HELP Bios forgets

ASUS P4S8X-X rev 1.01
430w Power
512ram (have a 1g and another 512 to put in)
original Bios ver (1004) upgradeed to 1005.001 (can't get the Manf CD to load original bios off CD)

It just won't remember the HD (or CD drives) I reset it, tell it to remeber (F10)
It also says the chip is a 2266 mhz when it is a 2.4
new battery

I recently took it all apart and cleaned, reassembled, and now this problem.
(took apart, as in remove heat sink, chip, fan.. and reassembled)
original chip when first put together was a 2.4ghz/128/400, I tried a 2.53GHZ/512/533 chip on this cleaning (MB says it can hande it)
Then this bios prob, so I reinstalled the 2.4g chip. and still having Bios-alzimers



Not sure what else you may require for info,,, but PLEASE HELP

Eric

 

I'm guessing this IDE. Double check your cables to make sure the one going to the HD is marked HD on the motherboard connection (printed on motherboard). Sometimes if you connect the cable to the wrong device it will mess things up, some boards don't care.

 

They are connected correctly. tried a few other cables too.

Any idea why the BIOS is reading the chip as a 2266 instead of a 2.4?

 

WHOOPS, somehow a 2.26/512/533 got in there, and I had no idea I had one of these??? WOW, maybe I got alzimers. OH well a 2.4//128/400 is goin in. we shall see......

 

I'm not sure what is going on. You have the clear CMOS jumper set on pins 1-2 (I doubt it would boot at all if set on 2-3 but just checking.)

I read through your manual and it is a fairly standard BIOS I don't know what could be causing it.

 

still forgettin!!!

even after setting the bios, and it reboots, and I am trying to run a WesternDigital CD (to format it into two partitions) it won't find the HD.

IDE controller?

Eric

I do appreciate your time and effort.

 

It seems unlikely to me.

Are you using dedicated Master and Slave jumper settings on the HD and CDROM, rather than cable select. I find Master, Slave more fool proof. And you realize that for each device the jumper settings may be different according the markings on the device. So Master jumper setting on the HD may be in a different position than Master setting on the CDROM.

****
One thought is try booting several times with just the HD data cable or just the CDROM cable connected and see if it remembers the single device. If it does then it would point to a jumper or position conflict.

 

It forgets ALL the drives, no matter where or how set up. Tried what you suggested and NOPE, Nada. no difference.

 

I think you mentioned these in the posts above but just in case, you have replaced the CMOS battery on the MB and the clear CMOS jumper isn't set to clear is it? If so it will reset all settings on every reboot.

 

Yep, reset on 2/3, run on 1/2

 

still a problem here. does not remember that there is a HD. Granted I am using used HD's but they all can't be bad. My APRICORN adapter plugged into my new WIN7 machine, finds the hd's and what's on them.

Still stumped here.

Eric

 

Only other thing I can think is make sure your IDE cables are all the right way round and try a different cable

 

Done and done, many times. Even went and got ANOTHER new battery.

So what's the prognosis ?
Is there any other way to bring the bios/CMOS back to factory settings, would this help?

Do you want the whole and original story as to how this all started? I can be quite wordy.......


Thanks
Eric

 

Have you ever had your system working properly with BIOS version 1005.001?

You can download back dated BIOSes from here

However if you have had your system woring with the latest version then the BIOS is not likely to be the problem.

In terms of rstoreing factory defaults... no. The bios is flashed with whatever version is on there. the settings are wiped whenever you cut power to the chip.

 

Two boards, same makes models and ver#'s.

Bios version 1005.001 was installed on an identical board (same make, model and ver #'s), when it went bios amnesia.

This one disfunctioned same as other one, Bios upgraded as other one, but this one is remaining amnesia'd.

Your saying I can downgrade a BIOS? Use an older version? Like the one on the ASUS CD that came with the MB?

 

you can but i wouldnt recomend it. if you have replaced the mb its not likely to be that, that is the problem.

 

I built three of these computers back in 2003, all with same MB's one with 1.7 chip and 2 with 2.4 chips. all I did with them is take em apart clean and reassemble, when I built the new machine I am using now (GigaB MB. 2.9 chip, 8G ram, etc.) One MB recovered, one died same as this one is behaving (now in a box) And this one seems to have gone bad also. all three have the updated BIOS.
NOW they did dysfunction "BEFORE" I upgraded the BIOS. So hence I kinda knew they needed a battery, but should still have worked during the reboot process. Also just to be clear "The Bios forgets ALL DRIVES, cd as well as HD's.

Here is another question....would plugging these two MB's/computers (bad Bios ones) into a USB KVM switch (with the other computer being my new WIN7 Quad core) cause the BIOS to crash?

 

KVM wont do this. KVM just routes signal from keyboard, mouse and video to the appropriate device.

 

WEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL

The only common denominators on the three Identical MB's.....all had 8 yr old Cmos batteries. And of the two bad Bios's... they where plugged into the NEW Trednet KVM. NOT the third MB, as I thought the KVM was the culprit. The third one (never KVM'd ) does work.