Computer died..help

So,i've never been able to OC my comp, because for some reason, everytime i go into BIOS, it screws up and does a hard restart, and then tries to re power itself on. only, it fails to do so, and just hangs there, surging power every couple of secs trying to turn on..only it never does.

long story short, friend was ocing his new machine, i tried to go back in and work on mine..sameproblem. only this time, i can't seem to get it back and running in default with a cmos reset.

whenever i boot, it says cmos checksum error. if i go load, opt defaults, it'll go to try to find hard drives, and then tell me that it has no system disc. in bios, it sees all my hdds..so im really stuck.

i put in winxp cd and went to repair, and see that c: is now replaced with my third hdd, instead of my actual, sata1 first onewith the OS on it. why is it thinking backwards?

also, half the time it boots..i can't even use the keyboard.

god damn.. i knew i shouldn't have done this stuff. i already knew it was messed up from trying to do it beforre :|. no one seemed to have an answer back when i was initally having the weird power problem either.

and it runs stable as ever if i just leave it alone when it's working.. just trying to do anything in bios, which makesi itpower down for a second and try to reboot itself kills it every time. i can't get it to come back this time, ive bneen trying for like an hour or two.

any ideas?

list of comp parts in sig

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http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=255845
thisguy soundslike the same prob a bit..only, howcani update the bioswithout a floppy drive? i burned the stuff onto a cdrom, but it isn't bootable. i went into win repair fromt he xp cd.. but it won't let me open the cdrom so i could tryto run itor something. (spacebar is horrid on this keyboard)

hmmm a very strange problem indeed. What sort of settings are you throwing at it when you OC? The only time I've ever seen that checksum error consistently is on my parents PC, whenver I unplug it (to clean or something) but that's because the battery is dead and it reverts back to factory settings (from 2002 lol)

Start by installing a fresh copy of windows, but I think your board may just be problematic.

edit: I just remembered I had some trouble trying to POST with the same, board. Is there another GPU you could test it with? for some reason the IP35 didn't like my geforce 6600 and didn't boot with it. Any other card seemed fine.

jokers_greg said:

hmmm a very strange problem indeed. What sort of settings are you throwing at it when you OC? The only time I've ever seen that checksum error consistently is on my parents PC, whenver I unplug it (to clean or something) but that's because the battery is dead and it reverts back to factory settings (from 2002 lol)

Start by installing a fresh copy of windows, but I think your board may just be problematic.

edit: I just remembered I had some trouble trying to POST with the same, board. Is there another GPU you could test it with? for some reason the IP35 didn't like my geforce 6600 and didn't boot with it. Any other card seemed fine.

Click to expand...

nothing spectacular.. i went up to 2.6 from 2.4, then was going to 2.8 and it happened.. wouldn't boot, and did the weird power surging thing. i also can't afford to reinstall windows i don't think.

i dohave another video card..i just can't see that being it, atleast i hope. not being able to use it would be awful. gonna get some sleep..been up all night, hope to get this fixed tomorrow. flipped the cmos switch and unpugged the power. now to say a prayer

Gessfk said:

nothing spectacular.. i went up to 2.6 from 2.4, then was going to 2.8 and it happened.. wouldn't boot, and did the weird power surging thing. i also can't afford to reinstall windows i don't think.

i dohave another video card..i just can't see that being it, atleast i hope. not being able to use it would be awful. gonna get some sleep..been up all night, hope to get this fixed tomorrow. flipped the cmos switch and unpugged the power. now to say a prayer

Click to expand...

yeah try that first, so what did you raise your FSB to? maybe it clocked your RAM to high (did u set the divider right?). Check another GPU if you can

jokers_greg said:

yeah try that first, so what did you raise your FSB to? maybe it clocked your RAM to high (did u set the divider right?). Check another GPU if you can

Click to expand...

it was on like 1.2:1 dram:cpu i think

but even then, shouldn'tit reset when the cmos resets? i'm not still trying to oc at all..just trying to get it back to actually working with default again like it usedto. used to be rock solid :}

jokers_greg said:

The only time I've ever seen that checksum error consistently is on my parents PC, whenver I unplug it (to clean or something) but that's because the battery is dead and it reverts back to factory settings (from 2002 lol)

Click to expand...

The second problem sounds like a bad CMOS battery, at least the CMOS checksum error and less serious. Just replace the CR2032 battery.

How old is the Bios battery might be worth a try.

well, thankfully i got the comp back and running. ocing problems still persist, but i can actually reset the cmos and get it back and running again, thank god. I put a new cmos battery in, although that wasn't the real problem. Apparently, when I put a hdd in, somehow I swapped my sata cables..and although it never caused a problem before, it was bugging out and not finding my os on the 2nd hdd. so i just swapped the cables, and it found it, and i can boot in now. Maybe it did need a new batt too, but I doubt it, cuz it's still semi-new.

Still a bummer knowing I can't OC this beast, because of that weird power surge problem, when I bought all this crap just to try to push it

oh well, thanks for your help guys

To update the BIOS in a modern board. You use a USB drive. Updating to a stable oc'n BIOS would be the first on my list to fix. I am not all that hip on what is what on a Abit anymore.

When you get a checksum error while overclocking. Usually in my experience. That means your corrupting the BIOS from heat or simply overloading the board. Possibly, the BIOS just sucks for oc'n.
The machine can fire off plenty fine I would think having a dead a CMOS battery. All that that would happen is. It would run at factory settings at every power off/on.

Try and run it stock. Since it seems the board is faulty somehow. I had a version of the IP-35 that would not run in dual channel. Single stick, the thing would overclock like crazy. Add a second stick. It would corrupt the OS upon loading.

If I was to take a guess. Maybe faulty voltage regulating circuits. Or something is overheating and freaking the board out.
The heat issue would the be the easiest to check out. Just reseat all the heatsinks on the board itself or replace them.

How stable it the machine at stock settings overall? Since the issue seems to only happen during an OC.

Aye, Checksum error indicates a problem with the Bios itself, corrupted, damaged, possibly even some super 7331 virus that went hipervisor and wrote itself into the bios (not at all likely, but there was a proof of concept). Go to the website, download an updated bios.

Download and burn the ultimate boot cd.

boot up, and flash the bios.

He should be able to use a USB drive to flash it. The Abit I had a couple days. I flashed it via a thumb drive rather easy. If I recall right, it is built in to the BIOS to be able to do it that way. Plus does some voodoo to make sure it flashes right.

Though UBCD works just was well.

I'm concerned about the Bios health to begin with.
Last thing we need is a failed bios update caused by a corrupted bios.
I'd hate to see him brick the board because of something preventable, but also I'm not familiar with the ABIT bios. If you think the thumb drive and update from within bios is the way to go, I'll bow to your expertise. I'm just shooting in the dark.

I get the bad checksum on BIOS updates only, once I configure it. I never get the bad checksum until another update, and reapet my steps and so on. Try taking out the battery on the mobo, unplug everything, wait for 10 mins or so. And also do the jumpers. Plug is back in and see if it works. This usually works all the time for me. And make sure all your power connectores are tightly in there correct spots. But it does seem like a bad bios itself.

wingman99 said:

How old is the Bios battery might be worth a try.

Click to expand...

nah not in his case. A CMOS battery isn't needed to run the PC, so long as its plugged in (how else are you gonna start it?) It's only there to store your BIOS configuration during power losses, or if you unplug your PC from the outlet.