I just finished installing a new motherboard and CPU to my existing system and now I’m running into a number of problems trying to get it started up. My BIOS parameters are all set to the system defaults. When I try to boot up I get stopped with a “BIOS ROM Checksum Error”. The funny thing is that when I hard reset the system about 5 or 6 times it eventually gets past this stage and boots up further until I encounter a “CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded” message. I can then hit F1 to continue and my Win98 loads up just fine. While in Windows I can view the contents of my hard drives and any files on CDs loaded in both of my CD Rom drives, but whenever I try to view the contents of a floppy in my A: drive I get the message “A: is not accessible – The device is not ready”.

I’ve saved and exited the BIOS several times, making sure that everything was set to the system defaults and that the system defaults made sense. I’ve cleared the CMOS several times. I’ve replaced the CMOS battery with one from another system that works fine. I’ve checked and reseated all the cables and power connections. Does anyone have any other ideas? Why would the BIOS error go away with my persistent resetting and be replaced with a CMOS error and how could either of these errors be related to my floppy access problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Check your floppy cable connection.
If you have a cable with 2 connection you’re a: drive should be on the end connection
Also look at the cable for the split cable and twist.
Between the 2 connections.
Double check the connection at the drive for pin 1 to pin 1 connection
They are not always like HDD’s the pin1 is not always next to the power cord plug.

This may be the reason for the bios change or error

Rick, Thanks for the reply. I doubled checked my floppy connections and everything is in order. I only changed the motherboard and CPU (both of which were in working order), so with the the floppy the only change was plugging it into a new board (a Tyan Trinity 400).

If you got a new M/B and the box included new cables I’d use the new floppy cable.
I have seen a few with straight floppy cables and not the old cut and twisted cable.

Also just for a test ,
Go Into setup and disable the floppy.
Set it to none , save and try a bootup

It’s a bit of a pain to narrow these things down at times.

Check all the motherboard jumpers, make sure that they are present and accounted for, in the proper position (like in run for the CMOS Clear jumper) etc...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

You did a fresh install of Windoz right?

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....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......
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Some answers:
Rick - same problem with the floppy disabled.
mjc - all jumpers are correct
ranchdog - formatted hard drive and installed Win98se fresh