CMOS Battery Issue?

[Rl'Halsinor]

Two nights ago we had severe lightning storms. I had already lost one major electronic item in the house from the last one and so I decided to unplug the surge protector from the socket.

Yes, I had completely shut down my machine first.

Since the storms were to last all night into the day it wasn't until about twelve hours later that I plugged it back in. I turned on the PC and it hung at the very first screen. I tried several times to restart but it kept hanging at the very first page -- the one with the logo; it wouldn't even get to the first Phoenix Award screen. The POST said 49 but there was no beeps at all.

According to the Manual POST 49 means "Calciluate total memory by testing the last double word of each 64k page." I haven't a clue what this means.

I was able to get into the BIOS and applied the default settings to see if that would help. I have yet to overclock so there are no issues there nor have I messed with the BIOS previously. Until today it has always booted to Windows.

After entering the default settings it finally booted into Windows but the Logo screen was strange as it was smaller, slightly shifted to the right, and the top of the same page showed at the bottom. The computer then was working fine otherwise.

I shut down the computer and started it up again the next day only to have it hang at the logo screen again. This time no strange shifts of screen as it took up the entire screen which is the norm

Again, I made sure this computer was fully shut off before I unplugged the cord. Does this sound like a CMOS battery issue? Thanks in advance.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The second time it hung at the logo screen while booting, did you have to go back into the BIOS and re-enter the default settings? Is it losing the current date/time at the same time? Usually when the battery fails to hold the PC reverts back to auto-detect mode and acts like you just installed new memory, etc. (ie you get a 'Your system configuration has changed, hit F1 to save' type message), rather than just hanging. Often it would also fail to correctly ID the hard drive, at which point you'd get a non-system disk error.

It's been several years since I've seen a CMOS battery need to be replaced. Used to be a fairly common occurrence on 3+year old PCs, but the battery technology improved enough that I think most modern computers get replaced before that's an normally an issue. I have one client with 80+ 4-year-old computers and I haven't had to replace one battery yet.

If the PC is of recent vintage, there could be something more serious wrong with it. Changing the battery is pretty trivial, though, so it couldn't hurt to try.

 

[Bront]

Could be a battery issue, though unlikely (they use lithium watch batteries).

I'm guessing it's actualy a memory issue. Can you remove your memory sticks and test each one individualy from bootup (Use only one at a time and see if it boots)?

What are the specs? Motherboard, CPU, Memory (by stick if you can)

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Rodrigo, I contacted EPoX and I gave them all the information I posted here -- one thing I love about their tech support is that usually they reply within 24 hours -- and they directed me to clear my CMOS. So I will try that.

Your description of non-system disk error is probably the correct read here.

It wouldn't suprise me if the CMOS is corrupted. Also, if this is the problem and it is corrected then I may still go ahead and do a MemTest86+ just to make sure.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

I contacted EPoX and they directed me to clear the CMOS which I did according to their instructions. I then loaded the Optimized default settings as per their directions and after it hung for awhile at the Logo it did boot into Windows.

So I decided to restart in order to retest and it decided to freeze at the Logo. I can't even boot now into safe mode.

I got new CMOS batteries just in case but I am wondering if I've got more serious issues here. RAM perhaps? Unfortunately I can't get my boot drives to load so I can't do a MemTest86+.

Today, I again cleared the CMOS and loaded the optimized default settings -- nothing. I tried the Fail-Safe defaults and it takes me to the screen of choosing either safe mode, safe mode with prompt, or normal windows and it woun't go beyond this screen.

Any ideas, guys? I am at a total loss.

 

[trancejeremy]

I would open up your computer and make sure everything is in the sockets correctly (memory, cards, etc). Thunder can rattle things pretty badly if there was lightning nearby.

Also if you have 2 sticks of memory, you might take one out at a time and see if that helps (would be unlikely for both to go bad).

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Yeah, memory's the most likely culprit.

What had you lost in the last lightning storm? It's quite possible for PCs to take hits via connections to phone lines or cable modems.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

The last thing I lost was a TV, but the weird thing was the VCR, DVD Player and the Stereo System which are all tied to the same power surge protector weren't even touched.

Anyway I, too, thought it was memory but...

1. EPoX directed me to clear the CMOS and load optimized default settings. I did twice and nothing.

2. I reported this back and they asked if I disabled the Logo screen. Hmmm, so I cleared, I disabled the Logo screen and I optimized.

3. I did run Mem-Test86+ for 11 passes and no errors. I ran an in-depth harddrive analysis and it came out with no errors at all.

4. Now the PC loads to Windows but I am first brought to a screen where I have to push the Esc button to load Windows. Otherwise everything is the same.

Now why would disabling the Logo screen make a difference after I unplugged it due to storms? And why won't the PC boot directly to Windows? Oh, well, when I get more time I'll work on those issues.

On a related topic, I need to upgrade to the latest BIOS. Can any of you guys give me the steps how to flash from a floppy disk? It is already on a disk, but the only time I ever flashed a BIOS was 4 years ago and that was via ASUS' BIOS upgrade page. Thanks and thanks for hanging with me on this. It is much appreciated.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The instructions for flashing the BIOS will vary from motherboard to motherboard -- you're best bet is the Epox website. Most modern MBs have a utility that will let you flash while Windows is running, so you often don't even need a floppy disk anymore (which is good, since I built my last PC without a floppy drive ) With older MBs, sometimes you made a bootable floppy with the utility and the BIOS on it, sometimes there was an option inside the BIOS itself.

Not sure why you need the 'hit esc' thing -- what is the full message? Only thing that comes to mind is if the drive isn't spinning up fast enough, and the slight delay while it finishes the POST is enough for the drive to get up to speed and load the OS. Used to be (kinda) common in the old days (SCSI drives even had a seperate setting to pre-spin the drives) but I've not seen it in quite a while.

EDIT: unless you are really sure you need to flash the BIOS, I wouldn't do it while the PC was still acting flaky. Check the docs for that model and make sure there is a way to recover from a bad flash (some MBs have a backup BIOS for such an event).