Real Time Clock Power Loss Error

[rover_w]

Hello everyone,

I've recently gotten an old computer from the university I study at to mess around with. When I started it up I got an error stating "Media test failure, check cable". I thought this had to do with the university removing windows from the SSD, which was understandable. After opening the case, I removed the CMOS battery and put it back in and started to get a 161-Real-Time Clock Power Loss error on my screen instead, which made me replace the battery with a new one. Now with the new one, I still get the same error. 

With access to the BIOS I would be able to do more however, I cannot get into the BIOS. I have tried spamming every key while the computer starts up, to no avail. 

Additionally, the "161-Real-Time Clock Power Loss" error screen has on the bottom "F1: Boot", but every time I press F1, nothing happens.

Can someone help me out on what I could do?

[itsmyname · Accepted solution]

@rover_w -- your computer can try to "boot" from many sources:

1. 3.5-inch diskette
2. CD/DVD
3. USB memory-stick
4. disk-drive
5. network, via your Ethernet cable

In a "business-networking" environment, it is possible to have a "boot-server" computer somewhere on the internal network.  Your computer has failed to boot from #1 through #4, inclusive, and is configured to try to connect, over Ethernet, to that boot-server, in order to load Windows through the network.

So, if Windows is not loaded onto your hard-disk drive, or your SSD, you need to install Windows.

Hint: disconnect any disk-drive, and then restart the computer, to see if you get "press <blah> to enter BIOS SETUP".

Hint: with the computer powered-off, hold-down any keyboard key, and then power-on the computer, while still holding-down that key. You might get "keyboard error. Press <blah> to enter BIOS SETUP".

HInt: replacing the CMOS battery requires that you enter BIOS SETUP, to set valid date/time values.