Brainy PC person needed please

[isis]

Can anyone tell me why my PC has suddenly started giving me this message when I first switch on?

CMOS settings wrong, CMOS display type wrong. Press F2 to load default values and continue.

So I can press F2 and everything is OK but I don't like this message. Anyone know what it means?

[LARAMANIAC]

LARAMANIAC shouts "Yo Cycro you are needed over here, right now!!!!"

[staticon]

How old is the computer? It may be that the CMOS backup battery has gone flat. You may need to replace it. It can be found on the mother board and looks a bit like a small coin unless you have a 486 or older computer.
The batteries can last anything between 2 to 5 years (or, sometimes, even longer)

Here is a diagram of where the battery is on my PC. It may help locating it though it can be anywhere on the mother board depending on who the manufacturer is.



Hope this helps.

[the_internet_king]

lol i dont under stand anyhting about computers i just lay on them

[DaveJ]

Originally posted by the_internet_king
i dont under stand anyhting about computers i just lay on them

Doesn't that damage the keyboard?

[dhama]

The aerial view is all very good Staticon, but where do I park my car?

[isis]

Thanks for replying everyone, and thanks for your diagram Staticon. My computer is three years old so maybe a flat battery is the problem. Trouble is, although I now have an idea where the battery is - where's the motherboard?

[Jeffers]

The motherboard is the big thing inside your case which everything is linked up to.

One thing you could try is maybe leaving it on for a whole day to see if the battery will charge up.

Before it gave that message did it give a message like:

"cmos checksum error"?

If it did then it is definatley the battery going dead.

Jeffers

[LARAMANIAC]

staticon how sweet!!! Excellent diagram!!! Peeps around here are so helpful - {{{{{{{{{{{{{hugs the Eidos forum members}}}}}}}}}

[staticon]

To help make sense of my previous diagram, I have taken a photo of the inside of my PC and stuck some helpful labels on it.
Hope this helps a bit more.



Just remember, the battery may be somewhere else on your motherboard.
Good luck.

[CyCro]

I don't think that a 3 years old battery may have died, if that's a Lithium battery, it should have at least 6 years life...but then again...

I think it's a good idea to restart your PC, and keep Del pressed while restarting, in order to access the CMOS setup menu. There you have 3 or 4 options.

1. You must know what you're doing and make the right settings.
2. Somebody who knows what he's doing has to make that.
3. Load default settings, then save and exit.
(4. Load optimized settings, save and exit.)


Now restart again. If the problem persists, you should have the battery replaced.

Good luck!

[LARAMANIAC]

{{{{{{{{{{staticon}}}}}}}}}}} you really are just tooooo much!!! What a sweetie!!!!

[isis]

Staticon - thank you so much for taking the trouble to photograph the inside of your PC - but believe me it's more than I dare do to take the lid off my comp and start messing with the insides, I'd blow it up for sure!

Thanks to everyone for your help - but I think I'm going to have to get an engineer to come and do whatever needs to be done.

Jeffers, no I don't think it said anything else just the CMOS settings are wrong. Does the battery charge like a car battery then? I've actually had the computer on for a long time today as I did a defrag (and that takes forever!) and used it quite a bit anyway. I'll see what happens the next time I turn it on.

[Data]

This may not be the correct answer, however it may be of some significance.

Question: Is your motherboard a 'ABit BH6 Pentium II'?, if so it has been reported that a batch of these did experience loss of settings within the BIOS each time the PC was shut down, caused by a fault on the board. This usually occured anything up to two years from new.

[staticon]

Originally posted by dhama
The aerial view is all very good Staticon, but where do I park my car?

Where you allways do, dear fellow, outside my garage.

[isis]

Data, that is a very good question, I just wish I knew the answer. I have no idea. Under System Information it just says
GenuineIntel Pentium(r)II Processor Intel MMX(TM)Technology. I have looked in the user manual (it's an Amitech pc btw) but it says nothing about the motherboard. But I did find a paragraph under Advanced Users which said how to restore the computer's CMOS setup. So I've done that and I'll see if that works next time I switch on. If not, it will have to be an engineer (or a hammer).

[Jeffers]

Ok, this might help you.

I know of a utillity which will give you detailed information about most of your computer.

It is called Sandra, available from si software. Sandra is an anagram but I can't remember what it stands for.

Anyway, it is a UK site, www.sisoftware.co.uk and sandra is on the index page.

If you download, install and then run it there is an option which says main board information. If you click on that, it will give you the type of motherboard along with allsorts of other information.

Compare that to the type of motherboard that Data gave and you might have the answer to your problem. If not, check right down at the bottom of the window, it might give a known error at the bottom of it which could answer your problem.

Jeffers

[Jeffers]

I have found out what it stands for, System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant

Jeffers

[isis]

Thanks Jeffers, I'll go check out Sandra but in the meantime I seem to have solved my problem with the Restore CMOS Setup gizmo. Seems it just needed the settings restored back to what they were, fortunately there is an option under Tools to do this. Either that or the threat of a good hammering did the trick!!

But that Sandra sounds quite interesting, I'm sure it will come in quite useful the next time my computer plays up!

[RedLegg]

Originally posted by staticon
To help make sense of my previous diagram, I have taken a photo of the inside of my PC and stuck some helpful labels on it.
Hope this helps a bit more.


Just remember, the battery may be somewhere else on your motherboard.
Good luck.

OMG, I though EVERYONE had a Tower Case!!! I didn't even think that the still sold desktop cases anymore.

[AlphaOmega]

Thanks to everyone for your help - but I think I'm going to have to get an engineer to come and do whatever needs to be done.

Yes, if you have any doubts about what you are doing, always contact trained service personnel. And go for local business too, it's always a better cost then taking it to futureshop or another huge chain, and better service too. *Cough* andweneedthemoney *cough*

[staticon]

Originally posted by RedLegg
OMG, I though EVERYONE had a Tower Case!!! I didn't even think that the still sold desktop cases anymore.

I do actually have five working tower cased PC's but, as I always build my own, I am rather attached to my old desktop case so the newest PC is always built in that case. I just can't bear to part with the tea-stained and rusty old girl.
Also, one of my servers currently occupies the even more tea-stained AT case that my first ever PC was in.
Come to think of it, it still has the original motherboard in it. hee hee