Getting 2 beeps at startup, no scan devices either

Yesterday I installed my new Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro AGP video card and everything went well until I tried do download and install the Omega 7.12 drivers. After installing them, upon restart I got a strange error message on the boot screen, something about CDSM(I think, I can't be sure). It gave me 2 options, the first was to change some settings and the second was to go back to the default config. I selected the second with F2 and successfully booted up. I then did a system restore back to before I installed those Omega drivers. But every time I have booted up since then I have got 2 beeps on the black startup screen, and also it is bypassing the whole scan devices process :confused

I have tried absoloutely everything since then, it's probably easier to make a list:-

-System restore to before I installed the X1950 Pro
-Uninstalled everything to do with the Omega drivers
-Installed official ATI Catalyst Drivers
-Took X1950 Pro card out
-Checked inside of case thoroughly for any hardware faults/loose connections
-Unplugged everything but the PSU
-Updated Motherboard/CPU drivers

All to no avail, I still get the 2 beeps and no scanning of devices every time I boot up I know 2 beeps close together usually means a hardware conflict/problem but I just can't figure out what it is. I can't even get into the BIOS because the scan devices screen doesn't show up, it just goes straight to the XP logo. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated indeed

 

Actually, I CAN get into the BIOS - so if I need to change any settings in there I can. Also, if this helps, here's my system specs:-

MSI MS-6741
Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2GHz
Seasonic S12 430W
Seagate 200GB
Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB AGP
M-Audio Audiophile 192
2XDVD drives(1 RW)

 

Anyone?

 

The guys who deal with most of the hardware are usually around in the evening... be patient, someone will know what to do. Just a suggestion: are you re-starting or completely shutting down? Try a full shut down.

 

Both restarting and completely shutting down gives me the same result

 

I decided to go ahead and try once more to install the Omega 7.12 drivers, I figured if it caused a problem at least I'd be able to write down the exact error message. And that's what happened, here is the error message:-

CMOS/GPNV Checksum Bad

I googled it(after I went into the BIOS and set it back to the defaults) and from what I could understand it may be a motherboard battery issue, something to do with saving the BIOS settings when shut down etc. If anyone can shed some more light, that would be great - I'm still getting the 2 quick beeps BTW.

 

Sorry to keep bumping this, I would just really like some thoughts if possible.

 

Final bump

 

I know I seem to be beating a dead horse here, but today when booting my system up it attempted to scan devices and I got the CMOS/Checksum Bad message again. I think these beeps are definitely related to the motherboard battery now. Do you think I should try and replace it?

I apologise for the amount of bumps in this thread, but I don't think some thoughts and possibly advice is out of the question

 

A new CMOS/BIOS battery will only cost a few bucks so that certainly worth a try. Can you post the link you found when you googled it? ("I googled it (after I went into the BIOS and set it back to the defaults) and from what I could understand it may be a motherboard battery issue.")

Check your motherboard manual and make sure you correctly identify the CMOS jumper (or jumpers) on your motherboard in case you need to reset your CMOS chip. Most motherboards have other jumpers that look similar to the CMOS jumper, but affecting other motherboard and hardware functions and you don't want to mistakenly change something else if you have to reset your CMOS.

If you don't have your motherboard manual, I suggest you download the correct manual from the manufacturer's website. Then read the procedure for replacing the CMOS battery and follow it. It's very important that, before touching your motherboard or anything connected to, like the battery and your CMOS jumper, that you ground yourself to discharge any accumulated static electricity. Static can fry chips on your motherboard.

There's no reason to be overly paranoid about any of this -- replacing a CMOS battery is a pretty easy job, but you do need to follow the instructions for your motherboard and be careful about static electricity anytime you're working inside the case or even just plugging something into the system or unplugging something from it. Once you put in the new battery (and, if required, reset your CMOS using the jumper and procedure described in your motherboard manual) you may have to go into your BIOS and reset the date and time of your hardware clock (which is part of the CMOS chip and so also needs battery power to continue keeping accurate time/date).

How old is your motherboard/battery? They're usually good for, I think, for 5 to 7 years, but of course you can get one that goes bad more quickly. And, as I said, it should only cost a few dollars to get a new one to try.

 

I'm happy to say that after a lot of research and trial and error, I fixed the problem Maybe this will help others if they run into the same trouble. Somebody gave me a link to an article at Toms Hardware with lots of tips for changing BIOS settings etc, and one of them was this:-

"14. Display Power-on Self-Test (POST) Results During Boot-up

During PC start-up, many computers simply flash a colorful vendor logo instead of showing you what's going on. Instead of pretty pictures, you can - and probably should - have the PC show you the results of the tests it's performing.

Here's how to do it. From within the "Advanced BIOS Features" menu, set the value for the "Full Screen LOGO Display" option to "Disabled". After that, you can follow along and read the results of all the tests your PC runs while it's starting itself up."

I did this and my PC booted up exactly as it used to, with the short devices check and such and with only ONE beep I have no idea how, when or why that setting was changed but I'm glad I found the fix. I tried absoloutely EVERYTHING to get to that point though, this afternoon I took the battery out, took the RAM out etc etc rolleyes All's well that ends well I guess You learn a lot from these issues

 

Well, I hope that really has solved the problem. Maybe the new Radeon graphics card install tried to put up a splash screen to display at the beginning of boot and it didn't work right? Guess that's a possibility. And if that's what happened then you may be fine just turning off the full-screen logo display. But if not, then the question remains how did something in your BIOS get screwed up? Maybe by something the new graphics card/driver install did or maybe that was just coincidence and your CMOS battery really is about to go. (Or did you replace it with a new one when you took it out?)

Good luck, hope it really is fixed and won't need any more tinkering.