[criptonite]

Hi, I have a Toshiba L300D laptop and the CMOS Battery has died. Has anyone experience of replacing the CMOS Battery for this model? According to one parts supplier the battery is part of the Main Board. I wouldn't put it past them to try upselling though.

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http://www.irisvista...sassembly-1.htm This is for the L355d model but it should be close. Good luck : )

[D-Berd]

http://www.irisvista...sassembly-1.htm This is for the L355d model but it should be close. Good luck : )

[phillpower2]

Hi criptonite
Unfortunately you have to remove the MB from the laptop to replace the CMOS battery, which is encircled in blue at the attached image http://www.irisvista...ly-guide-20.jpg
Here is a link to how to dis-assemble the Toshiba Satellite L355/L355D which apparently are the same as your model;
http://www.irisvista...sassembly-1.htm and you can use this to see the similarities between the 2 models http://www.irisvista...deo-cable-1.htm I hope this helps you in some way to resolve the issue.

[Digerati]

Are you sure you need to replace it? They don't normally die - but typically last for 7 - 10 years. Note according to your manual the RTC Battery is recharged only when the computer is running. Have you tried letting it run for a bit?

[criptonite]

I am making an assumption. It's actually a friends laptop and Windows wouldn't start. I installed Linux Mint but whenever the main battery runs out, the system won't start (same problem that Windows had). This seems like a CMOS battery issue to me. If I re-install Mint and make sure the main battery doesn't run out, the system runs perfectly. I can turn on and off as much as I like.

[D-Berd]

 I installed Linux Mint but whenever the main battery runs out, the system won't start (same problem that Windows had). This seems like a CMOS battery issue to me.

 How does one expect an OS to operate if the pc has no power or not enough power?
Or am I just misunderstanding something here?

[rshaffer61]

What happens if you plug the ac cord in?
Does the system then run without any problem?

[Digerati]

I am assuming you mean when the battery runs out and you try to restart it, you have the power supply plugged in, right? Otherwise, if you let the battery run out, and don't plug in the power supply then I would not expect it to start either - and I would not suspect a CMOS battery issue. A dead CMOS battery would not prevent a computer from starting. If you pull the main (charged) battery, wait a few minutes and put it back in and boot, then start the notebook, if the date and time are still correct, the CMOS battery is probably fine.

My "guess" is the drained battery is putting a huge (perhaps excessive) demand on the notebook's charging circuits and the power supply does not have enough output current for both the charging circuits running full bore and the notebook too. This may be a sign the main battery is failing. I would let it charge for a bit and see if it starts.

[criptonite]

Yes, not a very good description from me. I did mean that I let the battery run completely out then plug the mains in and start the laptop. At this point the system (Linux Mint, in this case) won't boot. It tries, the loading screen starts but then I get the report No init found. Try passing init =bootarg. When the system had windows it would go through to safe mode but would never beable to fully boot into windows.

I shall see what happens if I leave the laptop recharging before starting the system.

Thanks for your help so far.

[criptonite]

Additional info. I booted to Linux Mint from a live CD and the time and date were correct even though it couldn't have logged onto a server to check time/date (no internet connection), which I guess means that the CMOS battery is fine.

[criptonite]

I left it charging for 2 hours and tried to boot but still had the same problem, by the way.

[Digerati]

Does it ever start normally? That is, if the battery is fully charged, does it start okay?

[D-Berd]

Is this a Linux problem or a hardware problem?

[criptonite]

If I do a fresh installation of Mint and make sure the battery never loses its charge the system starts perfectly every time. It's only after the main battery has lost its charge that the problems start.

Ref: whether it's a linux problem, the laptop was having problems with Windows as well. However, I'm going to try my Windows 7 disk on it to make sure one final time.

[rshaffer61]

The problem seems more to be the battery and not the OS in my opinion.