Boot Up - CPU Errors, all functions may not be available, F1 to continue.

[Max]

A friend with an 850MHZ AMD Processor (thats all I know) has had an accident with spillage onto the keyboard. Could only get into Safe Mode and someone suggested he remove the battery (Whatever for). Consequently he was faced with a CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults only loaded.

I have managed to get him back into the OS after much faffing about by finally telling him to hold down the insert key as a last resort and reboot the machine whilst keeping the key pressed. However, now he can boot up the system but gets an error - CPU Errors - not all funtions may be available, F1 to continue. He presses F1 and can get back into the system and it looks like it used to before the CMOS error. However, can he get rid of the F1 message - what is it? Is it just the BIOS running on default settings having lost the original settings from the battery? I suspect that he may need a new motherboard or can the errors be fixed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[iisbob]

generally when you remove the battery you reset the BIOS back to standard default settings-he needs to go into his BIOS and reenable whatever options he had set before the reset. ie; UDMA support, l2 cache enabled, 4x/2x AGP etc.

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[Max]

Not knowing much about BIOS settings, this is probably a stupid question, but if he didn't go into the BIOS previously and make any changes, how does he know what the previous settings were. Is that a needle in a haystack question? What sort of things should be changed or is it too risky for a novice?

Thanks!

[iisbob]

Well, he'd have to know what kind of hard drive he has( ie-soes it support UDMA 66/100 ? ) specs on his video card ( does it support 2x AGP or 4x ) He can check his manual( download it from the motherboard site if he doesn't physicaly have it ) to see what settings should be enabled for memory, onboard virus program, processor cache, etc.. also it's just possible he's getting this error becuase of the damaged keyboard-try a diferent keyboard to see if these errors continue. If so, he could have shorted a circut on the motherboard itself. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[Max]

Cheers! We have already tried another keyboard. The original one is completely bust. Will pass on other info.

Many Thanks!