I AM SO SCREWED! I cleared my CMOS when the 5v standby is still on..

[sawyen]

I'm only worried that its might also fry my 3500+ as well.. so so so screwed.. If the 3500+ gone as well.. then there goes my system..

Ohh.. the 4 microns are fine as well.. tested it on the AXP.. The only unknown now is the CPU and the mobo.. its either 'or' or 'and'... I hope its only the 'or' as I coudnt afford to shell out another 100 quid for a new 3200+ grey box..

[oralpain]

I highly doubt that you fried anything. Using the CMOS clear jumper should not be able to damage anything but the BIOS eeprom chip.

You probably erased the BIOS, I've done it several times. You need a new BIOS chip, or a motherbaord RMA.

New BIOS chip, with the correct BIOS on it, would run about 30 dollars in the US, regardless of what board it was for.

Get a new chip and then hot flash the old one back to the newest bios, that way you'll have a spare.

[5lab]

did someone suggest both your mobos are the same?

even if not, there is a trick you can try. boot the working pc using the bios boot disk for the duff pc. once it gets the the screen asking you to confirm the flash, swap the cmos chips over (usually, they're the same size/pins). hit ok, and it should flash you with the new bios

power down, swap the chips back then try booting.

nb. this should cause no damage, but i take no responsibility - its worked for me in the past as a last-ditch save

[zaphod]

If you sure its the BIOS and you have two Abit AV8 3rd Eye MB's. You can try to hotswap the BIOS chip as the ROM may have got corrupt. I had to do it with an old AN7-S...worked fine afterwords.

But make sure that the BIOS is the problem first...!

[sawyen]

I thought about a bios hot-swap yesterday.. but never attempted it in the end cos Scan eventually arranged for a pick-up on Monday...

But I actually took the trouble to walk all the way to Maplins and got some Shinetsu.. 5 lousy grey pads for 5 quid... Never got up to do it yet.. but Will know whether the cpu's toasted.. either today or tomorrow.. depends when does the other AV8 goes offline.. so many alignment so little time..

[PMM]

leave PSU plugged in, but switch it off at the wall as to maintain a ground circuit.

With your PC off at the wall... just hit the start button so any residule PSU power
in the PSU has the potential to disipate. {if your pc starts your forgot to switch off at the wall }

now flip out the motherboard battery

Move the drain jumper to the drain position.

Now find a bit of wire .. or something you can put accoss the terminals of your
motherboard battery holder.

With the wire / impliment actual short the connects that would connect to the battery
hold and maintain for a few seconds.

.... Now do the reverse

Drain jumper to normal position
Battery back into its holder.

Switch PC back on at wall and hit the start button.

Give that routine a try ... there is a logical in the above for those wondering

[sawyen]

well.. maybe I didnt explain the situation clearer.. but I cant even START the system.. no sound.. no noise from the PSU.. no noise from the CPU cooler.. nothing starts up.. nadda..

The PSU is fine.. the gfx is fine.. the ram is fine.. every other component is fine other than the cpu I havent tested.. I'm thinking I might have erased the memory in the BIOS.. but still.. even if the BIOS rom chip is empty.. it should at least power up right? I mean.. it should at least power up the components and just report a bogey error in the post code reader right? Uhh.. maybe I'm not even sure whats going to happen when u stuff ur BIOS rom chip... but now it just wont start up.. If the 5v standby is also off.. at least I know the circuit it the board is cooked.. but the thing is.. the 5v LED and the post code reader still works.. just no go.. no matter how I try to jump the power switch pin.. used a screwdriver.. used my gf's hairpin.. used my power on button from my pimped up Pentium 166 rig.. everything.. I cant find any other way of starting up the system..