BIOS or Hardware problem?

[Guest]

Please help me to fix my friends PC. Here's the details:
OS: WinXP Pro
Ram: 120MB
HDD: Segagate 40GB
CPU: no idea
Brand: no idea (it was manufactured on 2000)
According to my friend this PC crashed, he has no idea what happened.
When I turn the PC on, it displays the following message "checksum error -
defaults loaded", another message that flashed just once before was something
like "CMOS battery fault...". Then it starts to read the XP Pro CD that I
inserted and goes thru the first loading and stays on the "windows start
loading..." message. I cannot get to the point where I can format the HDD and
start coping windows files.
What could cause this problem? What can I do?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Please help me to fix my friends PC. Here's the details:
OS: WinXP Pro
Ram: 120MB
HDD: Segagate 40GB
CPU: no idea
Brand: no idea (it was manufactured on 2000)
According to my friend this PC crashed, he has no idea what happened.
When I turn the PC on, it displays the following message "checksum error -
defaults loaded", another message that flashed just once before was something
like "CMOS battery fault...". Then it starts to read the XP Pro CD that I
inserted and goes thru the first loading and stays on the "windows start
loading..." message. I cannot get to the point where I can format the HDD and
start coping windows files.
What could cause this problem? What can I do?

It seems your CMOS battery is flat. It's usually a shiny
button cell that you can see when you open the PC.
Replace it, then press the appropriate key when rebooting
to get into the BIOS (it's usually the Delete key). You can
now set the data & time, and get the BIOS to auto-detect
the hard disk. This should solve your problem.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Well, the computer is clearly telling you that the CMOS battery
has a failed. Replace it.

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

Hi Pegasus
I found the battery on the motherboard. But I have another question though,
before I get a replacement battery tomorrow. I forgot to mention that I
already got into the BIOS and set it to it's optimized default. Under the
standard CMOS it displayed the HDD. That means it detected the hard drive
right? I don't know if this makes any difference. Another thing is "CMOS
battery fault..." was displayed just once, I restarted the PC many times
replacing it's HDD and RAM but that message never displayed again.
many thx

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You can easily tell if the battery is flat:
- Check it with a multimeter, or
- Set the date & time in the BIOS, turn the PC off
for 24 hours, then check the date & time. If they
are wrong then the battery is flat.

 

[Guest]

thanks, I'll replace the battery and reply on the result tomorrow.