Tech Points: 2 From: United Kingdom Posted:4/7/2010 3:26:00 PM # 1 Hello everyone. I have got a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz PC, 2GB of RAM with Windows XP SP3 applied as well as all updates, and generally the PC has been running very well for several years now. Nevertheless, what I have been noticing is that the PC has been giving me a black BIOS start-up screen which appears once in a while. It states on there at the bottom that ' CMOS defaults loaded' – press DEL for SETUP or F1 to continue, or words to that effect. Once I get this screen, the PC stops and does not go any further - I have to enter the bios to load the correct settings and then reboot before the operating system loads correctly. Even though I have replaced the motherboard's CR2032 watch type battery so that the timekeeping is accurate, why does this keep on happening from time to time? What could be the cause, and have you seen this behaviour before, and what can I do to stop this from re-occurring, please?

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What does the motherboard's CR2032 watch type battery do anyway? - shall I now try yet another new one in the motherboard? I also thought that I would try and update/flash the motherboard's BIOS from revision 1001 to revision 1007, which I downloaded and saved onto a floppy disk from here:- Revision 1007 is the first one in the list and the last revision number/type for this particular motherboard - I rebooted my PC from the floppy disk, and a message came up that the BIOS and revision 1007 did not match? - is this correct? Is the above also happening because I have got a USB mouse plugged into the PC? - should I remove this and use a standard PS/2 one instead?

If it's not the right one, then where can I downloaded the latest/last BIOS revision update for the P4PE motherboard, please? Will this fix the above problem(s) that I have been having, and what else can I try that I haven't already done or covered above? For information, here is the BIOS version details from my PC:- Version - ASUS P4PE ACPI BIOS version 1001 Model - P4PE Built date - As I stated, I am trying to flash the 'P4PE1007.awd' BIOS image in place of the 1001 version. Is the P4PE1007.awd BIOS image the correct one? - should I leave the 'P4PE1007.awd' BIOS image name as it is, or should this be re-named to *.rom or *.bin for the flashing to work?

I don't want to flash the incorrect BIOS version - i.e. From version 1001 to 1007, and then find that the PC does not work. Having said this, can someone please also check/confirm whether I can use the 'Aflash V2.21 Utility' to update the motherboard flash the BIOS instead? This is also available on the ASUS support website. Thanks for your help. Regards happy37 Member Posts: 6 Level. Tech Points: 3894 From: USA Posted:4/7/2010 10:46:00 PM # 3 Have you ever cleared CMOS?

This will clear out any data that was left behind from any hardware changes from upgrades or rearranging components. The CMOS battery allows the board to hold data about connected hardware, if the CMOS is cleared either manually or by the battery dying/being weak, the board must scan for connected devices again to update stored data.

Start off by reading through the, FIRST. It will tell you how to flash BIOS and other useful information.

Do not flash BIOS from within windows, this is the most dangerous way to flash. Use ezflash, which is described in detail within the user's manual. Judging by the downloads, the BIOS file extension is '.awd'. A good way to judge what to name the BIOS file is to look for the BIOS file contained in the root directory of the Asus cd that came with the motherboard if you still have it.

Downloads page for P4PE can be found. Latest BIOS for P4PE is 1007, so it sounds like you got it downloaded already. Rather than using a floppy, you can also try burning the BIOS file to a cd.

Let us know if you have any more questions, or don't understand/want to verify something in the manual. Tech Points: 2 From: United Kingdom Posted:4/8/2010 3:53:00 PM # 4 zerocool Good afternoon - many thanks for your very useful and detailed post. Yes, indeed, I have cleared CMOS many times before - I followed the instructions in the user manual and this worked fine, so no problems there. I did try to use EZFlash before by pressing the ALT and F2 keys together on boot-up, but the process didn't work. All I got was a message stating that the onboard BIOS (version 1001) and the update didn't/don't match. So, that aside, I tried to use the AFLASH v2.21 utility as also suggested by ASUS. I had already downloaded and saved the p4pe1007.awd BIOS file onto a floppy disk ready for the flashing, as you said above.

Fingers crossed, I then bit the bullet, restarted the PC with floppy disk in the drive. I accessed the BIOS, set the PC to boot from the floppy drive and rebooted. Upon restart, the AFLASH utility was on the screen. I selected option 1 to back up my current BIOS to a file, which the utility did OK. I then selected option 2 to flash the BIOS - the utility then showed me the details of my current BIOS, as well as giving me the details of the p4pe1007.awd file that I was going to flash in its place. All being well, I opted to flash the BIOS with the version 1007 file - thank God it all went well.you know, I was waiting on tenterhooks for the 'Flashed Successfully' message to come up, and indeed it did.so manyyyyyy long minutes later!!!

I then shut down the PC, re-entered the BIOS, selected 'Load seup defaults' and then rebooted. I went back into the BIOS and reset the time and all of my preferred options as I wanted then to be. All was well so far - I have even taken the CR2032 motherboard battery and replaced it with a brand new one.

Having read all of the above, can you please comment as to whether I have done everything in the correct order, or should I have done things differently? Is there anything else that I haven't done? All should now be well - I do have a question relating to PCs and whether they should be shut down every time once we have finished using them? I have asked this same question in another forum - I was told that you should keep the power lead plugged in, always, with the wall power switch on.

I have never always done this - each and every time I use the PC, I use it and finish doing what I do, and then switch off at the mains. However, I have another PC which I use from time to time (both are plugged into a surge protector along with all of my other components), and this one is still working OK even though it is always plugged into the surge protector and not kept switched on at the PSU power on/off switch.

So, what do you think/suggest? - is it the fact that I haven't kept this particular PC plugged into the surge protector/'kept the power lead in, always, with the wall power switch on' - could this have caused the battery to lose its power over time? Does the continuous switching on/off/unplugging/plugging from the mains cause the battery to lose its power/charge cycle? So, how I proceed now - do I keep both of my PCs plugged into the wall switch, but not switched on themselves at the back on the PSU.always/forever, or just for a certain amount of time so that the CMOS battery is fully charged? Should I just leave both PCs switched off at the PSU on/off switch, but leave the mains leads plugged in for both PCs (and the wall socket switched on), or just leave them plugged in with the mains switched off?

What's my best course of action? Do you also think that I should get this PC checked out in case there are still problems with it now, or might even crop up in future? I was thinking of getting a 'Health Check' done by a local PC shop.any thoughts/comments on this, please? Siemens Olb Pspice Download Torrent.

Finally, what I did before I came to work this morning was to completely unplug the monitor and PC from the surge protector. I will plug these back in tonight when I get back home and see if a cold restart/reboot causes any problems.will keep you updated. I am very grateful for all of your help so far with this.it's very much appreciated.

I look forward to your comments regarding my other questions as above - apologies for the length of my post, I just thought of giving you as much information as possible. Look forward to your eventual response. Regards happy37 Moderator Posts: 7567 Level. Tech Points: 3894 From: USA Posted:4/8/2010 9:52:00 PM # 5 Quote: Author: Posted: 4/8/2010 3:53:00 PM zerocool Good afternoon - many thanks for your very useful and detailed post. Yes, indeed, I have cleared CMOS many times before - I followed the instructions in the user manual and this worked fine, so no problems there. I did try to use EZFlash before by pressing the ALT and F2 keys together on boot-up, but the process didn't work.

All I got was a message stating that the onboard BIOS (version 1001) and the update didn't/don't match. So, that aside, I tried to use the AFLASH v2.21 utility as also suggested by ASUS. I had already downloaded and saved the p4pe1007.awd BIOS file onto a floppy disk ready for the flashing, as you said above.

Fingers crossed, I then bit the bullet, restarted the PC with floppy disk in the drive. I accessed the BIOS, set the PC to boot from the floppy drive and rebooted. Upon restart, the AFLASH utility was on the screen.

I selected option 1 to back up my current BIOS to a file, which the utility did OK. I then selected option 2 to flash the BIOS - the utility then showed me the details of my current BIOS, as well as giving me the details of the p4pe1007.awd file that I was going to flash in its place. All being well, I opted to flash the BIOS with the version 1007 file - thank God it all went well.you know, I was waiting on tenterhooks for the 'Flashed Successfully' message to come up, and indeed it did.so manyyyyyy long minutes later!!! I then shut down the PC, re-entered the BIOS, selected 'Load seup defaults' and then rebooted. I went back into the BIOS and reset the time and all of my preferred options as I wanted then to be.

All was well so far - I have even taken the CR2032 motherboard battery and replaced it with a brand new one. Having read all of the above, can you please comment as to whether I have done everything in the correct order, or should I have done things differently? Is there anything else that I haven't done? ---sounds good so far All should now be well - I do have a question relating to PCs and whether they should be shut down every time once we have finished using them? ---that's up to you.

Shutting it off frequently may lead to thermal expansion loosening some connections. Leaving it on constantly will lead to excessive dust buildup---I do both depending on what degree of laziness I'm curently experiencing;-) I have asked this same question in another forum - I was told that you should keep the power lead plugged in, always, with the wall power switch on. I have never always done this - each and every time I use the PC, I use it and finish doing what I do, and then switch off at the mains. However, I have another PC which I use from time to time (both are plugged into a surge protector along with all of my other components), and this one is still working OK even though it is always plugged into the surge protector and not kept switched on at the PSU power on/off switch. So, what do you think/suggest? - is it the fact that I haven't kept this particular PC plugged into the surge protector/'kept the power lead in, always, with the wall power switch on' - could this have caused the battery to lose its power over time? Does the continuous switching on/off/unplugging/plugging from the mains cause the battery to lose its power/charge cycle?

---i don't think this effects the CMOS battery So, how I proceed now - do I keep both of my PCs plugged into the wall switch, but not switched on themselves at the back on the PSU.always/forever, or just for a certain amount of time so that the CMOS battery is fully charged? Should I just leave both PCs switched off at the PSU on/off switch, but leave the mains leads plugged in for both PCs (and the wall socket switched on), or just leave them plugged in with the mains switched off? Poker Training Software Torrent here. What's my best course of action? Do you also think that I should get this PC checked out in case there are still problems with it now, or might even crop up in future? I was thinking of getting a 'Health Check' done by a local PC shop.any thoughts/comments on this, please? ---run something like prime95 overnight, or run 3dmark06 (free version) or PCWizard a few times and compare results to similar machines as kind of a sanity check on performance Finally, what I did before I came to work this morning was to completely unplug the monitor and PC from the surge protector. I will plug these back in tonight when I get back home and see if a cold restart/reboot causes any problems.will keep you updated.

I am very grateful for all of your help so far with this.it's very much appreciated. I look forward to your comments regarding my other questions as above - apologies for the length of my post, I just thought of giving you as much information as possible. ---no problem, that's what we're here for Look forward to your eventual response. Regards happy37.