What does this error mean...old computer randomly blue screen

[mOeeOm]

Well I have a second computer that I bought a very long time ago, the days of AMD 1600XP, I have only been using it to surf the web and such nothing major. Today I am using it and it randomly freezes, so I restart it and get the following blue screen + error:

BootBlock Emergency Recovery Mode
The System Flash ROM Image has been corrupted.

Please insert a ROMPaq diskette into drive A: and cycle the power on the system. A ROMPaq diskette may be obtained from http://www.compaq.com

Very old computer from compaq, so not sure if they can do anything about it. Help anyone?

 

[Blain]

Pull the MB battery and check voltage from it.

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: Blain
Pull the MB battery and check voltage from it.

If you can't check the voltage, swap one out from a working computer with the same battery type.

If that doesn't work, just do what it says -> check the motherboard for identifying marks like model number and search for the correct rompaq to boot up with. All it wants is the correct BIOS. The rompaq will make a bootable disk, the system will automatically flash the system ROM.