[deudonne]

great - will put this all into action asap.
may be a while before i post again - i will reinstall windows. Should i clear cmos before i do this?

And should i reinstall with just one stick of RAM in dimm1 then put the other one in later on when its all she stable?

Thanks Rick.

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Yes clear the cmos and load the bios defaults, this sould be done with any new motherboard and will help insure the bios is setup correctly.

As far as the ram, don't change it now we know the computer will boot and run windows with its current config so there is no need to change it.

your welcome

Rick

[Doby]

Yes clear the cmos and load the bios defaults, this sould be done with any new motherboard and will help insure the bios is setup correctly.

As far as the ram, don't change it now we know the computer will boot and run windows with its current config so there is no need to change it.

your welcome

Rick

[deudonne]

installed new psu, and also changed jumper to clear cmos and removed battery. But when i started up again i got 'bad checksum - loading bios, checking for floppy, checking for cd. And i cant enter bios.
What do i do?

[deudonne]

just tried to load bios from mobo cd as instructed in manual. Said it found 'k8n.rom' but then said 'can't read k8n.rom'. It doesnt cover that eventuality in the manual.

eek!

luckily have borrowed mates computer to stay on internet. Next steps?

[Doby]

By clearing cmos all you are doing is resetting the bios back to the way it was when it left the manufactuer, you are not erasing it or removing it by any means so you should not have to load any floppy or cd unless you are updating the bios sometimes called flashing, there is no need to do this at this time and I hope you have not attempted it.

The bad checksun error is normal after you clear cmos, disregard it, it will not appear on the following reboot.

I don't understand why you can't enter bios, try again, if you can't what happens when you just let the computer boot to windows?

[deudonne]

i am incredible. You would be proud!

check this...

none of our computers have a floppy drive, so i managed to get an old computer from work (windows 98, 5gb HD and a floppy!). My stingy housemate wouldnt let me put it in his computer... so...
I built one! In one evening, booted up - check the spec:

my old (previously thought dud and broken) WinFast MoBo and Sephron 2400+, old 5gb (and rattling) Hard disk, 9yr old cdrom, my WinPower psu (the one we were questioning a few days ago) a few old cables and a very old half fallen apart floppy drive. now get this - i found a pc case lying in the street in the rain 2 days ago and so i stuck it all in there. All fitted! Booted up windows xp +sp2, connected to my wireless router with a cable, downloaded latest asus bios for my motherboard, created a bootable floppy disk (found an old disk in the bottom of a box!) and then swapped the floppy drive over to my new build computer and booted the bios off that!!!!!!!

ha ha. Now i have two computers for the price of one! Granted one is pretty dodgy, but a few new parts and we're up and running.

I'll let you know how i get on with my new bios.

Its amazing to me that i have booted up a working computer (not one error or hitch) in one evening (about 5hours) from old bits people were chucking out and I have spent months now trying to do the same with one with brand new parts! arrrgh!

right gonna get back to my new one..
see you later

[deudonne]

sorry i didnt read you reply in my haste to write all that,

windows wouldnt boot, nor would bios or anything! just trying to find floppy, then cd, then floppy - nothing else

[wannabe1]

Hi deudonne...

Couldn't resist poking my nose in long enough to say "Well Done!!!" Isn't that the way it goes...

As an aside, what is your boot priority order? Try CD-ROM - HDD - Floppy if it's not already set to that order.

I must say it has been kinda fun watching you learn through all this...you should be joining us in helping others soon...

wannabe1

[deudonne]

YEEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Back in windows with an updated bios!
If you had told i could do all that this morning i wouldn't have believed you!

Will let you know how it pans out - im sure there will be hitches along the way. Im gonna back up all my data and reinstall windows.

Do you think i need to re-partition and reformat whole hard drive. All my docs and music etc are on second partition. I think i will anyway- to get a clean sweep.

[deudonne]

Thanks wannabe1!!!
good to hear from you!

i have learnt loads, but it seems the more i learn, the more i realise how little i actually know.
Interesting, yet daunting!

Cheers!

Edited by deudonne, 09 December 2005 - 04:42 PM.

[deudonne]

right - its giving me Zone alarm root certificate woarning and not booting up zone alarm. I also cant uninstall it. So i (probably stupidly) use regcleaner and removedzone alarm's entries to see if that woul help. It didnt. Anyways so then i reebooted again, and (my main concern) the system froze on the Mobo screen (the one where you would press delete to enter bios). I pressed restart button and same again, and same again. So i turned of, waited a few minutes and then it stated fine and booted into windows. This is the SAME problem i had before.

I will try and boot into bios again and see if i can see anything.

Edited by deudonne, 09 December 2005 - 04:44 PM.

[deudonne]

ok (sorry about multiple posts again)

i booted into bios fine this time, but its telling me its version 8.00.09, and i created a bootable recovery disk using 9.00.00 (i did this because i did not know the version of my original bios at the time and i had no copy because it couldn't read the .rom file from the mobo disk).

At least it got the bios working again, but i wonder why it didnt update.

[deudonne]

so i booted into bios successfully (havent posted it yet because internet is running soooo slow (2mb as well!))

in bios its telling me its version 8.00.09, but the bootable floppy i created had the new 9.00.00 version off the asus website (i did this because i didnt know the version of my original one back then and because it would read the .rom file off the mobo cd).

Its also giving me the same occasional freezes (pre windows loading) that i got before i tried to clear cmos unsuccessfully.

anyone know why the bios did not update itself? or even why the clear cmos was not successful?

when i tried to clear cmos this is what i did, in this order: diconnected psu, moved jumper across, disconnected built in mobo battery, then moved jumper back, then put jumper back to original position, and then powered up.
- It wouldnt get past the screen saying 'badchecksum, checking for cd, checking for floppy, and repeated this.

did i do anything wrong here?

will reinstalling windows actually solve any of this?
should i try to flash the bios first, or try to clear cmos again? (now i know i have the capability to recover if it goes wrong)

Edited by deudonne, 09 December 2005 - 05:29 PM.

[deudonne]

i just tried the ram in dimm1 and 2 instead of 2 and 3... ... and .. It seems to work!! no freeze yet and i'm writing this! This is the furthest i've ever got with the two in these slots!!!

i think i'll run memtest overnight to be sure, otherwise it means that my initial problem for starting this thread would have been solved.

i still think i'll reinstall windows for a fresh start with working hardware.
still worried about the sys freeze before windows (but it hasnt done it in last 3/4 boots)
cant get zone alarm verification warnings to go away, or get the prog to run (will look up this problem on google though)

so - no immediate feedback required (for once) unless you have any advice about what ive been doing today.

i will keep y'all informed of how it all goes. Touch wood i'm near the answer!

Thanks so much!!

Edited by deudonne, 09 December 2005 - 05:48 PM.

[deudonne]

solved the zone alarm mystery.. my fault - i had forgotten to re-set time and date in bios. Sorted.

still getting missing sys tray icons - computer seems to randomly choose between belkin icon, ati icon, and creative icon. A bit annoying.
Anyway - a fresh install might solve this.
I'm not gonna do it today though - i think im done... it is addictive though isnt it.