Hi,This morning was going to be a nice vfr flight under some clouds along the coast for an hour (on fs2004 of course!!). However I decided to restart my pc after moving a few files around to give a fresh start for the sim. On booting up however the motherboard bios was acting like it lost it settings and saying CMOS something. Bypassed this and entered Windows and it looked for a new pci device. Bypassed this and then restarted to see if it would happen again. Again CMOS problem so this time I tried to reset my settings. However for the CPU/RAM speed I think I set 133/133 when I think I should have put 100/133 (my mboard supports my Duron 1.3 at 200Mhz Fsb it says). After that and a save & exit things just kinda went extremely dead. Got some fans running and even a bit of cdrom & hard disk whirring but couldn't get even a bios setup screen or my monitor light to turn green. Took almost everything out whilst trying different combinations of components but always the same. So much for the flight!! Have already bought new components (a $40 mboard and a $50 Sempron!!) but just wondering if anyone else has ever done this / seen something like this. Is my motherboard really fried?? If the CPU was fried would it mean the motherboard wouldn't be able to reach bios screen?? Is the Cpu / memory likely to be fried too?? Surely with nothing but power & a working graphics card the motherboard should be ok to reach bios screen??ThanksPierreps my (now dead) system was: Ecs K7S5a motherboard, AMD Duron 1.3Ghz, 384mb PC2100 / 266 DDR Ram, Geforce 3 Ti420 graphics, Onboard sound

It is really hard to say what the problem might be. It could very well be a powersupply problem or a grahics card failure.The best way to troubleshoot this problem is testing all the peripherals in another computer, measuring the voltages from the powersupply with everything plugged in and if you can get the powersupply to start.On some BIOS, you can bypass fan sensors by pressing and holding a key prior to starting the computer, if fans are a problem.W. Sieffert

Hi,Thanks for the understandingHave looked at it again. Tried changing the jumper settings to reset the bios and putting back the processor / ram but still only getting fan action.. Have tried another graphics card and will probably make sure my Geforce 3 is still ok sometime but for now I guess I'm gonna just wait for my new mb and Sempron(!!). Also ordered extra ram so now I'll be up to 512 mb!! I'm gonna kiss those stutters goodbye for good!!ThanksPierre

Hi.Look for a jumper CMOS Clear, yours may be a different name and follow the instructions, you need to Power off completely, remove power cord or power connector on the board, move it to another location temporarily, next pin typically, reconnect and plug power cord / connector and power the system up. This should give you a fresh minimum system start. Then you can proceed with the new BIOS SETUP. TV

Hi and thanks for info. Have tried a cmos clear with jumpers but haven't done it with the power completely disconnected yet. Will do next (should the bios screen still come up without any processor / ram in??) and will maybe try putting other components back. Even though this mb only cost me like $40 I still kinda like it!!ThanksPierre

I think you need the CPU installed. I never tried starting a MOBO without the CPU installed. In most cases, you need the CPU fans plugged in or the sense circuit will not allow the computer to start.W. Sieffert

Thanks, better put that cpu back in too. At least I'm getting better at doing cpu/fan attachments to the mb I guess!!Pierre (getting ready to start playing fs98 again..)

Hi.You will need the CPU and RAM. Some mobos will give you some display, without RAM, most will only give a POST (beeps) when they are alive. Without IOs, drives etc., you should get a screen and be able to get into the BIOS. Try the CMOS it will likely get you a new start. I do not think your MOBO is fried, if anything the CPU could be damaged. Post here for more info.>(should the bios screen still come up without any processor / ram in??)

Thanks, and am now feeling some new hope that maybe my motherboard isn't broken. Put the question up on computing.net forum too and got some good replies:-This is a "try this n'that" kind of problem. I don't think that you damaged anything by just putting in some wrong settings. I've done that lots of times with no damage to my units. I suspect its your BIOS battery, and possibly the BIOS settings are now corrupted.Pull the battery and let the unit sit for 20". That's overkill but I like to be certain. Reinsert the brand-new off-the-shelf battery and try to boot. If no joy, it does the same thing, then its a hardware problem. You then have to strip it down to bare essentials to boot. In doing this, disconnect the power plug to the harddrive. Right now you are interested in just getting the thing to boot to the BIOS at this point. After you have that okay, re-plug the harddrive power cable and try to boot into Windows. If it won't, then you have corrupted files in Windows. Then just enter BIOS, set your CDROM to 1st boot, and reintall 98 over the top. That should restore everything back to default and overwrite any corrupted files. 98 is easy to do, and you won't lose any data files. -ps76The first version of your MB had many folks with a similar problem. Most solved the problem by changing the battery but the real cause was never really determined. Most of the incidents were with brand new MBs though. If the BIOS settings are not holding between uses that is usually an indication of a bad battery. As I said, this was a major issue with the original MB. I personally would try a new battery plus make sure the battery terminals are pushing securely against the battery. Also suggest making sure the BIOS chip is completely seated because is one of more of the contacts on the chip are not making good contact that could mimic a dead battery. As I said the cause was never determined. Don't try removing the BIOS chip without a removal tool, as you could break it. Just support the MB from the rear and push the chip deeper into the socketTomorrow I'm gonna go buy a new battery (and some thermal paste to put back my cpu!!)ThanksPierre

Hi,Just thought I'd finish the story off (and no happy ending - d'oh!!).This morning went out and bought some thermal paste and also a cd-rw recorder for around $40. Also found there were whole forums about my motherboard out there (mainly because it has so many problems I guess!!). Found some threads which were really like my situation though, esp. this.."Ouch, if it's constantly accessing the CDROM drive it means the BIOS boot block has become corrupted (if this is the case the pc is constantly rebooting: the lights of cd drive will constantly light up. Open your cdrom drive and see if it's closing automatically after a few seconds. If yes, the board is constatnly rebooting).The only solution for this problem is to buy a new programmed BIOS chip or hotflash one by yourself.Anyway, good luck with it!"My cdrom was doing exactly this and wasn't getting any different activity trying loads of different component combinations. First tried to hotflash the bios on another machine myself (until I found out that my other two PII machines don't even have removeable bios chips..). Also managed to fry up my flightsim bios quite a bit during this by putting it in the wrong way round a couple of times (double d'oh!!).. Finally tried using a boot .iso from one of the forums to make a boot cdrom to see if I could make some use of all this cdrom activity (hence the cd-rw purchase). Finally still no joy. Oh, and then I broke a leg of the bios chip while taking it out in a final act of despair.Well that was it really. Could try and buy a new bios chip but I'll probably just get a new motherboard (and it'll still probably be the cheapest socket A I can get!!).Thanks (& really starting to miss fs2004 now),Pierre

Hi, Pierre.Sorry to hear about your predicament, usually things are not that difficult. Over the years I built hundred of system, some that I designed, bread boarded, wrote BIOS for it, and when all was said and done things always worked pretty well, within the speed and limitations of the systems at the time.One thing to keep in mind, try to change one thing at the time, also track what you changed.I have a very difficult time accepting that the BIOS gets corrupted, to write to that type of memory you have to have many things just right, it

Thanks for the encouragement, will keep trying at it on and off (while also waiting for my new pcchips board and sempron 2300 (=duron 1.6!!)). Could probably find the chip leg somewhere around my desk if I look and will try to solder it back on (hopefully without burning the chip) and good to learn that it's not probably fried from before (although the plastic label on top is kinda melted!!).The main problem I have though seems to be no matter what combination I'm using of hardware the system never "posts" (a word I got from all these k7s5a forums which I think means reaching beep and something coming up on the screen status??). Same thing happens every time: fans whirr, hard drive starts, screen stays blank and cdrom starts turning on and off continually (ie. clicks every few seconds with the light coming on and if I open the drawer it will close again). So far this happened with:-Just mb, video and kbd-mb, video, cpu and kbd-mb, video, cpu, ram and kbdHave tried different ram and graphics card combinations but haven't really done it thoughouly and in order. Maybe I should try that next. Not sure if the cpu is broken but it doesn't look burned or anything (unfotunately I have no other socket a cpu to replace it with). Also I made up a 98 boot floppy but I can't get any floppy drive activity and because it won't get to post or setup yet I can't change any bios settings..All this because I put in 133/133 instead of 100/133!!Thanks for the encouragement and tips. Will keep it going and get back,Pierre

Hi, Pierre.The POST is just a series of beeps, no display needed but you need an audio device, some boards have built in, some you have to connect a small speaker. Don't give up, things are never as bad as they first seem. TV