# Notebook BIOS reset impossible



## NightTrainPhil (Jul 20, 2017)

Hello everyone,

I've been having serious trouble with my cheap china laptop. I'm in over my head and have now run out of ideas. I'll get into full detail and get you all the info I have.

I wanted to setup a Linux distro on the "mp man nt14" to get rid of Windows in favor of something lightweight just to surf n write.
When booting, the laptop did not recognize the USB drive on which I had installed the Lubuntu ISO. After several unsuccessful attempts to set the boot order right, I googled the issue and thought that it might have something to do with the UEFI environment or some USB controller setting in BIOS. 
I got frustrated and started to experiment a bit with the xHCI and EHCI tabs and other options for peripheral control (yes, stupid) which has probably led me to the dire situation I am in now.

The onboard keyboard and touchpad-mouse do not work anymore. Neither do any external USB devices. I can boot up using the power button, then it'll launch the Windows log-in screen but then I can't put in the password since the keyboard doesn't work. I can only shut it off by holding down the power button for 10 seconds.
I plugged in an USB cable together with my cellphone and as the phone does get charged, there is still power on the USB port (not sure if this is important). However, external USB-keyboard or mouse aren't recognized.

I googled again and learned that it is theoretically possible to reset the BIOS by removing the CMOS on the mainboard or using the jumper. I found neither on my cheap little laptop (Might have missed it. Pictures in link below). The only removable battery here is the entire built-in, non-removable laptop battery, which has a huge sticker on it telling me not to screw around with it.
The last resort was a tiny little hole next to the power port (picture in link below) which I interpreted to be a reset hole. Sticking in a tooth pick and paperclip in that hole has not resulted in anything new.

Please, help! What do I do?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By_7C471hC6OZkZSOEdMTU1KeE0


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

I've edited your post for language. Please be more careful in the future as this is a family friendly site.


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## Lanctus (Jul 20, 2017)

Do you have USBv2 or USBv3? v2 uses eHCI, and v3 xHCI. This is important. Research suggests that download mode with USBv3.x on Linux has caused bugs in the past. There are reports of people "using Heimdall with USB 3 devices, not working, getting the same error, then plugging it into a USBv2 port and it working."


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## NightTrainPhil (Jul 20, 2017)

Sorry about the language, Cookiegal. Frustration taking over.

@Lanctus:
The laptop has one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port. That may have caused the original problem but they both seem to be switched off entirely now.
As described above. I believe the only option is to do a BIOS reset which I don't know how to accomplish without either a keyboard or a CMOS.


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## Lanctus (Jul 20, 2017)

Have you attempted pluggin in a USB keyboard temporarily? You can usually reset CMOS in the BIOS menu too, and if the usb keyboard works you can get there. Different manufacturers and versions vary, but _Reset to default, Load factory defaults, Clear BIOS settings, Load setup defaults_, or something similar. It will reset to factory settings.


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

NightTrainPhil said:


> Sorry about the language, Cookiegal. Frustration taking over.


I understand.


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

If the external Usb keyboard doesn't work you will have to remove the main battery and look for any Cmos battery and remove that too. That should reset the Bios Cmos settings to default and hopefully let you use the laptop again.

The warnings on the main battery are about opening that batteries case up, it's safe to remove the whole battery.
If you don't feel confident doing the above you will have to take it somewhere for repair.


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## NightTrainPhil (Jul 20, 2017)

Thanks for all your answers so far.

I removed the main battery (which is the only one I could find as there is no coin cell battery to be found.), waited at least 10 seconds and pushed the power button a couple of times for a couple of seconds, then plugged it back in. Unfortunately, that made no difference.


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## Lanctus (Jul 20, 2017)

Yeah, removing just the main battery will not reset the CMOS unfortunately. If there is no coin battery (laptops sometimes have them soldered in), I would recommend trying what I said before. If you cannot, I would take it in for repair as Allan suggested.


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## NightTrainPhil (Jul 20, 2017)

Okay, gotcha. Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll open the laptop case one more time to make sure there is no removable CMOS on the other side of the motherboard, fearing that you're right, Lanctus, and it is indeed soldered in.

If that fails, I'll have to send it in. 
Thank you, everyone.


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