red_riding_hood

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Jul 10, 2003
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Hi,

This is going to be a long question. Sorry about it, but I hope someone can help me.

I just assembled my computer (the typical P4 machine that everyone is getting now : P4 2.4Ghz with HT and 800fsb, Abit IS7, dual channel 256MBX2, and other accessories).

I first booted the comp and it seemed normal. I went into setup and did a few configurations which includes setting drive a: to None because I didn't have one. I saved the changes and computer re-booted. Then suddenly, I got these really disturbing beeping noises and a screen that says cmos checksum error and also something like Drive A: Not Found error. I had to cut the power to shut it off. I cleared cmos and rebooted, but same thing happened.

After a few tries, I actually did get it to load a system disk (Windows 2000) but it says it cannot find some .exe file. Restarted and it couldn't find the .exe file again. So I shut down (cut power), but then remembered I left the cd in the cdrom. So I turned it on again to get the cd and cut power again. That's when everything fell apart. Is it possible that by doing this, I screwed up the cmos??

This is what happens after : Clear cmos. Boot machine. Went to setup. Changed drive a floppy to None. Saved and reboot. Then "BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep..."(with cmos checksum error and drive a not found error). [Repeat from clear cmos]. ..

So I got fed up and plugged in a floppy, the Drive A: error was gone, but the cmos checksum error was still there. I flashed the bios to version 13 but nothing changed.

A friend says it's not possible to screw up cmos with what I did. He says it's probably already screwed up. But why was I able to load the system disk that time (it was actually a few times that I was able to load system disk) ? I have no idea what's going on. If anyone has any suggestion(s) as to what I can do, it would be really appreciated. Thanks!
 

FallOutBoyTonto

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May 6, 2003
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I used to see that a lot with older machines (checksum error), never heard of that happening to any of the new boards though. On the older boards, all I had to do is replace the battery on the mobo and that checksum error went away. Maybe you should try replacing that battery on your mobo. I think that is what it may be. The changes were probably lost when the power was cut so the checksum errors come.

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Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
This is fairly simple, the answer is, you appearently don't know what you're doing.

OK, the floppy thing: Somewhere in BIOS there's normally a place to turn halt on floppy error, halt on keyboard error, etc. off.

CMOS Checksum Error: Defaults Loaded generally comes up when either your batter fails or you clear BIOS.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
 

red_riding_hood

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Jul 10, 2003
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FallOutBoyTonto, thanks, I will try replacing the battery and see what happens...

and Crashman, I don't think I will be asking my question if I DO know what I am doing...thanks for noticing...