klem kedidelhopper wrote:
I really hope that someone can help me with this. I have a P233 with
American Megatrends AMI bios.This computer was working perfectly but
has been sitting without drives in it for a couple of months.
......

Does anyone have any ideas what happened and if there
might be a way to correct it? Any help would be most sincerely
appreciated. Lenny

First of all, if you are worried about viruses download the bootable antivirus
checker disks provided by several of the antivirus software companies. I
prefer AVG and it has found viruses that the others missed.

I fix about one computer a week these days by running the AVG standalone
antvirus. :-)

Second, download a recent copy of the UBUNTU Linux distribution. One of the
options is a standalone memory test. Only really bad memory fails the POST.
Bad memory can pass it and then mess things up.

Third, if you have a BIOS virus, you are effectively screwed. Most modern
computers have their BIOS in an EEPROM (electrally eraseable progamable
read only memory) chip. You can update the BIOS "on the fly".

For a computer of that age, there may have been a jumper on the motherboard
to allow or disallow it.

Most likely, you just messed things up.

To fix them, start by downloading the manual for your motherboard and the
last version of the BIOS if it is updateble.

Each of the following steps needs to be done with the computer and monitor
unplugged from the wall, plugged in to test them and then unplugged if you
need to go on. I epxect you understand this, but I mention it in case
someone else reading this later does not.

Then remove everything in the computer that is not permanent, all expansion
cards, drives, etc. It's ok to leave drives in brackets, just disconnect the
signal cables from the motherboard and remove the power plugs.

Remove everything that can be plugged into an expansion socket.
DO NOT remove connections to switches, speakers, etc.

Remove the battery. Check the voltage. If it is a lithium coin cell replace
it anyway. They often seem ok when they are not. Let it sit overnight before
replacing the battery. If it was less than 3.3 volts, it's a cause of some
of, if not all of your problems.

Remove all RAM.

Assuming you don't have a video card on the motherboard, turn it on. It should
go on and do nothing.

Some BIOSes have "no memory" beeps, most just do nothing.

Turn it off, unplug and put in ONE memory stick (two if the manual says you
need to and pay attention to where it says to put it (them)). You usually
can turn it off by holding in the power button for 8 seconds.

Plug in and turn on. It should now give you the "no video card" beeps
(probably 8).

Turn off, unplug and insert video card. Connect a monitor, plug in and turn on.

You should see the BIOS screen. You may see the video card BIOS message first.

If you get splotches on the screen, turn off unplug and try different video
cards or memory sticks. It's most likely one or the other.

You can also (unplugged) make sure any socketed chips are in their sockets
securely (slow even pressure, but not enough to break anything) and
use a clean (no lead on it) pencil eraser to clean off the the contacts
on the bottom of the cards and memory.

If it's clean, press the startup anyway option and it should attempt to boot.

If it's not clean, look in the manual for BIOS recovery options and follow
the instructions.

If you can run setup, go in and turn OFF "quick boot" or anything like it,
you want it to boot as slowly as possible (most POSTing and most messages).

If you get a clean POST, you can start replacing drives, memory, etc, one
at a time until something fails. If nothing fails, attach an optical drive
(CD/DVD) and boot from the Linux disk. Run a full memory test.

It's not perfect, it does not detect minor memory timing errors which will
cause the computer to crash, but it will find almost all of the ones the
POST missed.

Based on what you said, my GUESS from at least 6,000 miles away is bad
memory, which can be caused by dirty contacts, loose chips, or even
memory that is actually bad.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM
My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(