Bios Message on Boot Up

Hi all

Everytime I start up the computer I get the bios screen saying:

Amount of system memory has changed
Floppy disc seek failure
Press F1 to continue or F2 for setup

or words very similar to this. I have no idea why this has started or what to do about it. I have pressed F2 but its all gobbledegook for me, so have continued pressing F1 which starts up pc no problem. What boggles my mind is that my pc does not even have a floppy disk drive so why this is coming up is beyond me. Any ideas/suggestion would be great.

Thanks a lot

 

The bios settings have gotten corrupted, due to possibly the Cmos battery needs to be replaced.

Actually the Bios screen when you press F2 is not "gobblegook". Since it sounds like you may be a novice when it comes to using a computer, you may be able to find someone other then Best Buy that would be able to replace the Cmos battery (nickle sized silver disk on the motherboard that is a Lithium battery).

 

More information about your system would be helpful. From your post, it seems that your BIOS has either reset itself to default or more memory has been added to your system. It is also possible that your CMOS battery is dying and causing the problem. Is your system date and time correct?

Don't worry about the "goobledegook" when pressing F2, as I'm sure that someone on this board can walk you through it, although you may have to do a print screen on specific problems.

Is your system an older Compaq?

@brownizs,
Sorry, but I was writing my reply when you posted!

 

Brownizs - yes you are not wrong thinking me to be a total novice. So hats off to all of you that can make sense out of it all, unfortunatley I am not one of them. As I don't know anyone personally who is half knowledgable about hardware etc personally I would be best to take pc to local pc shop to change battery? Is there anyway that one can check whether that is the problem or is the error message a dead give away? Also, I know I might sound totally ignorant, is there a need to change the battery if the pc works fine when pressing F1? Thanks again

 

Hi Novice

Thanks for your reply. You seem to think that the problem is as brownizs suggested. What kind of information about pc would you need? Sorry if I sound totally out of my depth, but to be truthful, I am
Thanks for your time

 

The battery is easy. Depending on the model of Compaq, you may have to take off the duct that is over the CPU in order to access the battery, along with removing the Harddrive cage, which is also easy to remove.

The battery you can get at Radio Shack, or Walgreens, which is around $3.00. Just remember to power off the system before working on it, and take off any jewerly (watches, rings, braclets).

On my motherboard, I just have to press on the release for the battery, and it pops out, and you are able to insert the new battery.

Once the battery is replaced, you may have to enter the Bios settings to check for any changes (may want to write down what each setting is before removing the battery), due to it may reset the Cmos during this process.