Hello everybody,

I'm glad that I found this place!

Over here at our office, there's a computer which completely spontaneously decided not to work anymore. Nothing at all has been changed in its configuration, neither hard- or software. Right now, after switching it on, I see OR a nice graphical screen which presents the computer (AI series, ASUS motherboard, pqp800 SE and an Intel P-4 symbol) OR a normal screen which we probably all see when starting up a computer:

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AMIBIOS(C)2003 American Megatrends, Inc.
ASUS P4P800SE ACPI BIOS Revision 1007
CPU : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Speed : 3.00 GHz

Entering SETUP ...
Press <F8> for BBS POPUP
DDR Frequency 400 MHz, Dual-Channel, Linear Mode
Checking NVRAM...
512MB OK
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Yesterday we still managed to get into the BIOS, right now not anymore. In both cases, the computer freezes and only a hard reset makes it start again, with the same effect. I opened the chassis already and performed a BIOS reset with (hopefully) the correct jumper (actually I could find only one singular jumper, closest to the battery). No effect.

Although I don't know too much about computers, I'd say it's something with the BIOS here, but for sure there are people here who know more about it.

Hopefully somebody can help me out!
Thanks in advance!

Arno

i think the BIOS battery may be flat - if this goes flat the BIOS settings get resert after every boot. theese look like a watch battery on the motherboard - consult the motherboard manual and replace - these are under £20. DO NOT INSTALL WRONG WAY ROUND

jbennet,

Thank you for your answer. Does (Can) a flat battery also cause the system to freeze completely?

well the thing is that a flat battery makes the BIOS forget the configuration information such as date/time, hard disk etc... and when you redo this information what does the BIOS ask you to do - you got it, reboot the system and thus the cyle begins again

batteries are easy to insall just see motherboard manual and install them the correct way and thier cheap so if it doesnt solve your problen its anot a big deal.