with nVidia. Then I used the CDs that was shipped with the motherboard and reinstalled all the drivers, I thought. When I boot up my system, it goes through POST and it shows my 2 CD/DVD drives and the floppy but not my 2 hard drives. They also do not show when I go into the BIOS; that's as far as my system will let me go . . . I can't get Windows XP to load at all.

Seems like this has been caused by removing the CMOS. I came across this article.

The system has potentially lost its CMOS settings. This is a common problem that frequently occurs, especially with older computers.

The CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) maintains the date and time settings as well as information about how your hard disk is set up. These settings are retained by a battery on the motherboard. When the battery dies, the settings are lost and the hard disk will become unrecognizable.

Tips
Most systems will allow you to enter the CMOS setup at start up time with a key stroke or two, such as [Del], [Esc] or [Cntrl]-[Esc].


Some systems, such as Compaq, NEC, Mitsubishi and many laptops and notebooks require a setup or diagnostic diskette to change the CMOS drive setting.


Once you enter the CMOS set up program, use the tab or arrow keys to jump to the appropriate field for drive settings and enter the correct settings for your drive.


It is a good idea to keep these settings on a note attached to your computer for future reference.


Most modern systems will let you "Auto" sense the drive. This will usually be successful. You should then reboot your PC.


Back up your system and get a replacement battery from your dealer.

(http://www.drivesavers.com/recovery_tips/pc_users.html)

Is this any use to you?

Okay, I guess that's that . . . I will still try to repair my OS when I get home this evening and make sure that my 2 hard drives detection is "Auto." Hopefully whatever file that's corrupted will be fixed with the repair . . . if you or anyone can come up with something else that may help, I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks, again.

Hello Scouse!

I just wanted you to know that my problem has been resolved without repairing Windows XP. I clicked on the link below your last message and read something about changing the 2 jumpers located around the CMOS battery for a minute or two and then change them back to their original settings. I connected all the cables and booted up my computer, and it started right up! I had to get some updates for Windows and Office 2003; updated my BIOS and it's running like new. I'm not sure if I want to update my nVidia because of the freezing mouse issue . . . I think I'll wait on that, but I just wanted to thank you for your assistance. Everything seems to be working fine now.
____________________
Jacqie