bios losing settings

[ezoo]

my bios keeps losing my hard drive settings i have even changed the battery

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

You are probably going to need to tell us a lot more before we can help. What computer/motherboard/CPU are you using? What is your hard drive? Is this a new build or an old system that recently started acting up? Have you tried any of the manufacturer's diagnostics on the hard drive? Is your BIOS set to autodetect drives? Please let us know more so we can know where to begin....

[ezoo]

the computer is an emonster 600 it has a633 Mhz processor 128mb ram with a 20 gb western digital harddrive this didnt really start happening until i changed harddrives both harddrives are the same notsure what brand of motherboard is in it it is using american megatrends bios

[Budfred]

Have you made sure that you hard drive is connected properly and that the jumpers are set to Master? Is your BIOS set to Autodetect your drives? Have you tried the manufacturer's diagnostic utilities on the drive? Please say more....

[ezoo]

i do not have the manufactures diagnostic utilities and the only auto detection my bios has is the one i use when it forgets about my harddrive would clearing my cmos possibly help?

[mjc]

Yes, clear the BIOS, and make sure the battery is inserted properly and is a fresh one.

[Budfred]

You can download the diagnostics for your hard drive from the manufacturer's website.

I would double check in BIOS to make sure you don't have an autodetect feature, I think that board is recent enough that it should... If you can figure out the exact BIOS, we can tell for sure. Also, it may be worthwhile to check for a BIOS update...

[ezoo]

also ever since i installed new hardrive the emachine startup screen takes a lot longer before it starts checking for a boot record

[ski]

Also, clean off the CMOS battery contacts with an eraser.