Can't boot

Here I am again and I thank you for your time and patience. I have an Emachine EL1352-01e with 4gb ram (in one slot - other slot defective). Running Windows Home premium 64bit. This was doing ok until today. I turned on the computer and it said something about the checksum not matching. I don't have any recovery disks so I was just going to do a fresh install of Wondows but can't get back to where you tell the computer to boot from the DVD drive. I hold F12 like it says and it freezes. Please help. Tell me what to do. Do I now have a brick/paperweight?

TIA

 

Tried once more hitting F12 and got this:

CPUID : 09109F62 Stepping : 2
L1 : 128kb L2 ; 512kb
Boot selection popup menu has been selected
Memory clock : DDR3 1066 MHz in in ganged mode 1x64bit
3840mb OK (256 NBC shared memory size unused)

NVMM ROM Version : 4.094.D1
Initializing USB Controllers ...Done
USB Device(s) 1 mouse, 3 storage devices
Not Detected
Auto-detecting USB Mass storage devices...
Device #01 WD 7500AAC Externak 1.6 *HiSpeed*
Device #01 Generic - Compact *HiSpeed*
Device #01 Multiple Flash *HiSpeed*
00 USB mass storage devices found and configured

CMOS Checksum error or CMOS data crushed
Press Del to enter BIOS Setup
Press F1 to Continue

I haven't turned off the computer because I didn't know if I could get back to this point.

 

If you can get into the bios you can set the boot order to boot from CDROM first. From your last post, you have to press the Delete key to get into the bios.

But before you do that, have you tried pressing F8 to boot into Safe Mode? From there you can do a System Restore to a last known good configuration.

Good luck.

 

Tried F8 and it freezes at please wait.

 

Did hit the DEL key and got another screen but when I use the arrows to go up and down it freezes. Not always consistent getting to this screen. It takes numerous tries.

 

I just had a similar problem booting, and when I got into my bios, it was very laggy. It turned out my problem was bad RAM. You mentioned you had two slots for memory but one of them was defective. Have you tried swapping out the one stick of memory you have with a new one??

 

Hi Jefflbi,

You are on the mark. I also did some reading and saw ram could be the problem. A little back history. I have a bad slot and put in only one stick of 4gb which maxed it out. It worked until yesterday. I reseated the 4gb stick this morning. No luck. Switched back to the 2gb stick and it booted up to the repair screen. I followed the directions and everything is ok again. Can ram be tested? Thank you all for your help.

 

How long has it been since the CMOS battery has been replaced?

 

There are memory tests you can run, but the last time I ran one it was from a floppy disk, and you do have to be able to at least post boot to get the option to boot to a floppy. Other than that I can only suggest you Google it. But personally I would think that the fact your 2GB RAM stick worked, that's test enough to tell you the other stick is hosed. It's not uncommon for RAM to go bad. And RAM is pretty cheap nowadays. My advice is to just get yourself some new memory, and buy a spare just in case!!

 

Thanks. I just bought that one. Hi ho hi ho it's back to the store it go!

 

Hi my friend , if you have a usb stick you could follow this

insert the usb stick to the usb port
when usb is recognized by windows then
right click on flash drive selecting a Full Format to FAT then
go to

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

downloading Download - Auto-installer for USB Key (Win 9x/2k/xp/7)
running the program "Memtest86+ USB Installer," as admin
unchecking the option Format this drive (recommended) let the program install all files onto the flash drive then
set the computer via bios to push usb as first device

you have to test each ram for 5 hours at least :wave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaHL9usaM4Q

 

Hi Falconattack,

Thanks for the helpful memtest. But I have a question will this work even if I can't get anywhere with the 4gb ram in the only working slot. I only have one working slot and when I put the 4 stick in the computer freezes and stays at the Please wait... and will not boot to BIOS or Setup so will it recognize the USB port? Windows 7 64bit.

 

If you can't get into the BIOS when the memory stick is in then Memtest will not run. Otherwise, it is the BIOS that controls access to memory sticks or CDs, and memtest will run from the device you have it on, not from the RAM.

 

Thank you for the reply. I didn't think so but didn't know if falconattack knew the back story about the only working ram slot. But it is still a good program to keep in my utilities folder.