[neverborn]

hey guys,

can anyone tell me what this means? :

CMOS error-defaults loaded

lately i've been getting this message on startup, and when i press DEL to enter setup i notice my time's always set to January 1 2002 and i have to change it manually.

see, for some time now my floppy drive hasn't been working but i wasn't really using it anyway so i didnt do anything about it. but i seem to recall having read somewhere that this scenario is caused by an error at startup, so i removed my floppy drive from the boot sequence and disabled it altogether since i figured that was the error responsible for the defaults being loaded... now i don't encounter this error as much, only about 3 times a week instead of everytime i boot up. still...would you say it's time for a new battery?

also, most of my applications tend to hang after saying windows doesn't have enough memory to perform certain operations (like file save, cd burning). now i'm really stumped since i have no idea if i'm having hardware or software(system) problems.

do i:
-get a new battery
-get a new RAM card
-format my c: drive

any help would be great. thanks!

[Advertisements]

Hi, if im correct I used to have an old P3 compaq 800Mhz, and it was sought of giving me the same problems. The battery shouldnt be flat, but try and change it, it will be for the best anyway or try taking out the old battery and putting it in again. If it still gives you problems, then im not to sure.

But I hope this works for you, sure it will. Enjoy...

[Spike]

Hi, if im correct I used to have an old P3 compaq 800Mhz, and it was sought of giving me the same problems. The battery shouldnt be flat, but try and change it, it will be for the best anyway or try taking out the old battery and putting it in again. If it still gives you problems, then im not to sure.

But I hope this works for you, sure it will. Enjoy...

[drmindu]

u definely have CMOS problem. check the remaining power, try to uninstall any software that comes with the drive u remove also if you add memory make sure it is compatible with ur hardware without conflict

[dsenette]

i wouldn't go as far as formatting just yet....but...replacing the cmos battery is a good start....how many sticks of ram do you have in the machine?

[neverborn]

thanks for the suggestions guys! gonna get a new battery either tomorrow or the day after. bout time anyway, as my computer's two years old, give or take. as for RAM, i only have one stick at the present: 128 MB. probably get one in the near future cos im trying to learn websphere which they say is a memory monster...

oh and about my paging file/insufficient memory problems--i downloaded SECURITY TASK MANAGER (recommended in some forum) and ran it-it's basically the same as Windows' except it analyses and displays the threat level of each process you have running. well i found one with a threat level of 97--"dnssvc.exe." soon as i terminated it my comp seems to have recovered! PC's been up for hours now and no memory complaints yet. i've even managed to run games again...

thanks again for the feedback...

[dsenette]

that dnssvc.exe is not a good thing..i suggest going through the malware forum...by following the steps below

Please go to the malware forum in my signature and follow the instructions at the top....Especially the CLICK HERE .

That will give you several steps that will help you clean up 70 percent of all problems by yourself. If at the end of the process you are still having difficulty--and you may not be-- then post a hijackthis log in THAT forum.

If you are still having problems after getting a clean bill of health from the malware expert, please return to this thread.

[neverborn]

just wanted to say thanks. tried all the programs on the malware intro, but none of them found it. you're right though, it definitely shouldn't be in my system. found out it's installed by some yet-to-be-identified trojan. removed it from my startup list along with mpcsvc.exe, and so far everything's great.

um, another question? the utility i used only prevented those two from starting up with windows by placing them in quarantine. still, when i navigated to the containing folders, i couldn't find the files even though 'show hidden files' is turned on. I'd really like to COMPLETELY get rid of them , not just quarantine...any suggestions?

thanks again for everything!

[dsenette]

follow through with the rest of the malware protocoll..go ahead and download hijackthis and post a log in t he malware forum....

[neverborn]

dsenette?
im still working with someone from the malware forum, but i think we've pretty much cleared up my system. everything's working fine now,[no more memory complaints] only, i still got the checksum error when i booted up earlier[once so far]. i replaced the battery just last night! any thoughts? i know little about the inside of the system unit, so any help would be appreciated. you think my motherboard's whacked?

[dsenette]

it's possible that flashing your bios will help with the checksum problem...go to the website of your motherboard m anufaturer..and look for a bios update...and follow their instructions