no 80 Conducter Installed+Cmos Checksum Error

Well im back again with a new problem....

I working with an older system at the moment, just ordered a new mobo for it, it is an Epox EP-8KRAI Pro.

The problem that I am having is on boot. I receive two errors. These errors are as follows:

IDE Channel 1 no 80 conductor cable installed:

CMOS Checksum Error - Loading Defaults:

When I got to hit "Del" for bios, or "F1" to continue, it brings up a black screen, as a header is the information for bios, you know Viacomm blah blah blah, nothing important. However below that it says Scan devices, please wait. Under that is the flashing prompt saying press "Tab" key into user window....and it will not go any further....


What do you thing about this one? I really am lost here..lol


The Router

Good Day,

You're most likely using the wrong ribbon cable with your hard drive. Change that out with one as the error code indicates, then reboot and see what happens

If it is a 80 conductor (wires) ribbon cable, try unplugging it and reinserting it. Look at the pins on the main board and make sure they aren't bent

cheers

I had a look at this and switched the ribbon cable with the one that came with the Mobo, however I am still having the same problem, along with the same errors. As for any bent pens, there are none on the Mobo or the hard-drive itself. I removed the CMOS battery and let the computer sit for 5 mins, then put the battery back in. Still I get the CMOS error. And still it will make it to the screen where it says "Scan Devices, Please Wait" and will go no farther. Pressing the "Tab" key like it says to get into the user window doesnt work either. I have already checked the keyboard and know it works.

Appreciate all the help I can get!

TheRouter

Hey as you are using a Epox Ep, I assume you are running with an AMD processor. As you implied in your original post, you are running an "Older" system. Further details regarding this sys. would be helpful.

I doubt your problems originate from incorrect placement of the ribbon, that would be too easy! lol


More info please.

:D

I am running an EPOX EP 8KRAI Pro, with a 1.4ghz Socket A AMD processor. 512meg of ram and the original hard-drive and such. It all worked before I upgraded, so I am not sure what is going on. Originally the reason i bought a new main board is because the old one was going bad. I also got a new processor with it, I am sure that everything is hooked up properly and everything is in good working order.

What do you all think?

The Router

I've tried most of the basic possiblitys in my opinion, i have switched out the memory chip, i have tested the hard drive, and made sure that everything is clean and firmly connected. If i could get into the bios on this machine it would be a great accomplishment. Keep them thoughts and ideas coming.

P.S.

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who is a member of this forum. Of all of the Tech forums that i have strayed across this is without a doubt the best out there. I truly do appreciate your input, it's not every day that a person such as myself lucks into a group of gurus such as yourselfs. While I understand that i post often with some odd problems, I should let you know that my specialty is and are Routers, hence the name. If anyone has any questions or problems with routers I would be happy to try and help you out.

And as for my problem keep those solutions and thoughts coming!

Thank you so very much,

TheRouter

Hmmmm,

5 minutes may well not be long enough to clear the CMOS memory, due to the capacitors in there. I usually wait 24 hours, and the machine should NOT be connected to the mains supply.

Please check your MoBo manual/diagram...............there are frequently jumpers that you set and reset to clear the CMOS.

However, and please forgive me because this is a bit of a long shot :)

Quote:

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1.4ghz Socket A AMD processor................................i bought a new main board is because the old one was going bad. I also got a new processor with it

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As you mention, your kit is rather old, but so is the stuff you are using as replacements. My first move would be to check or replace the CMOS battery...............that is NOT a recent MoBo from the sounds of it, and it may not have been stored in ideal conditions?

At this point I would want to rule out an almost flat CMOS battery, as that is a common cause of the "checksum error" message ;)

I'll try that, but would that still make it where the computer will not load into windows? I understand what your saying about the Mobo being and older one, didnt think about that at the time, just ordered it, got and opened it. It was correctly pacakaged and such, inside the unopend static bag.

As for any jumpers, I have already attempted to resest the bios this way. Unfortuanlty I still get he CMOS error. Now this is where i get lost, if the battery was dead would the computer not just sit in the screen and show you the CMOS error the whole time? I however get one strange step beyond that, I get a screen that gives me the version numbers and such of the bios, (viacomm/pheonix.etc.etc) and below that is a prompt telling me "Scan Devices, Please wait" and below that is a flashing prompt that says use the tab key to enter user window or something like that. this is where it stops....This just makes me wonder as to the battery still being good..But i'll check it anyway.

I'll let you know what happens!

TheRouter

Well, what happens when the CMOS battery runs down can be quite unpredictable and will vary from BIOS to BIOS.

If the battery was totally dead the machine might not even boot at all. Some systems don't use the battery for anything more than keeping the real time clock running when the machine is powered down. They will run quite happily with the battery totally dead, you just have to reset the calendar and clock each time you boot.

From what you describe, it sounds as if the BIOS is trying to update itself with your hardware information and cannot quite make it.................it does not even get as far as windows.

If you think of a flashlamp with very run down batteries it will produce light for a few seconds and then dim right down................leave it a few hours and the same will happen again. If your battery is in that sort of condition, and the CMOS/BIOS initially runs from the battery, that would sort of be consistent with what you are experiencing?

If the battery is OK, then that does not sound good, as the symptoms would suggest a damaged MoBo or a corrupted BIOS.

In fact, as it is old stock and has been hanging around for a while, you also have to consider how long the battery was in stock before it was used. Also it may well not be a particularly good quality battery.

That may surprise you, but just consider how many millions of units a MoBo manufacturer makes each year. If they can save 25 cents on the price of a battery...................................? I am sure you remember the "millenium bug"? that was mostly due to using a cheap component that only held a two digit year..................the difference betwen those and a four digit clock was about 50 cents!

I certainly think that replacing the battery is a good starting point ;)

Wow, great way of breaking it down nihil, I currently have the battery setting out of the system and the system is not hooked up no power is running to it. I will let it set 18-24 hours. However, on a couple of different old motherboards, I managed to snag some batterys. Strangely enough neither of the two that i tried gave me any different result. I will check the one that came with the Mobo, then spend a whopping 1.09 on a new battery. Then i will post back with my findings.

I truly hope that the mainboard is not damaged.......


TheRouter

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.

;)

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......?

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

Quote:

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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...

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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 :D

Quote:

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

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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:

Quote:

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

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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...

Hi, The Duck

Quote:

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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......?

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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?

Quote:

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

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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

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

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.

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

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

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 :eek:

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 :)

The line of sanity is a tightly drawn thread, and this system is starting to get a little heavy hanging from this thread..

I have tried pressing "F5" when the "(VIA Technologies INC. VIA VT8237 Serial ATA RAID Bios settings Utility V2.20)" comes up and and scans for devices...It does nothing. I have also made a point to press every other key on the the keyboard....they do nothing as well. I have left a support Ticket the the Tech Support on the manufactureres website. However from passed experiances i dont expect to get much accomplished with the manuf.....

The Mobo and CPU were a bundle package origianlly. I bought it from tiger direct as a "Matched" package. I returned the old Mobo in hope that the bios was simply corrupt or something, however the new one gives the same errors....

In the POST boot screen it does automatically set the ClockSpeed, and you were right Nihil, it does run at 100mhz. What confuses me is why would the RAID utility try and run, when obviously there are no S-ATA devices to be detected? Became curious about bad RAM so i swithced out the RAM with a different 512 chip and still got the same probs...

Does anyone know if there is a jumper setting to "Manually" disable the S-ATA ports on the MOBO?

Keep them ideas and thoughts coming PLEASE!

The disturbingly confused:
TheRouter