Hi Folks ,
I have a strange one. My PC used to work fine until one day for no apparent reason it started to play up . Like hitting the power button (AT case) to fire it up produces all the noises of a normal boot but no display. If I hit the reset button once or twice it boots up normal , but in Low res mode & less mouse support (I have a serial & USB mouse hanging off this girl ). Sometimes I don't get "D" CDROM drive showing in the system at all .

I took it to the local PC shop (3 times) each time they fiddle about in the bios and seem to make it work, untill I fire it up again !

I have looked at the Bios settings myself against my m/board hand book & everthing looks O.K .I had the old check sum error once when all this joyful stuff started and have not seen it since .

Can any one suggest anything as I am running out of ideas ,hair,money & sanity .
My system is a AMD K-62 500Mhz, 128Mb Ram ,3.2Gb H/d, 16mb AGP TNT Graphics , Running Win ME.(Yes I have re-formatted to baby about 5 times using Win 98 or ME with the same results .Remember I had not touched anything for this to happen .
Cheers

two types of checksum errors:CMOS/BIOS
1.CMOS checksum errors

Explanation: A checksum is computed as an error-detecting code, to protect the BIOS settings stored in the CMOS memory. Each time the system is booted this number is recomputed and checked against the stored value. If they do not match, an error message is generated to tell you that the CMOS memory contents may have been corrupted and therefore some settings may be wrong. BIOSes react in different ways to encountering this sort of error. Some will warn the user and then continue on with whatever settings were in the CMOS. Others will assume that the settings that were in the CMOS were corrupted and will load default values stored in the BIOS chip "for safety reasons". The error message will indicate which your system is doing.

Diagnosis: The most common cause of checksum errors in CMOS is a battery that is losing power. Viruses can also affect CMOS settings, and motherboard problems can also affect the stored values.

Recommendation: Follow the instructions in this section to address the CMOS corruption. You should make sure that all of the BIOS settings in the system are correct, by rebooting the system, going into BIOS setup and double-checking all the values (hopefully against a recent BIOS settings backup).http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/booterrGBER08-c.html

2.BIOS ROM Checksum Errors

Explanation: The read-only memory (ROM) containing the BIOS program is protected by a checksum value as a double-check that the ROM code is correct. This checksum is compared against the values in the ROM each time the PC is booted and if there is a mismatch, this code is generated.

Note: This error is not the same as a CMOS Checksum Error, which refers to corrupted values of the CMOS settings, the ones you set through the BIOS setup program. This error means the contents of the BIOS code itself are damaged.


Diagnosis: The BIOS ROM chip on the motherboard is probably faulty. It could also be another component on the motherboard.

Recommendation: Troubleshoot the motherboard.
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/booterrGBER03-c.html

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W/Me (memory eater)
Me Help (http://www.webtechgeek.com/center_Frame_win_me_tips.html)
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answers (http://www.dewassoc.com/support/index.html)

OUCH! 3 times and these genious's couldn't figure out that more than likely your CMOS battery just needs replacing?!


Me thinks you've been robbed my friend! Seriously, first thing i'd do is replace the little coin size battery, this has all the symptom's of a dying CMOS which can't hold it's settings anymore.

BIOS is ROM (read only memory ), the CMOS ( complimentory metal oxide semi-conductor ) is a RAM component that holds the settings for hardware changes ( on newer system it's intergrated into the BIOS chip itself, and the battery is ther only for date/time ) and it uses a small coin sized battery to hold these settings ( since RAM is volitale-loses it's mind with no power http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif ).

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iisbob
"Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It's not fair that some men should be happier than others."
-- Oscar Wilde

[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 11-21-2001).]