[Solved] The bios is not saving changes - dead battery

[Joel Paz]

Dear friends,
I have Linuxmint 17.2 Rafaela installed for 80% of the hard disc and left windows with 20% (although I never use it). Now I made a usb with Linux Mint 19.i Tessa like before with Rafaela which is working fine but I would like to update. My problem is that I cant get the BIOS to save changes for the the usb device. All this is happening with a Compac Presario CQ5215LA PC desktop computer. I'm still a newbie but I will greatly appreciate your help.

[Neil Edmond]

Are you saying that when you change the BIOS setting to have USB first in the boot list, then reboot and USB is no longer first? Or is this a case of the USB just not booting even though it is the first boot device?

[lsemmens]

Do you get a message on the screen telling you that BIOS has been reset to defaults? Could be a flat BIOS battery. Some computers also allow you to select the boot device "on the fly" E.G. My HP laptop: If I press <ESC> during boot it pops up a menu that permits me to enter BIOS or select a different Boot device. SOme other computers use <F12>

[Joel Paz]

Dear friends,
My only problem right now is the BIOS. It doesn't save the changes of the 4 groups shown as options: Harddisk, CD ROM, floppy disk, and ethernet. In my first attemps I tried CD ROM but now I can't change back to hardddisk. If it's a flat battery do I have to go to a technician? Can the bios be refreshed or updated?
I remember when I installed Linuxmint 17.2 the bios worked fine but it gave me the USB device option which I don't see now.
Yours,
Joel Paz

[kevin987]

If you're capable of replacing your own RAM chips, then you should have no problem removing the small battery that your Bios uses.

Unplug the computer and open up the case to have a look

[Joel Paz]

Dear friends,
Thank you all especially kevin987, which gave me the confidence to open de cpu and replace the battery (3v lithium) which I easily replaced and the BIOS is working fine now and I was able to boot the usb. So this solves the problem. SOLVED.
Joel Paz

[kevin987]

Dear friends,
Thank you all especially kevin987, which gave me the confidence to open de cpu and replace the battery (3v lithium) which I easily replaced and the BIOS is working fine now and I was able to boot the usb. So this solves the problem. SOLVED.
Joel Paz

Sweet.

If it's solved, edit the subject line of your 1st post, placing [SOLVED] at the beginning