[probleempje]

Hi,
(I'm new to this forum and tried to find a similar question already posted, but didn't find it)
(system details given at end of this message)

For (at least) several weeks i have noticed that the monitor (which is never switched off, just on standby when PC is off) doesn't switch on at the same moment of the Windows 5XP home° startup sequence, like it used to do: sometimes right at the beginning (thus showing the whole startup sequence), sometimes right at the end (showing the desktop with all the icons).

3 days ago things went more seriously wrong: monitor did switch on early but "fell back" to standby within a few seconds and it sounded as if windows didn't continue thes tartup sequence; i tried this several times with similar results, although the monitor's "fall back" to standby occurred at different moments of the startup; i think that once i didn't here the usual startup beep (early in the startup).

went to a repair shop to check the monitor with another Pc (all OK) and the PC with another monitor 5all OK too); had the PC and the memory contacts cleaned and tried again: it worked (we thought...)

back at home, new problem: at startup " CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded" announcement; pressing F1 (to continue) led to normal/OK startup, but with another message: "Found New Hardware : RAID controller". As I don't know if it's a good idea to use use the Windows New Hardware wizard (I do have the driver on a CD that came with the PC), I've left it at that. So since today it starts up consistently fine (?), but every time with the same "Found New Hardware : RAID controller" message - which I ignore.

Question: what to do? (leave it at that since it sort of works OK, or install the RAID controller, or something else)

Thanks a lot for any useful suggestions
Peter
(English not my mother-tongue, and not very technical)

-------------------------------
System (3 years old):
motherboard: gigabyte ga 7vaxp
processor: 1800 athlon cpu retail
graphics card: ATI 9000 128MB
memory: 512 ddr 2100

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well that checksum error means that for some reason your BIOS decided it wanted to go back to defaults...sooo..i would say change the CMOS battery on the mother board....then you may have to go into bios and disable some settings...not sure which...but there...is something in your bios that refers to onboard devices or peripheral set up or something like.....assuming you don't have a SATA drive or something like that...then that should be why you're getting those messages

[dsenette]

well that checksum error means that for some reason your BIOS decided it wanted to go back to defaults...sooo..i would say change the CMOS battery on the mother board....then you may have to go into bios and disable some settings...not sure which...but there...is something in your bios that refers to onboard devices or peripheral set up or something like.....assuming you don't have a SATA drive or something like that...then that should be why you're getting those messages

[probleempje]

thanks so far, dsnette, but i'm a bit hesitant to change the CMOS battery if I don't know how to disable some BIOS settings (like i said: i'm not very technical); i could contact the shop (that put the PC together for me) where i bought it (1000+ miles from where i live now...) to ask if they can help me with these original settings (i haven't changed them, but some hardware has been added and others removed since - a DVDRW for a DVDROM for instance); what do you think/suggest? just to clarify: the CMOS checksum error notice don't happen anymore, it's "just" the "found new hardware: RAID controller" that bothers me.
ps: i can still check this forum with the PC "open" as I've got an old laptop as backup; have slow dialup though, no broadband here.

[dsenette]

if you haven't gotten the checksum error again..it may not be a bad battery...but...it's an easy change...nothing hard about it...if you're not comfy with it..that's ok it doesn't seem critical...

if you do not have a sata drive in the computer...i think the option in bios would be to disable sata support...i'll try to dig a little further but each bios is different so it's hard to narrow down the exact setting..

[probleempje]

device manager in control panel -> system -> hardware gives for the disk:
IDE\DISKIC35L090AVV ; does that mean it's not a SATA? (it was a fairly cheap computer with no fancy/high-end features)
i did write down that when starting up it says: "BIOS version 2.20.1020.13" no idea if that helps...
thanks again

[dsenette]

you deffinitely do not have a SATA drive...

boot into the bios settings and look for anything referencing raid or sata...and let me know what you find

[probleempje]

erhm... "boot into the bios settings"
Q: do I do that by pressing the DEL option ("to enter SETUP / dual BIOS / Q-flash") ?
in the meantime I'll switch to the other PC to be able to keep in touch

[dsenette]

yes del to enter setup...

[probleempje]

sorry to be so stupid; have tried several times DEL (as well as F2 and ESC) well before the startup beep, but it doesn't bring me in the BIOS setup - windows just continues startup...
PS: when I earlier wrote "Q: do I do that by pressing the DEL option ("to enter SETUP / dual BIOS / Q-flash") ?" that was because I had written down that option when it was given during earlier the CMOS checksum error - I dont get that option during startup anymore, hence my trying to press DEL/F2/ESC
Q: do I keep DEL pressed? (I cannot see the result untill the monitor comes on though)

[probleempje]

good news - i've got in

[probleempje]

do i choose "advanced BIOS features" or "F8 : Dual BIOS/Q-Flash" (or something else)?

[dsenette]

probably advanced BIOS Features..

[probleempje]

advanced bios features gives following menu:

RAID/SCSI Boot Order [RAID/SCSI]
First Boot Device [Floppy]
Second Boot Device [HDD-0]
Third Boot Device [CDROM]
Boot Up Floppy Seek [Disabled]
Password Check [Setup]
Flexible AGP8x [Auto]
Init Display First [AGP]

If I press [RAID/SCSI], I get:
RAID,SCSI ..... [#]
SCSI,RAID ..... [ ]
with the # actually being a solid square (not a hash)

[dsenette]

grr....not what i wanted to see...

let's get back into windows and do this the ugly way...when it comes up asking you about detecting the device...go ahead and try to let windows install it....it will probably fail to do so...but it will mark the device as disabled...and should cause the error to stop (not the best way to handle it but...)

[probleempje]

also noticed very briefly, during startup, after the "detecting /" (with the / slowly turning for sveral seconds):
MRU........... (=a lot of chqaracters) BIOS is not installed because no drives attached