Need Help!! Primary Disk failures during boot-up

HELP ME!

Three days ago, I started my system up, and heard 2 beeps, and then a third one. They stuck a chill deep in my bones.
The monitor showed a error message saying that there was a primary HDD-0 failure.

Then it left me at a prompt asking for a boot disk. So I rebooted, and got a different error message:
"Cmos settings incorrect"
and was forced into the BIOS setup. I then hit the auto-detect Hard Drive button, and all my hard drives appeared without a problem.
I rebooted again, and went into Win2k without a problem. However the next time I shut down my system for the night, and booted up in the morning I got the same error!

Whats wrong!, I ran disk doctor on the hardrive, and it came out fine. all the cables are fine, and I didnt do ANYTHING out of the ordinary on the day this all started?

Specs:
AMD athalon 750
Asus K7M motherboard.
Asus v6800 Geforce
1)Maxtor 20 gig 7200 RPM (boot drive)
2)WD 3.5 gig 5400 RPM
SB LIVE! value
Intel and Matronix NIC's
300 Watt power supply.

Back in the day, CMOS were powered by an onboard battery. Sometimes those batteries would fail and need replaced.

I don't know if they're still that way or not, but your problem sounds suspiciously like that may be the case.

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"Being married to a programmer is like owning a cat. You talk to it but you're never really sure it hears you, much less comprehends what you say." -DeadCats, 1999

Can anyone with an ASUS K7M confirm if this motherboard has one of those CMOS batteries?

I dont have access to my system from here, and I would like to know so that I can maybe go buy one somewhere.

Thanks.

Try this link. Just make sure you know what revision of board you have (tho I don't think that the battery would change :)).

http://www.asus.com/Products/Motherboard/manual_slota.html



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Regards,

clutch

All motherboard require a CMOS battery to save bios settings so that when you move your computer you wont have to reconfigure your bios settings.

As for the hard drive problems, is this a pruchased OEM computer or custom?

I need to know this first

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Frank
A+, MCP Windows 98 and NT Certified

After fully reading you message I assume this is a custom machine. **DUH**

CMOS battery would be my first place to go as well. Maybe a bios flash after that. I would also reseat my ribbon and power cables as well. This should be no problem to fix!

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Frank
A+, MCP Windows 98 and NT Certified

Frank,

When you mean reset the ribbon, what do you have in mind. I pressed the reset button on the power bar, but not sure what you mean by ribbon.

thanks.

The ribbon is the cable that goes from the hard drive to the motherboard or controller card, but I see that you said that you already reseated that. Is the problem random so that you can go into the system sometimes? If thats the case then I would backup all that i can and use your warranty to get a new hard drive.

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Frank
A+, MCP Windows 98 and NT Certified

Hey,

The problem isnt random.

It occurs whenever I shut down my system for a period.
If i reboot it, its fine, I can reboot, switch OS's and all.

And when I am in Win 2k etc. I can run all my proggies without a problem.. My time keeps getting screwed up whenever I shut down as well...makes me think its cmos battery as earlier suggested.

Could be the cmos battery, but if your other bios settings such as memory timings, system clock etc. are being retained then I would somewhat doubt this to be the case.

You may however have a faulty chip on the motherboard, it's possible that something like a micro fracture could be causing the IDE controller chip for example to sometimes fail - and then work again as the board heats up, the metal expands and the broken contact is restored.

Try checking the drive on another computer - try leaviung it for a while, restarting etc. a few times. If all is well, the motherboard might be the problem. If all is not well then obviously your port of call should be the drive or the cable.

[This message has been edited by Damien (edited 21 November 2000).]

If you are losing time then check the time in the bios. If the time in the bios is wrong as well then either its a bad CMOS battery or your RTC (real time clock) is bad and you need a new motherboard. That's the bottom line from what I have gathered. Try the battery and if that doesnt do it, use the warranty on the motherboard to get yourself an new one.

If the RTC is bad there is now telling what else may fail after that, but I think the cmos battery will do the trick. 3.3V battery can be purchased at any computer store.

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Frank
A+, MCP Windows 98 and NT Certified