Simviation Forum - PC wont work any ideas?

Oct 7^th, 2004 at 2:57pm

EirePlane Offline
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London, UK

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I bought a PC secondhand a while ago and havent been able to get it to work. It comes up with an error message whenever I switch it on! The manufacturers logo comes up then fades then it says
Quote:

Copyright 1996-2002 Intel Corporation

EA81520A.868.0031.P17.0202050032

Inter (R) Celeron (tm) Processor, 466MHz
64MB System RAM

Legacy Keyboard.........Detected
USB Legacy..................Enabled

CMOS Battery Low

Press F1 To Run SETUP

Hit <F12> if you want to boot from the network

Once going through setup to set the time and date and then saving changes it says
Quote:

Invalid System disk
Replace the disk and then press any key.

Does anyone have any ideas or know where i could get help. The manufacturer wants £35 just to look at the thing, never mind fix it.

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Reply #1 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 3:38pm

Gixer Offline
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Lets go fly a kite!!

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Take the floopy disk out thats in the drive then press any key! Hopefully this is what the problem is.

Also replace that CMOS battery ASAP otherwise it will keep loosing its BIOS settings and the time!

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Reply #2 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 3:47pm

EirePlane Offline
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London, UK

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Posts: 930

Quote:

Take the floopy disk out thats in the drive then press any key! Hopefully this is what the problem is.

Also replace that CMOS battery ASAP otherwise it will keep loosing its BIOS settings and the time!

There isnt anything in the drive, and i dont know what a CMOS battery is. Sorry

EDIT: BTW, sometimes it also comes up something about a media test faliure, I dont know what that is either. any ideas?

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Reply #3 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 4:06pm

Gixer Offline
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Ok you have to open up your case and on the mother board somewhere there will be a silver circle about 15mm in diameter.

This is a lithium battery that powers your CMOS you need a new one of these. All your problems could be stemming from this.

I am thinking you BIOS is not setup correctly and it is not looking at the correct drive with your Operationg System on, this is why you are getting the error. First off replace the battery.

After you have got this far then we will try and set your BIOS back up, which isnt going to be easy, but nether the less we will try!

AMD64 3500+ @ 2200MHz 400FSB&&MSI K8N Neo 2 mobo nForce3 chipset&&1gig Corsair XMS PC3200 timings @ 10.2.2.2 &&XFX 6800 Ultra @ 450/1200&&80gig HDD&&Loadsa fans!!!

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Reply #4 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 4:38pm

EirePlane Offline
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London, UK

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Found the CMOS battery. Looking for replacement battery.
The warning doesnt look too promising
Quote:

Risk of explosion if battery is replaced incorrectly

I found my motherboard on the intel website. doesnt look too promising either
Quote:

FOR HISTORICAL REFERENCE ONLY

my board couldnt be that old could it? historical?
http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/D815Efv/index.htm

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Reply #5 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 4:42pm

Gixer Offline
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Lets go fly a kite!!

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That page wont load for me for some reason. 433MHz is quite slow though so I am guessing its at least a few years old.

Just make sure you put the battery in up the right way!

Have you ever set a BIOS up before? if not it could get interesting as BIOS are different on each mobo. Did you get a mother board manual with the computer?

AMD64 3500+ @ 2200MHz 400FSB&&MSI K8N Neo 2 mobo nForce3 chipset&&1gig Corsair XMS PC3200 timings @ 10.2.2.2 &&XFX 6800 Ultra @ 450/1200&&80gig HDD&&Loadsa fans!!!

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Reply #6 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 4:56pm

EirePlane Offline
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London, UK

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Quote:

That page wont load for me for some reason. 433MHz is quite slow though so I am guessing its at least a few years old.

Just make sure you put the battery in up the right way!

Have you ever set a BIOS up before? if not it could get interesting as BIOS are different on each mobo. Did you get a mother board manual with the computer?

The comp is at least two years old.
I have never set up a bios before.
and to my knowledge i didnt get a motherboard manual. I did however get:

a packard bell users guide
Encarta 99
set up leaflet
Packard Bell Service Guide
new CD/RW drive
Packard Bell Master CD 1&2
finally, AOL 4.0

would any of these be of any use?

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Reply #7 - Oct 7^th, 2004 at 5:03pm

Gixer Offline
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Lets go fly a kite!!

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Nope!

Ok next time you start up your PC and go into CMOS/BIOS (It should be a blue screen but might be another colour) Take note of the menus. This will give me a little to work with.

Get your battery sorted first though Grin

Otherwise we will set it all up and you will hit save, then it will loose all those settings due to the flat battery!

AMD64 3500+ @ 2200MHz 400FSB&&MSI K8N Neo 2 mobo nForce3 chipset&&1gig Corsair XMS PC3200 timings @ 10.2.2.2 &&XFX 6800 Ultra @ 450/1200&&80gig HDD&&Loadsa fans!!!

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Reply #8 - Oct 8^th, 2004 at 6:45am

Ivan Offline
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No, I'm NOT Russian, I
only like Russian aircraft
The netherlands

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the last time i did something with Intel MOBOs they reset to the following default

floppy1: 3 1/4" 1.44MB
floppy2: NONE
IDE1-master: NONE
IDE1-slave: NONE
IDE2-master: NONE
IDE2-slave: NONE

Russian planes: IL-76 (all standard length ones), Tu-154 and Il-62, Tu-134 and An-24RV&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found here

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Reply #9 - Oct 8^th, 2004 at 7:03am

Gixer Offline
Colonel
Lets go fly a kite!!

Posts: 1540

Yeah I'm thinking that hence its not detecting the HDD the OS is on. Gotta get teh batt sorted first though otherwise CMOS will just keep resetting.

AMD64 3500+ @ 2200MHz 400FSB&&MSI K8N Neo 2 mobo nForce3 chipset&&1gig Corsair XMS PC3200 timings @ 10.2.2.2 &&XFX 6800 Ultra @ 450/1200&&80gig HDD&&Loadsa fans!!!

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Reply #10 - Oct 8^th, 2004 at 4:05pm

EirePlane Offline
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London, UK

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Posts: 930

ok thanks. I'll have a look and see where i can get a CMOS battery.
Funnily enough, when i asked on the phone to the manufacturer (when they gave me the £35 quote to look at it) they said it might be a hard drive problem.
Looks like I might have to wait a while though, unemployment and school work dont bring in much money Undecided

ill do my best though

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Reply #11 - Oct 10^th, 2004 at 12:30am

Jared Offline
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I'd rather be flying...
Uniontown, Ohio

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Good luck!

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Reply #12 - Oct 10^th, 2004 at 3:33am

Ivan Offline
Colonel
No, I'm NOT Russian, I
only like Russian aircraft
The netherlands

Gender:
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allowed battery types are in the motherboard manual... installing a different type can have a bad influence on your system peformance.

Russian planes: IL-76 (all standard length ones), Tu-154 and Il-62, Tu-134 and An-24RV&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found here

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Reply #13 - Oct 18^th, 2004 at 10:21pm

Hawkeye313 Offline
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Georgia

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It does sound like it could be a hard drive problem, but if your CMOS battery is causing the BIOS to reset to a default setting showing no hard drive.... then that explains that. Replace the battery first and then get a friend to help you w/ the bios. If it still has problems, try reformatting in case the old drive became corrupted somewhere along the line.
Good luck

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