Lifebook N3010 BIOS problem, stuck on splash screen, reset CMOS??

[gurpstar]

Having a hell of time reviving my Fujitsu Lifebook N3010 (2.8P4, 40 gig, 512mg, 64mg raedon dedicated video, 533fsb, win xp home, pheonix bios) Was dealing with a mess when a malicious "spyware removal" tool seems to have raped every portion of my HD, even renaming Drive Volume Label of my restore drive leaving it undetectable. I have the workaround now on the restoration part, but I screwed up my BIOS prior to getting fix info. I changed the LBA setting on my HD to disable, now upon boot I see the Fujitsu Slapsh screen, reading '<F2> Setup <F10> Restore <F12> Boot Sequence' at the bottom, but it stays like this, have left for 30+ minutes and still nothing, fan is cranking full speed, no response from any keys including PgDwn, PgUp, F12, F10, and on and on...EXCEPT..if i press F2 immedialty after power up starts, the bottom message changes to "Please Wait..." and hangs there...i'm guessing a CMOS reset would do the trick? Can't locate any instructions or diagrams giving me a clue where to look for the battery, it's a $1600 laptop and only 3 months old, i dont want to destroy it 100%..any sugestions? boot diskette, recovery boot CD, and FixIt utilities boot CD wont do a thing, BIOS never gets far enough to load off them..my head hurts as I cant find anyone else running into the prob..

 

[LiLithTecH]

The battery (pack) is located in under the keyboard cover and opening the unit
will definitely VOID what warranty you have left (1-3 yrs).

You can try removing the Battery, AC, and ram module(s) for 10-15 minutes.

Then replace the RAM and plug in the AC (leave the battery out) and try powering up.

 

[gurpstar]

 

[gurpstar]

ill try that right now, thanks - ive had the main battery out for a day now, ill try what you said

 

[gurpstar]

same shit...hangs on Fujitsu Splash screen, no response, sounds like its running at full speed

 

[johnjkr1]

If its only 3 months old,. have you tried calling fujitsu and getting some support? Laptop problems like this are really hard to fix. I would suggest disconnecting the hard drive and see if that makes a difference, they are usually in a fairly removable sled. Also, some manuf have special keystrokes to reset laptops, you should give them a call and see what they say. As with all laptop problems of this nature, they will probably have you take out all CRM's (customer removeable units) and try it like that (ex. take out the battery, ram, hd, mouse, etc)

 

[gurpstar]

they said to send it to them, and it may or may not be covered by warranty, techs aren't to knowledgable or willing to give much info out. guess ill have no choice, ill try to remove the HD next before i send it in. seems to read CDROM though, going to try making a bootable CD and get a response, thanks for input

 

[gurpstar]

YES!!! Removing the hard drive, attemtping to boot, and replacing it worked! Thank you!! CMOS cleared and BIOS reset, now I'm just working on repairing c: drive...used an NTFS DOS file viewer, there's a .BAT file in my root directory called "DeleteOnRestart.bat", cute huh? Looks like I'll recover everything with no loss of data..but arrg...pain in the ass..