Aw crap, I completely messed up my sister's lab top. Help?

[Fox5]

My sister has a Sony Vaio(model PCG FX210, it's about 3 years old) and I left the Windows XP Upgrade VAIO Companion CD in the DVD drive. Well, I upon rebooting I was prompted with a message saying to hit enter to update the bios. I then took out the disc and shut the computer off. Upon rebooting the display was corrupted, but it appeared I was in dos and could access all the drives. Well, after a few more reboots, the entire display was corrupted with a wierd character. I assumed the current state of the bios was stored on a battery, so I removed the computer's battery and unplugged the computer. Now, if it is stored on a battery, will it run out its charge out within a few hours, so I can just leave it off?(I kind of doubt it, even the dreamcast and its vmus would take at least 2 weeks to die when not being used) Could I remove the battery, or reset it some other way? Or perhaps I should just send it in to Sony for repair?

BTW, there are two expansion slots on the bottom of the PC, one is for memory but I'm not quite sure what the other one is. Some chip and a small circuit board are accessible inside it, but they're covered with a translucent orange tape or cellophane wrap.

 

[Tim Murray]

One slot is for memory. The other is probably for a docking station.

And no, the battery has nothing to do with the actual contents of the BIOS. That has to do with the BIOS settings, but you won't magically revert to the old BIOS by leaving the battery out.

Maybe Sony can fix you up, but I've had shitty support with Sony, to say the least. I have a machine whose PSU fan died completely, and it's still under warranty--"Steve" (who, coincidentally, had the thickest Indian accent I've ever heard and could not understand me at all when I said my phone number 6 times) basically told me to go fuck myself and take it to the dealer.

"The dealer is seven hours away."
"Oh. Well, in that case, take it to another dealer."
"What the hell do you mean, another dealer?! The closest Circuit City is two hours away!"
"Well... take it to another dealer."

Man, that pissed me off.

 

[Fox5]

Actually, as soon as the system battery is removed the bios resets.(maybe the computer doesn't even have an internal battery for the bios)
I know because I put in the windows xp cd again and this time decided to update the bios, and once again it messed up the computer, so apparently that bios just doesn't want to update.
So problem is all fixed.

Are you sure the second slot is for a docking station? Doesn't look like there is room to plug anything in. If I had to take a guess, I'd say the chip probably is the bios, and the circuit board might be the ati rage, though there is nothing to indicate it as a graphics board, an ati board, or a rage chip. It says AMBIT on it, so I'd say it's ethernet, but both the ethernet port and the modem port are on the complete opposite side of the system.