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I've got one here that no matter what I do it keeps giving me a CMOS
Checksum Error message at boot up. This requires that I either boot to
the BIOS and "save & exit" or "select system defaults" which resets the
clock to January 1980 and looses the CDROM and sometimes the Hard Drive.
It's a 6 year old Gateway Celeron 466 that a friend bought for $100
(groan) with Win98SE on it, a slow Maxtor hard drive and 128MB of PC100
SDRAM. I replaced the CMOS battery and at least got the date to stick.
Next tried removing the only add-on card (a PCI ethernet card) and the
CDROM but with no luck. Then I got Gateway's last BIOS update for this
motherboard and flashed the BIOS, but I still get that CMOS Checksum error
messge. I've run numerous AntiVirus and Spyware programs and it comes up
clean. I'm thinking the motherboard is going south? Any other avenues of
experimentation would be most appreciated.
--
Registered Linux User #267152

JTJersey, <>, whose name means "hopeless; has
urges to snoop in the medicine cabinet at someone's house while visiting;
has problems with leaving jailbait alone", slobbered:

> I've got one here that no matter what I do it keeps giving me a CMOS
> Checksum Error message at boot up.

I've arrived.

> This requires that I either boot to the BIOS and "save & exit" or
> "select system defaults" which resets the clock to January 1980 and looses
> the CDROM and sometimes the Hard Drive.

Format and reinstall.

> It's a 6 year old Gateway Celeron 466 that a friend bought for $100
> (groan) with Win98SE on it, a slow Maxtor hard drive and 128MB of PC100
> SDRAM.

Nobody around here knows anything about computers. Listen to me and you'll
learn something.

> I replaced the CMOS battery and at least got the date to stick.

You get over being in a panic by being in one.

> Next tried removing the only add-on card (a PCI ethernet card) and the
> CDROM but with no luck.

Format and reinstall.

> Then I got Gateway's last BIOS update for this motherboard and flashed
> the BIOS, but I still get that CMOS Checksum error messge.

Format and reinstall.

> I've run numerous AntiVirus and Spyware programs and it comes up clean.

I've got something for you. [Revealing the finger]

> I'm thinking the motherboard is going south?

I know nothing about computers.

> Any other avenues of experimentation would be most appreciated.

Could you tell in any way?

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 19:00:43 -0600, pcbutts1 wrote:

> Format and reinstall.
>

Thanks, but the problem precedes access to the hard drive.
So I think I'll not reformat.
--
Registered Linux User #267152

Your CMOS battery needs to be replaced.

JTJersey wrote:
> I've got one here that no matter what I do it keeps giving me a CMOS
> Checksum Error message at boot up. This requires that I either boot to
> the BIOS and "save & exit" or "select system defaults" which resets the
> clock to January 1980 and looses the CDROM and sometimes the Hard Drive.
> It's a 6 year old Gateway Celeron 466 that a friend bought for $100
> (groan) with Win98SE on it, a slow Maxtor hard drive and 128MB of PC100
> SDRAM. I replaced the CMOS battery and at least got the date to stick.
> Next tried removing the only add-on card (a PCI ethernet card) and the
> CDROM but with no luck. Then I got Gateway's last BIOS update for this
> motherboard and flashed the BIOS, but I still get that CMOS Checksum error
> messge. I've run numerous AntiVirus and Spyware programs and it comes up
> clean. I'm thinking the motherboard is going south? Any other avenues of
> experimentation would be most appreciated.

Nevermind, I see you already did that.

Fakename wrote:
> Your CMOS battery needs to be replaced.
>
> JTJersey wrote:
>
>> I've got one here that no matter what I do it keeps giving me a CMOS
>> Checksum Error message at boot up. This requires that I either boot to
>> the BIOS and "save & exit" or "select system defaults" which resets the
>> clock to January 1980 and looses the CDROM and sometimes the Hard Drive.
>> It's a 6 year old Gateway Celeron 466 that a friend bought for $100
>> (groan) with Win98SE on it, a slow Maxtor hard drive and 128MB of PC100
>> SDRAM. I replaced the CMOS battery and at least got the date to stick.
>> Next tried removing the only add-on card (a PCI ethernet card) and the
>> CDROM but with no luck. Then I got Gateway's last BIOS update for this
>> motherboard and flashed the BIOS, but I still get that CMOS Checksum
>> error
>> messge. I've run numerous AntiVirus and Spyware programs and it comes up
>> clean. I'm thinking the motherboard is going south? Any other
>> avenues of
>> experimentation would be most appreciated.

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 20:53:48 -0400, JTJersey wrote:

> I've got one here that no matter what I do it keeps giving me a CMOS
> Checksum Error message at boot up. This requires that I either boot to
> the BIOS and "save & exit" or "select system defaults" which resets the
> clock to January 1980 and looses the CDROM and sometimes the Hard Drive.



Had to alter some BIOS settings that effected the boot sequence. It would
have been helpful if Gateway had the original BIOS settings listed for
that motherboard and system configuration, but a couple of educated
guesses and it's working properly again. Thanks for the replies.
--
Registered Linux User #267152