- Aug 31, 2020
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Hello all,
I purchased a computer (desktop) that was custom built a few months ago. It has worked great and I have had no issues since then.
Up front, since it will become more important as I go on: My motherboard is an EVGA Stinger Z170. Manual here
Yesterday, I tried to go into the BIOS for the first time. I simply have not had a need to do so since getting this computer. However, my BIOS apparently had a fast-boot setting enabled, so I couldn't seem to get into the BIOS by simply pressing/holding F2/F10/F12 on reboot.
In my naivety, I pressed the "Reset CMOS" button on the rear IO panel, thinking that it was just a reset that button that would hopefully take me to the BIOS. Upon turning back on, I did in fact get brought to the BIOS, so I thought there were no issues at all. That is, until I tried to get out of the BIOS. After exiting the BIOS, I was brought back to the BIOS. Then again, and again. So, I powered off the computer for a fresh reboot, and was met with the error "CMOS Checksum Error". It says F1 for skip for F12 for setup, but both take me to the BIOS regardless.
No action was taken in the BIOS, by the way. I was looking to enable TPM but didn't find that setting. Not related to the problem I am experiencing.
After reading online, this is generally my understanding of what is going on:
The CMOS RAM holds a sort of checksum value that has something to do with the current hardware configuration of the device. After rebooting, that checksum value is compared against the same value held in the BIOS (or the BIOS' understanding of the hardware configuration). If these values are different, then there is a CMOS checksum error, and the BIOS will not give boot instructions to the CPU to boot to the actual OS. If anybody understands this problem on a deeper level than I do, or has a correction to make to my understanding of the problem, please let me know.
Things I have tried:
I should mention: I have had my computer turned off for long periods of time since getting it - even unplugged for long periods of time since getting it (at most about 2 weeks), where the CMOS RAM could only have been sustained by the CR2032 3v coin battery... so the battery was confirmed not dead. Also it's not like it all of a sudden gave me a CMOS checksum error - It came only after I reset the CMOS. All of this suggests that the old coin battery isn't even dead yet. I probably didn't even need to replace the battery, but I did just to make sure that wasn't the problem.
It would seem that nothing should really be wrong with the hardware of my computer, since all of these problems were brought about by pressing the "reset CMOS" button.
Probably isn't that important, but my CPU is an i5-6500, I have 16GB of DDR4 ram, a GTX 1080, and Windows 10 Pro.
Thanks again for the help. Hopefully I can get back to Windows eventually 😬
I purchased a computer (desktop) that was custom built a few months ago. It has worked great and I have had no issues since then.
Up front, since it will become more important as I go on: My motherboard is an EVGA Stinger Z170. Manual here
Yesterday, I tried to go into the BIOS for the first time. I simply have not had a need to do so since getting this computer. However, my BIOS apparently had a fast-boot setting enabled, so I couldn't seem to get into the BIOS by simply pressing/holding F2/F10/F12 on reboot.
In my naivety, I pressed the "Reset CMOS" button on the rear IO panel, thinking that it was just a reset that button that would hopefully take me to the BIOS. Upon turning back on, I did in fact get brought to the BIOS, so I thought there were no issues at all. That is, until I tried to get out of the BIOS. After exiting the BIOS, I was brought back to the BIOS. Then again, and again. So, I powered off the computer for a fresh reboot, and was met with the error "CMOS Checksum Error". It says F1 for skip for F12 for setup, but both take me to the BIOS regardless.
No action was taken in the BIOS, by the way. I was looking to enable TPM but didn't find that setting. Not related to the problem I am experiencing.
After reading online, this is generally my understanding of what is going on:
The CMOS RAM holds a sort of checksum value that has something to do with the current hardware configuration of the device. After rebooting, that checksum value is compared against the same value held in the BIOS (or the BIOS' understanding of the hardware configuration). If these values are different, then there is a CMOS checksum error, and the BIOS will not give boot instructions to the CPU to boot to the actual OS. If anybody understands this problem on a deeper level than I do, or has a correction to make to my understanding of the problem, please let me know.
Things I have tried:
- Restarting the computer
- Pressing F1 for "skip" when met with the "CMOS Checksum Error" screen. This leads to the BIOS again.
- Pressing F12 for "setup" when met with the "CMOS Checksum Error" screen. This leads to the BIOS again.
- Restoring the BIOS to default settings from within the BIOS
- Reflashing the BIOS (to version 2.05, which seems to be up to date for my motherboard which is linked above)
- Pressing the reset button on the motherboard (not on the rear-IO; on the motherboard itself. See manual)
- Pressing the power off button on the motherboard (not on the rear-IO; on the motherboard itself. See manual)
- Removing the CR2032 3v coin battery that provides power to the CMOS RAM, while the computer's plug was removed. This should have caused a full reset of the CMOS RAM.
- Replacing the CR2032 3v coin battery with one that is new
I should mention: I have had my computer turned off for long periods of time since getting it - even unplugged for long periods of time since getting it (at most about 2 weeks), where the CMOS RAM could only have been sustained by the CR2032 3v coin battery... so the battery was confirmed not dead. Also it's not like it all of a sudden gave me a CMOS checksum error - It came only after I reset the CMOS. All of this suggests that the old coin battery isn't even dead yet. I probably didn't even need to replace the battery, but I did just to make sure that wasn't the problem.
It would seem that nothing should really be wrong with the hardware of my computer, since all of these problems were brought about by pressing the "reset CMOS" button.
Probably isn't that important, but my CPU is an i5-6500, I have 16GB of DDR4 ram, a GTX 1080, and Windows 10 Pro.
Thanks again for the help. Hopefully I can get back to Windows eventually 😬
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