I have an Optiplex 740 (AMD) with Windows XP Pro and I replaced the button battery (called CMOS or BIOS battery, I think) because the old one was dead. (Each bootup said "Low Battery" and the Time/Date stopped.) The tech at Fry's said to just pop in the new battery and reset time & date.
Well, I got the time/date set but now almost nothing else that is MS works; some non-MS programs do work... like Speccy. When I used it to check all specs it now shows "The RPC server is unavailable" for everything except mouse & keyboard. The PC does bootup and show the desktop normally but then I can not DO anything (can't cut, copy, paste, move, open properties, or open or run most MS things... including those things that might start or repair the RPC in Services. Help!
I have been in the "answers.microsoft.com" forum, asked my question and tried MANY of the "solutions" they show, but none have worked. One of the people there suggested I go to you because it was triggered by a hardware issue... well I guess a battery is hardware.
As I said, I've tried many things, including in all 3 Safe Modes, tried System Restore and even tried the WinXP install disk... but none of it worked; the RPC thing won't allow itself to be repaired.
Note: I bought this PC from a company on Amazon last month and it worked beautifully until I put in the new battery. It came with WinXP Pro installed so I do not have that installation disk. However, I do have the install disk of WinXP Media Center from my old Alienware... that is the disk I tried in the Optiplex (after setting to "boot from CD") and it would not boot from it.
Can anyone please help?