cmos checksum error

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PTREMU

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May 8, 2007
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well i recently put together a comp for my girlfriend and it worked fine on first boot and has been under heavy load without having any problems, but now when ever its been off long enough for it to cool down, it takes 3-5 tries to get it to post, and when it does it gives me an error saying "cmos checksum error, reverted to default settings" and the bios is reset. i've read that this is a common error and ways to fix it are to increase the rams voltage/speed/linking, also to upgrade the bios itself. however i also read this board is super picky about which bios version it uses for specific hardware, i'm looking on the asus site right now and have no clue which bios to use. any ideas based on my specs listed below, and/or what voltage/speed/linking i should set the ram to?

ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131153
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820231065
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX / 768MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2597917&Sku=E145-8000
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151028
 
My Asus board used to do that for some reason, whenever the power was cut (turned off the PSU, unplugged the power cord, etc.) Make sure the CMOS battery isn't loose or anything, that could be why it's resetting.

You might also need a new CMOS battery, companies shipping almost-dead batteries isn't unheard of.
 
guess i could try that as a last resort, though i did make sure it was in tightly, and it only does this somtimes, like if its been off for an hour+.
i should still update the bios though, and change those ram settings if its really recommended, anyone have any ideas on that?
 
guess i could try that as a last resort, though i did make sure it was in tightly, and it only does this somtimes, like if its been off for an hour+.
i should still update the bios though, and change those ram settings if its really recommended, anyone have any ideas on that?
Click to expand...

I've had the RAM for a long time. The mfg. rates the the voltage at 2.0-2.1v. Check all connectors like your IDE cable and be sure they are installed corectly and firmly, not backwards and loose. Reseat the RAM. Double check all the cables connected to the MB. It could be something like a voltage setting or reading causing the problem. Hopefully it's something simple. A new battery like YMAA suggested is a good start. HTH
 
the voltage was at 1.875 stock so i'm gonna try bumping that to 2.0, also gonna see about getting a new battery this weekend, they're cheap i assume?
 
yeah it posts fine right now, its just when its been off for more than an hour. at first i thought cooling could be a problem, but all my temps seem to be well within spec, and it does this only when everythings at room temp. could it be like "break-in"?
 
It's been a long time since I had a similar problem but it sounds to me like it probably is the CMOS battery. Contrary to others, that's the second thing I would try (after making sure everything is seated properly).
 
first of all you got super girlfriend that uses that PC with 8800GTX PC. Second try to run memory test
 
we play alot of bf2 / 2142 (and ut3 soon), we both do alot of rendering, too.
well i left the comp off for about 3 hours after changing the voltage to 2.0 and it booted fine, hopefuly that was the problem. gonna go buy a battery just in case, also leave it off tonight and see how it boots in the morning.
 
well it booted fine this morning after being off for 8 hours, and thats with the new battery and ram set to 2 volts. hopefuly that was the end of the problems.
 
Just as a small note from me, the Battery doesn't even have to be in, and the CMOS should keep settings, if the power supply is still plugged in.

It Should provide power even when the computer is off.
If anything, I would blame the power supply.
 
so far its been fine, been keeping it under heavy load all day and i'm gonna shut it off tonight, see how it boots again tomorrow, think its fixed now though.
 
figured out what the problem is, whenever i unplug the power cable or turn the psu switch off, it resets the bios. probaly means the battery jack is bad or something, but i dont see that as a issue worth dissasembling everything and getting a new board for. the computer will rarely be unplugged or even turned off, and even if it is theres only two settings in the bios i'm not using stock, "full screen logo" and the ram voltage.
 
ok have a new problem now. we're in england right now visiting some family and for some reason the the computer shuts off after about 15mins, no warning or anything, just shuts off. all the cables are in correctly and the box was in perfect shape when we picked it up, so it couldn't of taken damage in shipping. worked fine in america other than that cmos error, but we fixed that. the psu is rated for 100-240 volts so i assume it automaticaly adjusts what voltage to use, being that theres no red button on the back, though it didn't come with any documentation so i dont know if i need to change anything in the bios or what, but i didn't see anything. any ideas?
 
tried that and it seemed fine. at first i thought one of the screws holding the board in was causing it, cause it was a little loose when it got here, but not really loose enough to ground anything. other than that the only thing i can think of is that the building has unstable voltage, would buying a 240-100 voltage converter box like one of these fix it?
http://www.voltage-converter-transformers.com/step-up-transformer-2.html#vt1000
 
well i disconnected the harddrive and it still did this crashing thing, so it cant be windows. starting to fear we need a second psu just to use the comp here.

would rather just get that 240-100volt converter though, think that would fix it?
 
If the computer worked in the US and doesn't work there, the converter should fix the problem (unless something was damaged in the shipping).
 
s'what i was thinking, but i also just found some info about some areas in europe being 240 AC and 240 DC. i dont have any meters here with me so would there be any other simpler way to check? tried looking in the bios to see if it would pick it up and it doesn't.
 
That would be a new one on me. I've never heard of anywhere in Europe (or anywhere else for that matter) being 240 DC. Everywhere I've been in Europe (parts of England, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, and a few of the tiny countries) has been 240 AC.
 
ok so i'm gonna order a voltage converter if i cant find on localy, heres what i've found so far:
last 3 on this page
http://www.voltage-converter-transformers.com/light-duty-voltage-converter.html
last one on this page
http://www.voltage-converter-transformers.com/step-down-transformer.html

the second link i'm pretty sure will work, but it seems kind of overkill.
the first link says like "1600 watts Step Down converter, Converts 220 volts down to 120 volts" what do they mean by 1600 watts? specialy witht he very last one which says "Step Down Dual Wattage Converter - 50 Watt OR 1650 Watt max", what do they mean "50 watt OR 1650 max"? would we be able to run a computer(650watt) off one of these? it would need to be able to handle heavy use, too.
 
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