TravelMate 290, Intel 855GM need to clear CMOS

HondoMan

Greetings all,

 

I have an old (10 years?) TravelMate 290 with the Intel 855GM chipset.  I need to clear the CMOS, but cannot find jumpers, dipswitches or a battery.  Does anyone have an idea on this?  I'm trying to give this old computer a new lease on life as I have a new CPU and memory standing by to be placed after I upgrade the BIOS and clear the CMOS.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

~ HondoMan

silizium

There should be a jumper J1 near the RAM socket. Short this one.

HondoMan

No, there are no jumpers.  Nothing. 

silizium

This jumper should be under the RAM module. If not, than I don't know it.

HondoMan

thanks silizium.  I looked again with a magnifying lens.  There is nothing.  I called ACER support and it seems there is no means to clear the CMOS.  I find that very unlikely, but that is what I was told.

silizium

There always two options. Set the jumper or remove the battery. If you can't find the jumper remove the battery an wait a minute.

 

Here is a link to a german tutorial with a similar machine. Look at the bottom, the last picture: http://dc172.4shared.com/doc/ckPGX50v/preview.html

HondoMan

silizium, it looks like you found it!  I, it seems, am getting old and my eyes and magnifying lens don't see to well.  Sad, actually.  So, I just made this photo.  If I recall correctly, from what I read, I need to:

 

1.  Rebuild the computer completely, but without inserting memory and the CPU. 

2.  Hold a screw driver so the metal tip is touching both of those points at J1 and then at the same time, put in the AC adapater and power the computer on.

3.  After a second or two, power down and remove the AC adapter and then insert the memory and CPU.

 

Is this correct? I cannot thank you enough for taking time to find what I could not.  You are a great help!!

 

silizium

You only have to short the jumper, you don't need normally removing anything except for the RAM module because you have to reach the jumper. You should be very carefully not to produce a short failure. In this tutorial the user did braze the two points.

 

Also, you should look at your CD and harddisk drive LEDs. They should light up and after 20 seconds they should go automatically off. After that you turn the device off.

HondoMan

silizium,

 

well, it just isn't working and I'm not sure why.  I followed the instructions as you detailed.  The fan still comes on for about 3 or 4 seconds and then the laptop does nothing.

 

The LED lights are also not doing as that link you gave me explained.  When I power the laptop on, the ODD and HDD lights blink once, then the pad lock (cursor) light blinks, but only the ODD light stays on.  However, in all the times I tried, the fan stayed on once and I had the ACER screen and it stated at the bottom left to hit the F2 key to enter BIOS.  I hit the F2 key several times and even held it down for a few moments, but nothing happened.

 

I really, really appreciate your help.  I hope you're not as aggravated as I am.

silizium

I'm not quite sure what you talking about? If you clear the CMOS you don't have to enter the BIOS menu. The order is as follows:

1. Short jumper J1

2. Turn on the device

3. Stay in this postion for minimum of 30 seconds

4. Turn off the device

5. Remove shortening of J1

6. Install hardware

7. Turn on the device

8. Enter the BIOS and make you settings