Frustrated

[RudyK]

Just got new K7T turbo2 mobo installed for my backup computer and had to clear the cmos to get it up and running. No big deal. I went ahead and loaded win 98se and all the drivers, still no problem. I shut the system down and it won't start back up. Big problem. I cleared the cmos again and it starts up. I shut the computer down and the whole process starts again. I have no clue whats going on here please help.

AMD athlon 900 mHz (thunderbird)
512 meg ram
asus 7700 vid card

RudyK

[joker_927]

Bios update big time.

Is there a short in the cmos jumper by any chance? Doubt this is case, but the idea just popped into my head.

[VHockey86]

Is it by any chance starting up then shutting it self down? Or does do nothing at all when you press the power button

If it was shutting itself down I would think it could be a Fan-Off Control sensor, where if it doesnt detect a HSF at a certain RPM it shuts the system down as a failsafe... might be a longshot but I remember having a similar problem when I got a new motherboard. Might be worth browsing through the BIOS to see if you find anything like that

[OuTpaTienT]

After you clear the cmos, and it starts up, what are you doing then?

A.) Are you letting it complete the boot process and get to the OS, and then shutting it down?

B.) Or, after clearing the cmos, upon that first boot-up, are you hitting DEL (or F2 or whatever) and going into your bios/cmos settings to make any necessary adjustments and saving them when you exit the cmos?

If you're not doing "B", then do it. I've had issues before where my machine wouldn't boot unless I cleared the cmos AND went right into the bios settings with that first boot to change an otherwise default value of one of the settings. And if I didn't make that change then it'd still boot up and run that first time, but after shutdown it would not restart, unless I cleared the cmos again.

Sorry, but I have no recollection of exactly what setting it was that caused my issue (this was a couple motherboards ago, and after a decade of fooling with this stuff all these precise technical tidbits of data just all seem the same in my human memory resources.) ... but the symptoms sound very similar to what you're experiencing. And coincidence or not, I do remember the motherboard that I had this problem with…it was an Abit. A KA7 with a Slot-A 1Ghz Athlon. I seem to remember finding some info about my problem in the newsgroups. Check the group alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit. (Don''t know if this link will work or not. If not, just goto Google - Groups..)

[ArcticFox]

Is their a short caused by the mobo touching the back of the case? Your description of the problem made me think of that, so make sure you use those brass standoffs that came with your case in EVERY screw hole.

[RudyK]

Thanks for your help. I tried all your suggestions to no avail. I tried to think what would cause the CMOS to keep losing its settings. The only thing I could come up with was the battery. I changed it and bingo, i'm up and running. Seems strange that a new mobo would have a dead battery but oh well. Thanks again
RudyK

[MrPurple]

Man that is funny, no one would think that the CMOS batter was dead. Hell I did not even thing about it till after I read RudYK's reply.
I will no lower my head in shame for not realizing shuch an easy and obvious posibilty for a solution.

[Bruneau]

LOL

Most of us haven't kept a mobo long enough for a battery to go dead.

[ArcticFox]

Glad you got it fixed.