Bios dementia, help please

[Grakatt]

Hello. I was going to install a dvd-drive for my grandparents, and I think everything that could possibly go wrong did. After I had removed the cd-player and connected the MSI dvd-drive, upon post I got : 'Bios checksum error. Press del to enter setup or F1 to continue'.

So I continued, and all time-and-date-info in windows was gone, and bios settings were reset to default. This seems to happen almost every time I power the computer on now, eventhough I have removed the dvd-drive.

In windows system properties, it says 'motherboard thing for PnP-bios not working' because some resources are unright.

I flashed the bios to the newest version, with no change. I did get to install every device in / connected to the computer again, which I thought odd, but can't remember if it's what always happens. Is it?

Anyone have any help to give??

EDIT: The hardware is, as far as I can tell, a soyo 5bt-mobo, a pentium 200MMX, and some other stuff.



P.s - The dvd-player never worked, on post it was recogniced as different things every time, like DTD-POM, and MSSHOI(&&)&&& and things.

 

[gdtaylor]

Sounds like the BIOS battery may need to be replaced. The battery should be located between the processor and the third ISA slot. Open the case remove the battery, take it to your local electronics store and purchase a replacement. Once the battery has been replaced you will need to reconfigure the BIOS. The error in System properties is probably due to the information in the "PNP/PCI Configuration" section of your BIOS being reset to the defaults. When you replace the BIOS battery you may need to spend some time determining what the best settings are for this section of the BIOS.

 

[redbeard1]

Some motherboards are fussy when you press a new card or cable on them. They reset the bios themselves when a little pressure is applied. It is not that uncommon on older boards, from my experience. Not holding those settings sounds like a weak battery.

When I've seen odd characters on boot up for an ide device, a bad cable was one of the issues. Settings for master/slave/cable select betweeen devices on the cable was another.