Hi folks!
I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. I've never dealt with interior hardware tasks before. These tasks may seem simple to many here...but not to me...yet.
I'm kinda confused after researching how best to perform a simple desktop computer case dusting/cleaning. I have a Dimension 8400 built in late 2004 runninng XP Pro SP3, BIOS Version A03 (10/11/04). My 8400 was upgraded several years ago with two 500gig HDDs configured in RAID 0. This, after Dell phone support said I had a hard-drive failure...which was soon discovered to be an incorrect assessment. Oh well, now I have a "failed" 250 GB external drive that works perfectly.
Although I've never personally opened the case before, I need to clean it inside and out. At the same time, I need to change the 10 year old CMOS battery which has given me the F1 low voltage message now for some time. I see it's better to change it before it completely dies. Then I learn that I will lose, and therefore need to reset my BIOS settings back to the state before the battery change. And apparently there are many other tasks I could perform as part of a proper cleaning. Additional maintenance tasks like remove the CPU heat-sink and fan to reapply thermal paste, then clean every RAM connector, etc. I think, however, I'll go as far as a battery change for now.
My real concern is how to be sure all the settings I see in the BIOS screens (which I have written down per the owner's manual) are all that need to be reset (along with date/time, of course). I've written down the boot sequence and 2 drive settings that are not default settings. ALL other settings throughout all screens appear to be default settings. Am I correct in believing that if I make the simple BIOS corrections back to what I see now that I will have done it right...that RAID 0 will be reinstated and that upon exit I will have a seamless and solid boot back into XP?? I'm hoping it's really simple. This just seems TOO simple. Any Tips or Advice on possible "gotchas" is Greatly Appreciated!!!
Respectfully,
Brad
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Dim 8400 cleaning-CMOS battery-BIOS Reset?
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