# Changed BIOS settings now - PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT



## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

All was working well until I did a stupid thing and stuffed around with my BIOS settings for no good reason. Now I keep getting the message "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT".
Unfortunatly I can't remember what it was that I changes and I've loaded the BIOS defaults since then anyway. Dumb, I know.
I'd really apreciate any help getting this PC working again.

Motherboard - ASUS P2B-DS
BIOS - Award v4.51PG ACPI model revision 1006
Video card - NVIDIA TNT 2 64 BIOS 2.05.13 32MB
CD-ROM - Matshita CR-588
30GB ATA HD (boot drive Win XP Pro)
8GB SCSI HD (blank NTFS)


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## Guest (Apr 8, 2005)

Hi,

I would assume that you need to clear CMOS. If you will locate the little jumper and move it for a few minutes from pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3, then move it back to pins 1 and 2. That should clear everything out and take you back to where your board was when you received it. (to remove the battery for a few and then replace it back should do the same thing for you)

Hope that helps.


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## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

mark3567 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I would assume that you need to clear CMOS. If you will locate the little jumper and move it for a few minutes from pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3, then move it back to pins 1 and 2. That should clear everything out and take you back to where your board was when you received it. (to remove the battery for a few and then replace it back should do the same thing for you)
> 
> Hope that helps.


 Thanks for the tip. Reset the CMOS (shorted two tiny solder points on the motherboard).
Now get:
"CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded"
When I choose to continue without entering BIOS setup, end up with "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT" again.
When I change the BIOS setting so that the IDE HD is the primary master same result.

I've noticed that the last thing that appears on the screen before the reboot message is: "Installed ESCD successfully". At least I thinks it's ESCD. It's ES-something.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi,

Sorry, I had to be gone for a bit...one busy day. Anyhow, we need to take a look at the Checksum error. Here is a link you need to read to troubleshoot. When that is done, let me know what the result of your troubleshooting is. 

http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/booterrGBER08-c.html

Oh, a checksum error can also be a bad battery and many manufacturer's have been shipping some boards with bad batteries. Might be worth a five buck battery to see.

It may also be a BIOS corruption in the process of flashing your BIOS. Clintfan on this forum has written extensively about that, you might want to search his name and see what he says if it is that.


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## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

The PC is an old dual PII 450 I got second hand. Been running just fine for a couple of months here. Don't know when the battery was changed last but it still looks OK at 3V as required. Do you still think I should try a new battery?
Installed a 30GB IDE drive recently but it's been working well too.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi,

Might be worth a try to simply remove the battery for about ten to fifteen minutes and see if that helps. Did you get a chance to go through the microsoft link?


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## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

I appear to have made some progress.
I've reconnected the 9GB SCSI drive and disconnected 30GB IDE the and now get the message:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from teh selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk condiguration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

Where to now?


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi,

I am not sure, but assume since you have nothing to boot from on the SCSI, it might be giving you that message. I would be more concerned with getting your boot disk up and running.

My suggestion, take the SCSI back out, place your hard drive on IDE #1, set jumpers as master, place it on the END of the ribbon cable and see what happens now when you try to boot.


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## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

Well, it looks like the problem's fixed!
I popped the battery out for a while, put it back in.
Next I changed the BIOS to boot from the Win XP CD, reformatted the IDE drive, installed XP.
Boots fine now.
Have been getting a fairly regular hardware problem message on boot though. Tells me to check the power management setup in the BIOS and I happened to catch the -5V voltage monitor of the power supply for a second or so. Might be on the way out. Still not sure this could have been causing the problems I was encountering.
Won't look a gift horse in the mouth though.
Thanks for your help.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2005)

HI,

So glad you got going. Whatever happened, just enjoy being lucky for a while. Hey, don't be a stranger around here, it is kind of a nice place to hang out and learn. Those of us who help learn every day we are on here. Nice chatting with you.


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## ssrjdg (Apr 8, 2005)

Thanks again mark3567.
Appears to be OK.
I do have a lesser problem that I had before the BIOS fiasco too.
Whenever I use my 1GB SanDisk Cruzer USB drive, within about a minute of plugging it in my PC loses it's connection to the device. Would be handy to get this working reliably.
Works fine with my Macs and other PCs I've tried it with. I don't use the USB ports on my PC otherwise so there could be something flakey about them.
Assuming I test them with a keyboard and mouse and they work what could I try next? They're USB 1.1 only.

PS.
This is definitely a cool place to come to for assistance with a good attitude.
Nice one.


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2005)

Hi,

Those USB situations can be tough. I would suggest going to device manager and opening up the USB area and updating all the drivers as a first step. 

Second, go to the same area and where it says USB Root Hub, right click on all those four or so areas, select Properties, Select Power Management, then uncheck where it says, allow system to turn off USB hub to save power. (wording might be different for some boards)

No guarantees, but might be worth a try.


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