I recently started experiencing some strange and frightening errors, I seem to have fixed them, but I'd like to know if anyone else has had this problem, and if no one has, then I'd like to help someone who might run into it.
Ok so here's what happened.

I start my computer and get to lilo, I hit enter to boot my kernel, and I get a lilo error, it says error 0x01, lilo says At this point I was beginning to become frightened, but I decided to reboot and hope it just went away. It appeared to, but then it hung on bootup just near the end. I rebooted again and got At this point I feared I might have to buy a new mobo. I looked this problem up online while I desperately tried changing BIOS settings and rebooting. Eventually It didn't even start at all, just a black screen. I decided to reset the CMOS with the jumper on the mobo. This seemed to work, but a bit after I was logged into X my mouse just froze, seems like everything froze, because none of the keyboard commands were working either. Well I found some stuff online saying that replacing the CMOS battery would help, so I did. I rebooted, but my computer cut out of the bootsplash's silent mode and went to the "verbose" text. and it was apparently hanging at "Detected ATA hard drive" I was again frightened because this was supposed to cure it! I rebooted again and went into my bios and chose "Load Fail-Safe Defaults", seems to have fixed it.

So, if anyone else has had this problem, is this where the problem ends? or is there more?

And to those who are having this problem now, if using an award bios you should be able to reset it by the motherboard, but I've heard many stories, and found through my own experiences that the new award bioses can boot even if the boot block is corrupted, it seems to have a separate "backup" block in case it ends up getting corrupted, and you can insert a FAT formatted disk and re-flash the bios if you're having problems and can't boot.

try replacing your battery in your mobo and / or flashing your bios :>

bruj3w.... did you even read the post?


swfan -- I had that error. Only ever saw it once, though. I figured it was a glitch of some sort, but it did freak me since the power had abruptly cut out just before seeing that warning for the first time. That motherboard only lasted another 2 months...


But only because I replaced the mobo and upgraded the CPU

If you haven't seen more problems, I wouldn't worry about it so much.

--Shade

I had a problem like this once, and it ended up with my hard disk controller burning out. But it doesn't neccessarely have to be the same problem you're encountering.

Could you please give me your motherboard make, model, and bios version?

Also, did the machine beep at all when it gave you checksum errors?

Edit: Also, have you had any power surges lately, or rebooted the computer in an un-orthadox way?

Yes we have been having several storms. And because I needed to restart it while it was hanging during boot I had to hit the reset button.

The motherboard is a Soyo KT400 dragon ultra platnum.

I only recieved the actual checksum error once, but I did recieve a beep code another time, I believe 1 or 2 reboot's after that it was HIGH-LOW-HIGH-LOW-HIGH-LOW.

And it seems that it has started acting up again, the mouse froze in X, and after that, it hung in the middle of bootup.

Thanks for your help.

Does it make sense thinking that this could be a power supply issue?

Sorry, was sleeping (on the other side of the world)

I just read a few posts and articles on that motherboard, and not many people are happy..

No its not from the power supply, but there definately is a piece of hardware that's about to kick the bucket very soon; and most probably its either the motherboard or the RAM. How i came to that conclusion is because of the beep codes. Unfortunately i can't really help you there because every notherboard manufacturer have their own codes, so you have to revert back to them... Not to forget about the system hangs, the checksum errors, etc too...

But if you can do something for me i'd appreciate it... How many sticks of RAM do you have? if One, try removing it, and sticking it back in, making sure its firmly and properly plugged in. (try another slot if you want)

If two sticks, then take one out, and see if you still get cockups.

As for the storm.. well it was just a question because immediate (or slow) machine faliurs do occur from storms, power surges, and unstable power supplies.

Edit: Just noticed your 'location'.. How's the weather going in Florida? i heard it was pretty serious there.

Ok, Soyo technical support.. :
http://www.soyo.com.tw/support/assis...?answer_id=120

CMOS Checsum error problem and solution:
http://www.soyo.com.tw/kb/kbdesc.php?id=177

Hearing beeps or beep codes problem and solution:
http://www.soyo.com.tw/kb/kbdesc.php?id=178

Actual beep code you are hearing.. (HIGH LOW HIGH LOW as you told me)
http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=229

Heh, sorry to burst your bubble but so far it seems serious... Lets hope its not the RAM.

Well, I've checked the power supply, that's not it, and the way the situation is going it seems like it's not the ram, because when I actually reset the CMOS/JP5 jumper on the motherboard It'll work for a while, but then stop after what seems to be a standard or near standard ammount of time. After that it just gets worse and worse. So, it seems like something is writing to my bios at every boot. Why would this happen? I tried to flash the BIOS with a floppy to see if mabye a new one would fix the problem, but now it's refusing to see the floppy.

-Thanks for everything so far.

I just hope I won't have to trade this in

----

Edit: Looking on Soyo's e-store I see that the BIOS replacment chip is the #1 Bestseller. Definitally not a good sign.

I'm all out of options here.. I'd say replace the battery with a new one, but i doubt this will fix teh new 'floppy issue'

You could always contact the motherboard manufacturer regarding the problem, simptoms, and everything you've done so far.

I had a bunch of strange BIOS problems a while ago, it complained that my "CMOS CHECKSUM INCORRECT" and refused to do anything else.

I took the battery out of my mother board and pressed the two prongs together to drain any left-over power that might be keeping the current CMOS alive. I put the battery back, rebooted, and it never happened again. I'm not saying it'll fix your problem, but it fixed mine.

/Don't yell, only trying to help.

Just called Soyo and I'm gonna have to send it in.
Thanks for all your help.

Hehe, good luck with it and keep us informed.. especially if they tell you what the problem is. I know i'm interested.

I just got my motherboard back from soyo. I checked the serial number on the BIOS and they replaced it. After a couple of accedential errors (loose video card, loose power cord) I got linux to boot. It looked like it was working untill, the kernel crashed on boot.

I noted where the problem was and used the slackware and commented out that area and ran it. It booted, but then later when I tried to maximize a xine window, it froze again.

I just got off the phone with soyo tech support and they said it was the proccessor. Does this seem right? I see no reason for it to get burned, the ABR didn't go off. Has anyone ever heard of a proccessor going bad because the fan/heatsink clamped down too hard on it?