no 80 Conducter Installed+Cmos Checksum Error

[nihil]

Well best of luck my friend

One other thing you might try if the new battery does not fix it:

This is an AMD Socket A board? so it should support both Athlon AND Duron processors?

There should be a jumper switch on the MoBo to change the FSB clockspeed................try setting it to the other setting, which I suspect will be 133 (perhaps 166?).

I know that Durons run at 100, and you will get the black screen if you set it any higher. It must be at least 6 years since I last saw that. From what I recall the default settings on Athlon/Duron MoBos were for the Duron.

What I don't know is how this unused system would react if it were effectively underclocked?

It is worth a try because it will only take a few moments and will not do any harm.

[The Duck]

When you raise or lower the system clock you also affect the speed of all the other buses on the mobo (for example, your PCI slots or AGP slot could be rendered useless or unstable)... Depending on the mobo, some buses are asynchronous to avoid these problems...

Don't know if you've tried this or if anyone has mentioned it, but you could try to flash the bios and update... When you flash the bios you completely wipe any data from the bios chip (resetting the cmos is completely different), hence getting rid of the possibly corrupt bios......?

[nihil]

Hey, The Duck how is it goin mate?......have a nice weekend, really untypical British weather here: damn hot and sunny

When you raise or lower the system clock you also affect the speed of all the other buses on the mobo (for example, your PCI slots or AGP slot could be rendered useless or unstable)... Depending on the mobo, some buses are asynchronous to avoid these problems...

It has been a while, but please hear me out on this one. I think that TheRouter has an Athlon XP 1.4+, but it could be running at 1.4MHz, which would make it a 1.7+ by AMD notation. These go back to the era of the early Pentium 4s................I have a P4/1.7 of that era. It could just beat an Athlon 1900+ because it had PC800 RAMBUS memory and the athlon only had PC2100 DDR. These same boards also supported the AMD Duron processor (I particularly favoured the 1.3GHz Duron)

The dual type of processor boards (Athlon/Duron) that you got back then, had a jumper switch on the MoBo to set it for which type of processor you had. This was a bit of a dumbnuts setting like 115v or 230v on the PSU. I have seen people who have set the FSB to 133 when they had a Duron processor....................they saw a black screen.

Because TheRouter was very clear that he was working on an old system refurb, that is why I suggested what I did. As you know, I mess around with museum pieces as a hobby

[The Duck]

Hey, The Duck how is it goin mate?......have a nice weekend, really untypical British weather here: damn hot and sunny

I'm alright, I'm still lurking and creeping around . I've been really busy, working 5 days a week (sometimes 6) at an auto shop. I quit my IT job (various reasons) and I'm now doing auto maintenance and freelance SOHO IT work... Only temporarily until I find another IT job...

Back to the topic at hand; I wasn't going against your advice or anything, I was just responding to this:

What I don't know is how this unused system would react if it were effectively underclocked?

And making sure he knows that if he starts messing with the system clock he's gonna have to make sure he keeps everything else the same by messing with the multipliers and dividers of each bus... Which in the end could cause more problems at this point......?

But IMHO, I don't think messing with the system clock is necessary, seeing how he's really not getting a black screen at start up...

[nihil]

Hi, The Duck

And making sure he knows that if he starts messing with the system clock he's gonna have to make sure he keeps everything else the same by messing with the multipliers and dividers of each bus... Which in the end could cause more problems at this point......?

Yeah, that is kind of what I was on about. However, the MoBos I am talking about had two jumper settings on the board. One for Duron (100MHz) and the faster one for Athlons. It was theoretically a no brainer, as you just set the board to the right processor (it could handle both) and it automagically handled the other settings.

I must have built over 300 of those things back then, but I did have a few brought in where the Duron had been set to Athlon, and there were similar symptoms to those that TheRouter is reporting.

I never saw one the other way round that didn't work (albeit badly) but the instructions in the manual were pretty clear to set the jumper correctly, they just weren't very prominent, so it was easy to overlook them.

I suspected, and you seem to confirm, that incorrect system clock settings, coupled with a weak battery might be a problem?

Back to the topic at hand; I wasn't going against your advice or anything, I was just responding to this:

Hey, no worries pal! anyone with any ideas that might improve my understanding, are more than welcome.................that is how we all learn. You are absolutely correct about messing with system clock settings, but I was referring to these two types of processor MoBos, that were designed to handle it.

I used to do a fair bit of overclocking, so I do appreciate what you are saying

Cheers,

Johnno

[TheRouter]

Well I have looked at nearly everything that i can come up with, im not sure however if this board contains the jumper to switch CPU types. What would this jumper be labled as? I tried a different working CMOS battery, and then even sent the Mobo back and got another, still get the same problem. However I recieve a new error now, (well not an error) it says processor has been changed, please set it up in the bios. I would love to set it up in the bio but I still get stuck in the screen that states it is scanning devices please wait, or Tab for user window. It goes no farther. Hitting tab does nothing.......

Im starting to get upset with this pile now...

Keep them suggestions flowing!

TheRouter

[nihil]

Hmmmm,

1. When you got the new MoBo, did it come with a new processor?

2. When you start up (boot) do you get any "beeps" out of the BIOS? Those may tell us where the problem is........ if the board does not have a speaker, you may have to attach PC speakers to your box to hear them.

As you have a replacement MoBo (assuming that it is not another dud) I would suspect the processor, RAM or power supply.

Are you sure that the power supply supports the MoBo and processor, and that you have connected it properly?



EDIT: The jumper will normally be close to the processor socket and may well be a different colour. It will only have four pins, as in two pairs. or settings.

[TheRouter]

Thanks for the reply, now to answer your questions:

no, the new mobo did not come with a new processor.

I havent noticed any beeps upon start-up, just boot to the 1st boot screen. There tells me what type of medias I have installed, as it should. It list my hard-drive as being the master in the First IDE slot, and then reads my CD-rom as being in the second IDE slot. It of course shows the "Passed" results of the memory test, as well as the "Magic Health" bottom bar. It also tells me about my 80 conductor cable error, a Continued CMOS error with a new board even, (But i believe this is happeing because the boards bios has not yet been configured.)and now the new error (Warning! The processor has been changed, Please configure Processor in Bios....it even gives me a little warning rember and save before exit) It then gives me two options...press either F1 or Delete both lead to the same screen.

As for the Mobo, the odds of getting two bad ones in a row are rather low, and i believe the board is functioning correctly as it reads everything plus the absence of any error beeps as you already asked about. As for the processor, I am sure that the processor is good, As well as the Ram. The power supply is 500watt, it should have more than enough power to run the rig with no probs at all. And im sure that it is good as well.

I'll have a look for the jumper, but on the first boot screen it says that the processor is a Duron, which is what it should be, so im still not sure what the hell is going on...

Sorry to be such a burden, but fellas, I just dont know...


TheRouter

[TheRouter]

Been scowering the internet on this issue and it has returned some rather unusual results. To begin with everyone that has had the same issue, has been using S-ATA HDD's, I however have been trying to use an IDE HDD. I know it works and know it is properly hooked up, so it got me to thinking. The bios header that comes up refers to a RAID setup utility....Could it be trying to find and access a S-ATA device...that would explain why it just sits there, as I dont have a S-ATA device...

Just thought i'd throw this thought out there...


TheRouter

[nihil]

Ah,

So you actually have a 1.4GHz DURON ? In that case the FSB clock should be at the 100MHz setting.

Please check the MoBo documentation and see if a 1.4GHz Duron is supported? The MoBo is capable of supporting some quite powerful socket A processors, so it is just possible that 1.4 hasn't enough oomph, or is not being correctly recognised by the BIOS. Yes, there can be a lower limit as well as an upper one

Durons did come in 1.6 and 1.8 before being replaced by the Sempron. If the BIOS is not capable of recognising the CPU correctly, I really have no idea what might happen..................something weird or nothing at all would be my guess

As it has recognised the Duron, I would be reasonably confident that it will have set the correct FSB clockspeed automatically (100MHz)

I am beginning to suspect that your BIOS might be a little "buggy" or poorly designed. A trick for getting around that is to go into setup and make a few minor changes (turn off legacy USB support or whatever) then save it. This will force it to calculate a new checksum, and that frequently makes the problems go away.

Now, you don't appear to be able to get as far as BIOS setup, but you do get a message about RAID setup early on?

There should be an option (Something like F5......it will depend on your BIOS) to do this. Go into it and then cancel the process...........like just kid it into thinking that you want to set up a RAID array, and then change your mind. That may provoke a re-assessment of your setup, and the IDE hard drive might be correctly configured. Save settings if you get the option and reboot. that might get rid of the HDD cable message?

Please check the motherboard's support for Duron 1.4s as well

Good luck, and please let me know how you get on