Have to reset CMOS/BIOS every morning

**Chaffers** · September 22nd, 2004, 04:03 AM

Hi all... Me again...

Every morning, when i turn on my PC, it makes no beeps, and the monitor doesn't come on... The parts inside make spinning up noises, but that's about it...

I then have to clear the CMOS, and then restart. And everything is okay...

When this first started (this has been going on about 3 days) I restarted a few times without clearing the CMOS, and it booted up, but used default values (I think that it cleared the CMOS because there was a post message saying system oerclocked...) and figured that a CMOS clear might help, and it does... BUt the next day, when I turn it on, the problem reappears...

None of my components are overclocked, and it runs fine after I do a CMOS clear and restart.

Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance...!

Full spec:-

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400FSB)
Asus A7N8X-E/Deluxe (NForce2 Ultra400 Chipset)
Kingston Hyper X 512Mb DDR SDRAM 333Mhz PC2700 (slot 1)
Kingston 512Mb DDR SDRAM 400Mhz PC3200 (Slot 3 Running @333Mhz dual channel)
Asus GeforceFX 5700 256Mb
Maxtor 120Gb HDD (7200rpm 8Mb Cache)
Alcatel Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem
Other miscellaneous USB devices
Pioneer 108 16x DVD writer
Lite-on 52w/32rw/52r CD-RW
Antec 480W TrueBlue PSU
Windows XP Pro
Unbranded Realtek 10/100 NIC
System Idle @ ~50 degrees Centrigrade/~122 degrees Fahrenheit

**gambler2611** · September 22nd, 2004, 06:15 AM

Have you tried replacing the batteries in your board or flashing the bios?

**Chaffers** · October 6th, 2004, 08:36 AM

I have flashed the BIOS to the most up to date version, and I have changed the battery on the mobo...

The problem has now got worse...

When I start up the computer, it gives me a POST report of system overclocked, and sometimes does not even give me that and just spins up the harddisks and give me a blank screen...

When I restart a few more times, it comes up as 3200+ (200*11, 2200Mhz), but the graphics are messed up, giving a multi coloured screen of garbage...

When I set the CPU to 1100 Mhz (which is what I am doing now) it works!!! But it means that I'm running at half the speed of what it should be...

I have reseated the CPU and got some Antec Silver compound... The idle temperature is now 38C... Which is amazingly cool compared to before, but IT STILL CANNOT START AT 3200+!!!!!!!!

PLEASE HELP!!!

**dnrc** · October 6th, 2004, 09:56 AM

try just clocking it back a little, say to 2500 ish and see what happens. You may have a slightly iffy cpu.

It could also be your RAM being flaky.

**Chaffers** · October 6th, 2004, 10:51 AM

Clocking it at 190*11 (2800+)

will see how this runs... -_-

**Chaffers** · October 8th, 2004, 06:00 AM

Starting it at 2800+, 2500+, and any other combination, along with the RAM being set to 100Mhz-200Mhz all show problems, even though at slower speeds, the problem take longer to show up...

What can I do to test? I have tested each piece of RAM by itself and the problem is still there... So it doesn't seem to be the RAM...

One thing that I have noticed is that if I was to keep the computer running for longer, it is more happy to run at faster speeds... If I was to shut it down for a long period of time and I turn it back on, even 2500+ fails to boot...

I have run Prime95, and even though I ran it for 2 hours, it still didn't show any errors...

What can I do? plz help...!!!

**Peter M** · October 8th, 2004, 07:05 AM

Next thing to question is the power supply.

**Chaffers** · October 8th, 2004, 09:15 AM

For the power supply, I got it around 3 months ago from amazon...

I would have thought that the power supply would be the last of my problems since it is an Antec 480W...

Is there a feasible way for me to check the PSU? It's been running for 3 months without any problems...

Any further help would be greatly appeciated....

**MDS** · October 8th, 2004, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Chaffers

When I restart a few more times, it comes up as 3200+ (200*11, 2200Mhz), but the graphics are messed up, giving a multi coloured screen of garbage...

Sounds like the video card is going out or the AGP bus speed was to high from an overclock and is killing the AGP slot.

**Regulus** · October 8th, 2004, 10:01 AM

Your Bios Chip may be problematic or an earlier flash up may have had some bad code, these are replaceable. Sounds like a checksum error.

Regulus

**Chuckiechan** · October 8th, 2004, 10:04 AM

Try a new IDE cable, and see if that helps...

Also, in bios turn the "bios casheable" option off for now...

And when you reset, you need to unplug the computer for some newer boards, even though this probably isn't the problem...

**radio1_mike** · October 8th, 2004, 10:13 AM

Well, your motherboard is a 400MHz FSB, so is your CPU and one stick of your memory.

(I know you've done some preliminary work...)

1) Take out the stick of 333MHz RAM.
2) Reboot with your preferred settings with only the 400MHz stick in slot1.
3) Run and use computer if stable for set amount of time.
4) Reboot and switch stick of RAM next slot.
5) Reboot and do step 2-4 until you are done with slot3.
6) Then replace the 400MHz stick with the 333MHz, oc it to 400MHz, up the DDR voltage to 2.7 or 2.8, whichever higher. And repeat 2-4 with 333MHz stick.

Or you skip all the above and up the DDR voltage to 2.7/2.8.

Issues like these, you have to eliminate all possibilties one by one.
It could be many things, like the PSU, CPU, Memory, Video Card or the Motherboard.

I had the same type of issues earlier this year, it was my board... I just bought a Asus A7N8X-X. No problems now.

Good Luck!

A friend of mine had a similiar problem. Occasional reboots back to 1200MHz and UT2k4 drops out when under stress. He upgrades his CPU, because he wants to and *poof* problem is solved.

**Chaffers** · October 8th, 2004, 11:15 AM

Thanks guys...

Will try the suggestions when I get home... This thing has been stressing me out all week... :'(

Will update you on my findings...

**jmichna** · October 8th, 2004, 11:04 PM

Every one's made solid suggestions... here's one more:
Check the condition of your capacitors. Use a bright flashlight and a magnifying glass, and check for any leakage, swelling or discoloration.

**Bovon** · October 9th, 2004, 09:02 PM

Check the condition of your capacitors. Use a bright flashlight and a magnifying glass, and check for any leakage, swelling or discoloration.

Absolutely, I will go with this one over most of the others...motherboards are failing right and left today because of the bad deal the manufacturers got on the capacitors 2 ~ 3 years ago.

Take a look at these two following sites (especially the first one which has pics of what a bad capacitor looks like). If you find just one, with a swolen, bulging top....that capacitor is partially shorted.

http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY...eb03/ncap.html

**Chaffers** · October 12th, 2004, 08:21 AM

Thanks for the advice... I shall be looking into the caps when I get back home tonight...

I tested again over the weekend... I am not 100% sure, but I think that it's the graphics card that is buggering things up...

I replaced the video card with my old Geforce4 MX440, and it booted up fine...!!

I am now thinking that it is either the mobo that is buggered because of the AGP slot, or it is the video card...

I then started changing the setting on the vid card, and by decreasing the freq to 50, the problem is still there... upping the AGP freq to 97Mhz (I think that the normal is 66Mhz) it then began to work ok...!

So i thought that everything was fixed... But I powered down for the night, and the next day when I switched it back on, it failed again, and refused to boot up...

It is highly likely that it is a capacitor somewhere that is not charging properly...
Will keep up guys update..

Thanks!

**jonm01** · October 12th, 2004, 10:17 AM

I have a similar problem with one of my machines, it's really fussy about how the gfx card is seated. Sometimes I push the card from one side to alter the position in the slot so as to try and get a better connection and then it will boot properly. Infact I've had a couple of machines exhibit a similar problem.

**Chaffers** · October 13th, 2004, 05:45 AM

Had a look at the caps on the mobo and vid card... They all seem to be in okay condition... No visible leaking...

I have exhausted all tests, and I have changed it back to my Geforce4 MX440 for the time being, and maybe take the fx5700 back to the place where I bought it to see what they can do... :'(

**broar94** · October 13th, 2004, 06:27 AM

upping the AGP freq from default 66MHZ ( that is normal PCI slots speed ) to 97MHZ is a hell lot . i think the card should have burst (ed) after doing that . but you didnt mention anything about that so I think i am wrong about the above . correct me please! if i'm wrong

**radio1_mike** · October 13th, 2004, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by broar94

upping the AGP freq from default 66MHZ ( that is normal PCI slots speed ) to 97MHZ is a hell lot . i think the card should have burst (ed) after doing that . but you didnt mention anything about that so I think i am wrong about the above . correct me please! if i'm wrong

That IS high. Throttle back on your frequency and see what happens.