CMOS Checksum Error

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Culepatua

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Hi

I need help. Last night I was using my PC fine and suddenly it froze and gave me a blue screen indicating an error had ocurred in the system (dont really remember everything it said in the screen). Then I tried to reboot but it would just give me some beeping sounds and the screen wouldnt load up, so I couldn't get in the BIOS. Then I tried unplugging it and plugging it back up and after a couple of tries and changing some IDE cables around, taking out the CD ROM (only leaving my HDDs), the screen loaded, but it wouldnt boot Windows XP. I got the error "CMOS Checksum Error" and if I pressed F1 I'd go into the setup, if I pressed F2 I'd go and load up default settings. Well F2 didn't work cause the system wouldn't recognize any of my drives. I went into the BIOS setup and couldn't see my HDDs. I also saw that the date was set to september 2003 and the time was wrong. Tried switching them around, changing IDE cables, leaving just 1 master HDD, and nothing happened. Now it went back to just giving me beeping sounds and no screen. I haven't tried changing my CMOS battery yet, and I'm planning on buying a couple of new IDE cables just in case. Any ideas?

Just a note: In the past, when I would reboot my PC, it would not load up the initial screen and it would just give me beeping sounds, but after unplugging and plugging it again 3 or 4 times, it would eventually load up. Never have I received this "CMOS Checksum Error" before.

Anticipated thanks

Jose
 
hmm well i dont know if this will work but that problem has happened for me aswell. i just took out ther battery out for a while then put it back in. then i just pressed F1 and put all the setting back to normal.
 
I'm getting a new Battery as soon as I get off work, along with new IDE cables and a new PSU. I'll post after I try this to see if it works.
 
Ok...so last night I got home and took out all my PC's parts 1 by one. I cleaned them till they shined. I put my PC back together very carefully, but as soon as I try to turn it on same thing happens..."CMOS/GPNV Checksum Bad". So I go into BIOS and it still wont recognize my HDDs. I switch some IDE cables around, changed the CMOS battery for another one, and when I try to reboot this comes out after the main screen (and still not detecting my HDDs):

"PXE-E61: Mediatest Failure, check cables"
"PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel PXE ROM"

And it just kept on doing that. I finally get into BIOS one more time and load best performance settings just for the heck of it and now my PC wont even show any screen nor would it beep when I load it up. I have no clue were to start.
 
Forgot to mention that I didnt change the CMOS battery with a new one, the stores were closed so I had to get it from another mobo that was lying around my house. Its about as old as my Mobo.
 
You can get these batteries at the $1 stores as well, a lot cheaper too!
Make sure you get the right one, standard is 2032 but it could be a different battery for yours.
 
you know, i have taken batteries out of P133 and p166 systems and they worked fine in modern systems. And i have bought new batteries for $3 to $5 from computer stores that were either no good or died real quick. Thats why i started buying them from the $1 store near me. I figure if i am going to take a chance i might as well only spend $1. It costs $2 in gas to go to the computer store to change a bad battery that i paid $5 for. So i take my chances at the $1 store and they have a pretty good record for working properly.

Another thing is checking the voltage. They run at 3 volts and will work from about 2.95 and up. But the problem is that you can check them with a multimeter and they read 3 volts or close to that and they dont work right in the pc. That is because they lose their power quickly "under load". That means when they are in use and power from the battery is called for, they then cant hold their charge and dip below the 2.95 level.
So while its good to check the voltage that doesnt mean the battery is in working order. If you replace the battery and all is well only then you know the battery is bad. That is, unless you bother to check the voltage under load. I dont bother as they are only $1, i just toss it and use another one.
So the rule is, if the bios is working right and you dont get an error message then the battery is ok. If you get a bios checksum error its usually time to replace the battery. Usually a replacement of the battery will do the job, but now and again a bios re-set might have to be done as well.
 
A lot of times pre-fab computers sit in a warehouse for a long time. Not so true now as most are made to order, but in the past it was true. Batteries discharged as a result.
 
Ok...so this is what happened yesterday.

I got home ready to spend a couple of hours trying to figure out how to fix the damn thing, thanks to some of the forums I've been reading. As I've said before, I was getting the "cmos/gpnv checksum bad" error message and then the "PXE-E61: Mediatest failure, check cable" error message. I managed to get into the BIOS to change the boot sequence to HDD > CD ROM > Floppy and disabled the search for another boot device so it wouldnt try to boot from my NIC. By doing that I got rid of the "PXE-E61: Mediatest failure, check cable" error message. But I still was getting "cmos/gpnv checksum bad". So I cleared the CMOS with the pin and the "cmos/gpnv checksum bad" error message was gone. But I was getting "CMOS Settings Wrong". So I get into BIOS change my settings, load optimal settings, F10 (Save & Exit) and the message was gone, but still no HDDs detected. The weird thing is that my CDROM is being detected. So I try switching cables, setting up Master/Slave pins in different ways, and no luck. I try using another HDD from my brothers PC and its not detected either. After a long while of trying I gave up. I dont really know why they're not being detected so I hope anyone can give me any ideas to try and solve this.
 
So you are still not able to boot into windows?
Have you replaced the ide cable instead of changing them around? Sometimes they break inside and you, of course, cant see the break.
 
I tried using 3 different IDE cables and no luck. Later on today I'll buy a couple new IDE cables and see what happens. But no, I havent been able to boot into windows. What other reasons rather than IDE cables and pin configuration could there be for the BIOS not to detect my HDDs or any other drives I try to hook up?
 
If this were a new build i would point out that some older hard drives will work on either a 33 ide cable or an ultra 66\100 cable, and some older hard drives will only work on one or the other.
But since you have already had this system up and running, with no issues, then the type of ide cable you were using is the one to use to troubleshoot.

You could download and run memtest to check your memory, just to get it out of the way as a source of your problem. I dont believe its your ram but its a good idea to make sure its not. In your post you said you were running along fine when you got a blue screen. That makes me think of bad or poor power at wall source (wall plug). Unfortunately you could have received a power surge or even worse, a power brown-out. That is when the power goes low, which is even worse on a pc then a power surge!
If that is the case then its possible your hard drives and other optical drives may have been damaged or destroyed. I sure hope not! A fix for the future would be to get a cheap or better UPS - ununterruptible power supply. They can be had cheap these days, just make sure the one you get has cable and\or modem and phone connectors on it, depends on your needs. Note that a surge protector doesnt do what a UPS does.

Best way to troubleshoot is to test your hard drive and optical drive on another computer, if the hard drive isnt recognized by a second bios then its likely the drive is damaged, same with optical drive.
One other thing, since you mentioned you disconnected your optical drive.
When you do this, sometimes you have to change the jumper on your hard drive to another setting, western digital is like that. So double check that because the hard drive wont show up in bios if the jumper is set wrong for a single without another hard drive and without an optical drive such as cdrom or dvdrom.
 
By the way, i take it your bios and battery problems are ok now?

After the issues i mentioned in above post, i would then suspect the power supply. What is the make and model of your power supply?

If its a cheapie generic ps then i would suggest you go out and get a new one. You can get a decent one from newegg.com. Recently some of us had a look and found some decent ones, a few Fortrons for instance, that were in the $30 range. So you dont have to spend a lot of money to get a decent unit. But i notice newegg had some poor ones as well for around the same price range!
 
Sorry for the triple post, my wireless keyboard batteries died on me so i had to post with what i had and go back and fix it, lol.

I sure hope your hard drive and optical drive are ok. I mentioned trying your hard drive in another pc but i would do the same with your optical drive. Make sure you double check not only the jumper config but notice what type of ide cable was used when your pc was working good. Again, some drives will balk at using one cable and will work fine with another and some drives will work with either one. Of course, if the hard drive is made specifically for an ultra 66\100 cable, then, in the end, that is what you want to have in your pc as it wont work as fast with only an ide 33 cable. But again, you had it running in your pc so you know what cables were working fine. Optical drives only run at the ide 33 level anyway, if i recall correctly.
 
Yeah its weird cause they've been working fine for a long time and suddenly the system just crashed and BIOS stopped recognizing my 2 HDDs, and still recognizing my CDROM drive. I haven't been able to try my 2 HDDs in another PC yet. Even if that proves that my HDDs are damaged, I still dont get why other newer drives aren't being recognized either.

Regarding my power supply, yes its a crappy generic 350W PS. I was thinking of buying another crappy generic PS but this time 450W (Maybe that'll help?).

When I was switching IDE cables around, unplugging HDDs and such, I did check Jumper settings. I tried several jumper configurations with no luck.

I was thinking maybe my BIOS needs flashing, dont know. Maybe that could help.

P.S.: I'm thinking about hooking up my PC with a chain to my car and dragging it on the street. Heh.
 
Well I'm proud to say that I just fixed my PC a couple of hours ago. As I said I would I did the following:

-Changed the CMOS battery with a new one.
-Changed all IDE cables with new ones
-Changed my 300W Power Supply with a 450W power supply

By doing this, both my HDDs are now detected by the BIOS so I could actually get into Windows.

I want to thank everyone that helped. =) I hope that this thread can help any1 that gets the same problems I got.
 
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