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[tobyker]

For some reason my PC wouldn't get off the BIOS screen today, then it told me it couldn't detect masters and slaves and roman bits of months. So I left a message on the PC doctor's phone, and sent a moaning message to the lad. He tells me where to look and eventually I discover that all on it's own the PC has decided to try to boot itself from the printer! Why on earth should it take it into it's chip to do that? Confused, Saltcoats.

[Martin (Admin)]

It might have lost it settings, restored to the BIOS default setting (common fault when CMOS battery is old) or it's fooled itself into thinking your printer (USB?) is a Bootable Flash drive and is trying to boot from it.  

Is it booting up OK now?

[essex2visuvesi]

Does the printer have a memory card/stick slot? this can cause issues, our canon all in one does the same thing if we leave one in it

[malcolmfrary]

Does the printer have a memory card/stick slot? this can cause issues, our canon all in one does the same thing if we leave one in it

Lurking in the BIOS there will be a "Boot from" list, in whatever order.  To "help" fault finding, this list is often the exact opposite way round to what normal operation would call logical.  There is possibly a "boot from USB device" in the list - if its at the top of the list, it will discover that there is something that looks like a bootable device, try to boot from it, find out that it can't and sit there whimpering.
Easiest way out, apart from removing the USB stick, is to disable the "Boot from USB" in BIOS or move it to the back end of the queue.
Changing the CMOS battery is simple and cheap, once it has been located and its means of fixing determined, but it will probably need to be told when it is and where it is before it is brought back into service.

[essex2visuvesi]

Changing the CMOS battery is simple and cheap, once it has been located and its means of fixing determined, but it will probably need to be told when it is and where it is before it is brought back into service.

This is not always the case.... most laptops will need some considerable dismantling to access the battery

**EDIT**
Just reread the OP and realised he is talking about a desktop PC (or at least I think so).  In that case the battery will most likely be a CR2032 button cell about the size of a 10P (looks a lot like a giant watch battery)

[tobyker]

Thanks for all the advice - Yes thanks (it is a desktop) up and running now - it had a list of 3 bootable devices and had put the printer as the first and the HD as the second. Swapped them round and all going well now. I've seen the battery  - looks like a 2032 size - but in view of Malcolmfrary's warnings I'll put off changing it until it does it again. I put the PC together from a load of boxed bits from overclockers in Oct 2009 - how long should the CMOS battery last?  Maybe I should get a Google Nexus little tablet so I've got spare computing power if the PC hiccups again.

[essex2visuvesi]

If you are quick changing the battery you wont loose any settings

[malcolmfrary]

how long should the CMOS battery last?

Years and years and years.  Probably longer than that.