CMOS checksum errors - help!

RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
edited August 2006 in Hardware
now before anyone says swap that battery, i already did with a working one from another pc.. still same error message.

i've also tried reflashing my BIOS.. my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 running current bios version F11.. but that didnt help either.

strange thing is that when i turn off the pc for maybe 30 minutes and start it, the settings are still retained and the pc boots normally. only after a long stretch when the pc has been off will the error message pop up. any ideas?

thanks in advance!

Comments

  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    bump ok ive done more testing.. if anyone can answer this q ill appreciate it: are bios battery voltages different from pc to pc?
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited July 2006
    AFAIK, they should be the same, I mean all of the boards I've owned take the same battery (slot style to DP Xeons and Opterons).

    Sorry I can't help more, I have been watching this thread though. I've got an MSI board that I can shut down fine, but if I unplug it I've got about 30min. before the Bios settings all go good-bye. Even with a new battery.

    Have you tried to contact Gigabyte to see if they have any ideas?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2006
    Give us the specs of the rest of the system, including the PSU. I've seen a failing Power Supply cause weird problems like that. If it can't power all of the devices adequately it can misidentify some of them (especially hard drives), leading to confusion in the BIOS.

    I'd check to see that you don't have anything inadvertently grounded somewhere, too.
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    nope donut, havent contacted them for help

    im using an icute 420w psu.. i think its working okay.. no system instability or anything.

    how would i check for something grounded?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2006
    Riddick wrote:
    ...im using an icute 420w psu.. i think its working okay.. no system instability or anything.
    What is the rating in Amps for the 5V+ and 12V+ rails? Do you have another PSU you could try just for troubleshooting purposes?
    how would i check for something grounded?
    A visual inspection to look for pinched wires, etc is a start. The main thing I'd be concerned about is that you have a MB standoff in the wrong place (or one in the right place big enough) which is shorting out the board to the case. The only way to check this is to take the whole works apart. If you go that route I would recommend that you run the computer outside the case for a few days. If the problem goes away you'll know that it's something in the way the components are mounted. If not, it's probably the board itself.
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    okay sorry for the late reply.. ive checked the rails under the mobo bios but there are no exact values, it just says they are "ok"

    ive removed the mobo from the case and am running them with just the graphic card and hdd, will see how it goes
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited August 2006
    What are the rails off of the PSU itself? The +5vsb (possible culprit) also. The +5v StandBy rail may not be delivering enough juice to the board.
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    well it says +5vsb is 2.5 A and +5v is 37A and rated 420w, though i doubt that its the power because while the system is running everything is completely fine

    i just ran the mobo out of the case for like 2 days.. the symptoms are not dissapearing.. i guess we can rule out something in the case shorting it out

    im beginning to think this board is defective or something.. any ideas?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2006
    Use something like Motherboard Monitor 5 to see what the Voltages are actually running, then tell us what you're getting.
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    voltages
    3.3V - 3.34V avg
    5.0V - 4.05V avg 5.61 high 2.xx low
    12.0V - 11.76V avg

    the 5v rail doesnt look too good..
    strange today the cmos didnt reset after being off for a night.. still running out of the case.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2006
    Riddick wrote:
    ...the 5v rail doesnt look too good...
    I think you have found your problem. As always, I like to advise people to try and borrow a replacement and test it out before opening your wallet. If there is a local shop with a liberal return policy you might try that as well. :)
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    i had this problem...try restarting it after the cmos checksum error..if it boots up fine.. then I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO FIX IT...i rma'd 3 boards...tried different ram..and nothing worked..damn abit it7
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    ok guys im really in a rut here..
    i installed a new psu and things seemed to be working fine.. the bios did not reset itself over the past few days (still running outside the box). the only odd thing was i realised that everytime it booted up it kept on displaying "verifying DMI pool data.. update success". it never used to have an update success notification every time i started the pc.. but things were still fine

    this morning i tried to start the pc and during the stage where the windows logo would come up and load all i had was a blank screen (monitor still receiving video signal). restarted several times and no boot. however, windows seems to be able to start in Safe mode.. so i was like okay no biggie ill just repair install it. the repair install prompted me for drivers for some nvidia chipset thing but i just ignored it

    upon doing so i was able to boot into windows and do normal activities (play music, video) but there were some error msgs about the chipset driver. i could not open web pages but MSN msgr seemed to work tho, damned strange!

    so i backed up my data into my backup partition and reformatted, and upon booting into a fresh copy of windows, a large number of .exe install files in my backup partition were corrupted (i think due to the nvidia chipset drivers not being installed yet?)
    so i install my chipset drivers.. and during the reboot after the install, the blank screen instantaneously appears again. not able to boot unless in safe mode.

    what gives?? is my nforce4 chip dead? did i kill it somehow by running my pc out of the case? i was very sure to place everything carefully and did not touch the motherboard in any way!!
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    ok scratch that.. i just figured out somehow the BIOS mustve gotten scratched somehow.. a cmos reset after reinstalling the chipset drivers seems to have cured the problem.. argh to think that i went thru all of that nonsense..

    will keep what happens posted
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2006
    Good luck. :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    a cmos reset after reinstalling the chipset drivers seems to have cured the problem.. argh to think that i went thru all of that nonsense..
    LOL! Sounds like me. There are so many time where I've spent hours troubleshooting a problem only to find out that I forgot something simple, like an unconnected cable or a CMOS jumper left in the 'reset' position. So, I'm laughing with you, not at you. :cheers:
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    Leonardo wrote:
    LOL! Sounds like me. There are so many time where I've spent hours troubleshooting a problem only to find out that I forgot something simple, like an unconnected cable or a CMOS jumper left in the 'reset' position. So, I'm laughing with you, not at you. :cheers:

    Been there, Done that! ;D
    And the bad thing is - it takes hrs to find that little thing you forget!
    Then you want to kick yourself, while laughing at the silly mistake and being overjoyed at finding the problem.
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    tried starting the computer this morning but got the same blank screen problem where the windows load screen should have appeared (chipset drivers already installed btw). tried resetting cmos, removing battery and disconnecting psu to no avail. also tried to tinker around with bios settings by disabling chipset functions ie lan, sata but still no go

    so i reformatted the pc again and it is able to boot into windows. i came to the conclusion that since the pc is able to boot into windows in safe mode AND on a fresh install, something with the drivers must be screwed (although when this initially happened, ive been using the same chipset drivers for a year)

    currently downloading the latest nforce4 chipset drivers off nvidia's website, v6.86. during the previous installs i was using the ones off gigabytes website which were v6.83

    not going to install the nvidia lan firewall and Nvidia Network access manager as they apparently cause problems in certain systems according to the planetamd64forums.

    any suggestions welcome!!
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    argh!!
    after the reformat i installed the 6.86 chipset drivers, 6.8 catalyst drivers and the audio drivers (not consecutively, in seperate boots) things were working fine (music video) but strangely IE stopped working after a msdos program called dl.exe popped up and a message saying something about an error with the chipset drivers again (similar to the time after the repair install). MSN msgr was still working. so i reboot the computer and AGAIN THE BLANK SCREEN APPEARS!!

    i have no idea whats going on.. could this be some BIOS virus or some sort? after all it did just happen out of the blue with the same old chipset drivers..

    //edit when i reconnected my thumbdrive used to transfer the drivers across the pcs, avg on my spare computer detected the W32 Gaelicum.A virus
    http://www.grisoft.com/doc/virbase/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?nam=Win32/Gaelicum
    which apparently corrupts .exe files. i assume this virus to be residing in my spare partition and repeatedly corrupting my windows installs. if this were happening i guess it would account for the sudden failure of booting for my pc.. is this possible?

    ///edit okay i ran the cleaner program and a HUGE amount of files in the windows partition were infected.. a large number of system dependent files as well.. after cleaning for like 3 mins the OS was able to boot in normal mode.. as i type this im trying to pull out my media from the spare partition and scan them again using my spare pc before putting them back in.. BLOODY VIRUS WRITERS AG*(E%*(#%#*(@$@*(#*(@%*(*(_$^(@*$*(@#*@$(_*#(_^*$%#$@%$^@%@$#$:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006

    good news: virus is gone
    bad news: the cmos checksum error is reoccuring again.. my pc is reinstalled inside the casing with the new 430w psu (it has a 24pin connector to the mobo as well) what the heck is going on???? im sick and tired of removing the mobo to and fro from the casing already.. :(
  • RiddickRiddick Malaysia Icrontian
    edited August 2006
    ok problem solved

    it seems as if the power extension that the pc was connected to may have been overloaded.. after connecting the pc directly to the main socket, cmos checksum errors dissapear. hope this helps someone.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited August 2006
    That's a weird one. :scratch:

    I had a similar problem here which was affecting a couple of computers on my workbench. It turned out to be a loose wire in the wall socket causing an intermittent almost open circuit. I finally left the voltage tester hooked up to it and watched it over time, only to see it go from 120V down to 60V and back like crazy. The weird thing is that the computers would sometimes stay on even when that happened. Cleaned a corroded wire and tightened it down good and all was well.

    Glad you got your problem figured out. :)
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