CMOS Checksum Error

My brother and I recently upgraded our father's office computer to new system. Everything seemed to be fine but when we turned off the power of the surge protector, the cmos resets to the default. :confused It POST itself and go to the Windows desktop but whenever we shut the power off via the power switch, CMOS resets itself with CMOS checksum error message at the POST screen. We tried resetting the BIOS by taking out the battery and clearing the CMOS via the jumper and that did not work. BIOS is not the problem because it's up to date. Memory is not the problem because we replaced my pc 3200 DDR memory with my brother's and the result was same. :cry What would be the cause of this? My father is computer illiterate so we want the computer to be as simple and user friendly as possible. For the reference these are the specs:

Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Socket 939 (OEM New)
Asus A8N SLI SE BIOS version 5.02 (New)
Geforce 9800 GT XFX (New)
CoolerMaster PSU 650 Watts (New)

 

Welcome aboard jhwyotech2k9.

I have almost the same machine, A8N-E. I would change the battery as that mobo of yours is getting old. Your 5.02 BIOS is from 2006 and CMOS batteries usually only last some 3 years without power. Get a replacement( $3) and see how it goes. Let us know what happens eh? CR2302, you can get it almost anywhere that sells electronics.

 

Thank you very much for the reply. Alright.... where is the best place to buy the battery? Amazon.com? Neweggs?

 

Radio Shack and like I said, almost anywhere else. Walmart too I expect. Just get one from a place that would logically move them quickly, I'm not sure if they have a 'best before date',

 

Hey you're right about the battery problem. We replaced the battery and everything seems to be fine now. Thank you very much for the assistance. :wave

 

For the record, you should NEVER, as in NEVER EVER remove power to any computer without first properly shutting down Windows through the Start Menu. I hope you are doing that. Simply shutting off power by the surge protector while the computer is up and running is the same as yanking the power cord out of the wall - it cause a "hard crash" which is never good.

 

Of course I'm doing that. :-D I always use the shutdown feature from the Windows then turn off the power of the surge protector. Anyways, everything seems to be fine. Didn't imagine that a simple battery would cause us a problem. Everything is cool. Thank you!!!

 

My pleasure, glad you got it going.

 

Good! Unfortunately, that is not something so obvious to everyone.

Thanks for th followup.