Diagnosis Required :-)

[Zak33]

OK, this is the score. Dad got a new PC, so I stole his old one for a spare gaming rig.

It's as follows, please read it all before assessing the situ.

Eagle PSU 300W
Abit KT7A Raid mobo
T Bird 1400 unlocked
Various bits of ram, from 128 through 256 through 512
Western Dig HDD 80gig
Fujitsu HDD 20gig
Generic Heatsink n fan
2 Optical drives
1 floppy

When it started giving Dad grief, after 2 years faultless service (and previously owned by a mate who had it one year ok too) is began to fail to boot, due, according to the BIOS screen, to a HDD issue.

He dealt with it for about 3 months, as it would boot, run ok for 1/2 hour then crash and not reboot until cool

He got a new PC, brought it here for me.

I took out ram until only 1 stick was is (256) ran MEMTEST to check it was ok. All fine
Took out an optical drive and took out the spare Fujitsu hard drive, leaving only boot drive (WD)

Was ok for a few reboots, I tidied the HDD and defragged it, and then rebooted....got an error on reboot reporting "Checksum no 80 cable fitted"

It worked next time...but BIOS was back to 5x100 in BIOS.

Bear in mind I had not reset the BIOS.

This occured in various forms for 10 reboots.....each time I got it set up, then got an error about "no 80 cable fitted"

So I swapped the HDD, checked the pins (fallen for THAT one before) were straight...but it happened on this one too!! I turned off RAID and turned it back on just in case. I removed BOTH optical drives too. I then tried another stick of ram.

At random points during this period, the BIOS screens were garbled. The letters and pixels were randomly spread about

I swapped vid cards too. Same.

At one particularly unusual point, while setting up BIOS again, I noticed the time was wrong (no suprise....BIOS had reset again) and I could NOT get the time to hold true.

It fluctuated WHILE I was resetting it.

I now have a PC that boots when cool, but shows all the signs of a knackered Mobo or BIOS chip, but maybe....

just maybe....

does it simply need a battery?

Anyone know?

[Zak33]

Update....I have it cool and running again....so EXACT SCREEN WORDS.

Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed

CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded

and the clock is ALL OVER the place.....thats the TIME clock...not the CPU clock speed

[Proplus]

Hard to say, if that is the original PSU, it could be that which is knackering on you causing all sorts of problems.

[Hans Voralberg]

May be not so good assessment but, why don't you try a new battery and a cable :|

[Agent]

Sounds like the battery to me.
Is the cable an 80 core one, or just a standard one ?

[Rave]

Do all the capacitors on the board look healthy? No bloating/leaking? Battery is worth a try though, they're cheap enough (tip: ebay).

[Zak33]

cable must be 80 core....worked ok for 3 years !

Battery,.,,,,,did I lead you guys to that though...or is it most likely?

[Hans Voralberg]

BIOS reseting automactically, either it's getting funky or the battery IMO. Don't u think and old trusty 3 years old cable need a replacement.

@Rave: is battery mobo specific ?? I thought any generic would do ?

[Zak33]

Don't u think and old trusty 3 years old cable need a replacement.

do they wear out inside? Didnt think was very likely

[Agent]

Its easy to tell the difference between an 80 and 40 core cable, as one, supprisingly, has double the wires



Left = 80 core, Right = 40 core.

As for the battery, PM me your current address and ill drop one in the post for you over the weekend.

[Firelord]

Replace the BIOS battery and flash the BIOS again to the latest offical BIOS. Should hopefully sort you out again If not then I would suggest a new BIOS chip itself

[Zak33]

Replace the BIOS battery and flash the BIOS again to the latest offical BIOS.

/\ he doesn't know me very wel, does he ?

I kill BIOS's for a living

I'll PM Agent an address in a mo....

BUT......here's a thing for ya.

I swapped which Ribbon Cable plug I was using! and it seems fine.

I alwaya use the middle one for Primary, but this time, it seems to prefer the end one.

So far...so good

[Firelord]

I would still replace the BIOS Battery however as it only costs a few pounds and would help the BIOS issues

[Rave]

I'm pretty sure the end one should be the primary drive?

@Hans: no, any old lithium coin will do, the point is that ebay is a good place to pick them up cheap; you can usually get five for £2 delivered. I'm not sure if all motherboards take the same type TBH, never thought to check since the only one I've ever replaced was in my Sega Saturn.

[Firelord]

Maplins sell BIOS batteries as Rave said their just standard batteries.

Take the old one with to make sure you get the right one

[Zak33]

I'm pretty sure the end one should be the primary drive?

well long ago I'd have agreed, BUT I got an Iwil KK266 and it had it 'tother way round.

So I stuck with it thinking it was the law