Abit BH6 V1.01 BIOS problem?

[LouisR]

Does anyone know how to clear the BIOS on the Abit BH6 v1.01? I have tried changing the jumpers as per my Abit manual, but the computer will not even power up doing this. I have detached my new drive, restored the old drive to Master, and now the machine powers up, but the monitor does not receive a signal. I have checked all the connections, but I am sure it is a problem with the BIOS / CMOS. Nb: I did try to reflash the "SS" version bios using a floppy disc, but I received a mesage "Checksum error, defaults loaded" I'm not sure if I backed up the old version of my BIOS - If I did, I can't find the floppy!

 

[NuovoTech]

To reset CMOS, are you disconnecting your power cord first, then jumping? Older bios's available at Abit site. That checksum error seems
like a SoftMenuIII setting needs changed...ie CPU speed.

 

[GreenGhost]

I got the checksum error message too. NuovoTech is right on the mark about the softmenu options.

 

[LouisR]

Yes. I've disconnected the power lead, changed the jumper settings & then....nothing!

I'm running out of ideas. I've disconnected everything but the floppy drive, but still get no video display.

Help!

 

[oldfart]

Does it beep? What do you have in the board? CPU, slocket, ram, video, etc.

 

[LouisR]

Hi,

No. it doesn't beep. When I switch the power on and power up, the CPU fan runs, and I have a green power light which stays on. I get no signal to the monitor. I had a very similar problem recently on my HP Vectra VL6, but in that instance I solved it by changing some of the on board switches. I can't see that I have the luxury with the BH6 Mobo.

I have my old Pentium II 350 installed, and 512 Mb of RAM. My normal video card is a Voodoo 4500, but I tried my old AGP card, with no change noted.

 

[oldfart]

So, it was working with the PII, 512 ram? You flashed the bios and it stopped working?

 

[LouisR]

I've just taken everything off the Mobo except the VGA card, connected up the old HDD and CDROM and Hey! I get a video signal! I will now try to put things back one by one.

Same old problem though : the PC keeps rebooting itself and won't fully load Windows 98 - Any ideas? Anything to do with the BIOS settings?

 

[oldfart]

I was going to suggest you go down to the minimum. Add stuff one at a time. Start with one stick of ram. Is the Windows install any good? Try a fresh install if its questionable.

 

[LouisR]

Okay, I'll try that. For your info. I get a "Checksum 00F3H" message when I flash the BIOS and then pC then reboots itself. I then get the message "Checksum error, defaults loaded" I then have to manually change the CPU setting back to 350. I can't figure out what else the Checksum error relates to!

Nb: I think I cleared the CMOS. I didn't realise you had to take out the power cable first.

 

[oldfart]

Put it together with:
CPU
1 stick of mem
video card
keyboard

Nothing else. No IDE or floppy cables. Get to the bios and load setup defaults, save and exit. See what happens.

 

[PullMyFinger]

It's been a while since I flashed my BIOS but did you also remove the CMOS battery prior to unplugging and resetting the BIOS? If that doesn't work, look in the manual, there are key(s) which you can hold down during boot which will force defaults in the BIOS. Good luck.

 

[LouisR]

Does anyone know how to run Windows 98 setup whilst at Dos Command prompt only? Everytime I try my PC attempts to load windows & then reboots itself before fully loading. :|

 

[LouisR]

Clearing the BIOS helped me restart the system & allowed me to boot into DOS. I managed to load Windows 98 onto my new HDD, and made that drive the Master. I am now copying selective files from the old disc to the new, as I definetly had a corrupt registry file somewhere, which is not present when I boot up the new drive.

Thanks everybody.