Resetting your Toshiba Satellite's CMOS requires removing and replacing the CMOS battery.
Every Toshiba Satellite laptop comes with a CMOS chip built into the motherboard. This is a battery-operated chip that stores some of your computer's most basic and most crucial data. This includes your computer's time and date settings, and your computer's BIOS password. There are a number of good reasons to reset your Satellite's CMOS. Whatever the reason, you will have to remove and replace the CMOS battery to do so. Since the CMOS battery is directly connected to the motherboard, this involves disassembling your laptop.
Instructions
1. Shut down your laptop using your current operating system. Close the LCD screen, disconnect all cables and devices, and place the laptop face down. Position it so the front edge is facing forward. Locate and remove the battery from the top of the laptop's bottom casing.
2. Remove the memory, hard drive and modem compartment covers from the bottom of the laptop. Each cover is secured to the laptop by one or two Phillips-head screws. The location of each hardware compartment varies among Toshiba Satellite models. Remove the remaining Phillips-head screws from the laptop's bottom casing. Don't remove any hardware from the compartments. It's not necessary for resetting the CMOS battery.
3. Place the laptop face up and open the LCD screen all the way. Insert a small, flat-head screwdriver into the thin plastic strip situated above the keyboard. Pry the strip from the laptop. Remove the Phillips-head screws revealed by this plastic strip. Grasp the keyboard, place it face down over the palm rest, and then disconnect the keyboard's ribbon cable from the motherboard. Remove the keyboard from the laptop.
4. Disconnect the touchpad cable just above the touchpad device on the motherboard. Remove any Phillips-head screws securing the top casing in place. Carefully remove the top case from the laptop's base. This will reveal the motherboard.
5. Locate the CMOS coin-cell battery on the motherboard. The location of the battery varies from laptop to laptop. It will either be secured to the motherboard inside a small battery compartment or it will be connected to the motherboard with two black battery cables. Remove or disconnect the battery as appropriate and reconnect or replace the battery to reset the CMOS.
6. Reassemble the laptop in reverse order of how you took it apart.
Tags: from laptop, CMOS battery, Phillips-head screws, Toshiba Satellite, your computer, bottom casing, connected motherboard