HELP please with 3690 beeping at start.

Hi,
A friend has a 3690. Haven't seen it, but this is what they describe as happening.

Sometimes ! on startup four ? beeps are heard and nothing appears on screen. Turn off/on again and it will most likely boot into Windows BUT the clock is wrong, reverts to July 2005 I think. Reset the clock and all OK, until the next time it happens.
Somedays it behaves, other times not so, maybe doing this twice in a day.

Any thoughts ?. As the clock is wrong does this perhaps point to the CMOS backup battery ?
Any other checks we can do ?
Would entering the BIOS at start up ? "F2" prove anything. I know it's difficult when its not in front of you.
Many thanks... Karl

 

Yes, the CMOS battery is one of the possibilities.

I'd also suggest full cleaning of the laptop, sometimes when a computer is not cleaned in a long time dust may enter into the RAM slots, CMOS slot etc and cause occasional malfunction..

 

Thanks for that ATG... pity the Laptop is a couple hundred miles away, might be beyond her capabilities that.

 

Bit more info on it. Being told that it doesn't get as far as the Acer splash screen but that pressing CTR ALT DEL after the beeps enables her to get into it.
Is it worth doing a factory reinstall ?

 

If it's dust or battery problem it won't be fixed restoring to factory defaults. IMO the problem is not the software.

 

OK Thanks...