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Need help to determine if my bios is dead

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 10:28 pm
by baba
I am a novice to computer hardware.I have a system which has been kept idle for nearly 3 yrs.Recently when I plugged in all the cables and tried to start it,it was not booting at all.Does the bios program get deleted if u dont use it for a long time or is my mother board dead.plz help me as i need to quickly set up this sys

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:50 am
by Noel
Did u hear any beeps? Is the power supply working? How about the CPU fan, is it spinning?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:54 am
by baba
Thx for the response.The power supply is working fine,the cpu fan is rotating,the led on the mobo is on and the power is reaching the cdrom.
My mother board is an intel ABIT TH7II,the bios is pheonix bios D686 series,1998.I didn,t hear a beep when i removed the ram.Wat do u suggest I should do?

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:35 am
by Noel
on a clean workarea, can u only run the motherboard with processor, ram, video card and monitor with power supply? In this way, you can isolate whether it is a bios related problem or only non-contacting pins since your pc is sleeping for years. Kindly re-insert the processor make sure it is fitted correctly. If you have an eraser, pls clean the ram contact pins and re-insert it fully. Same with contact pins of your video card. Recheck everything including settings in the motherboard. Connect the chassis speaker. Power up. Did you hear any beeps? Hey, your motherboard has a builtin post card. Whats the display?

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:24 am
by baba
I finally got to the manual of my mobo.I reset the cmos setting by associated jumper.And also there is an LED display of the POST the mobo.The display of the led is C1,I referred to the manual it said that the code meant detect memory-auto detection oof dram size,type and ecc or auto detection oof l2 cache(socket 7 or below).I am unable to decipher wat that means.Can u plz help me out on that .

also wat does rambus type of ram mean.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 4:17 pm
by Noel
yup, c1 has something to do with memory issues. :) Sorry the link that you provided now cannot be accessed. Pls use an eraser and clean the contact pins of your memory. Re-install it properly. Set to Auto. Let the motherboard detect the memory. If not, pls change memory.

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:30 am
by Ritchie
Also worth checking that cards are properly seated. For example on some systems the video card gets dislodged easisly when plugging in the VGA cable. Since you have recently re-connected it, the card could have become unseated when you plugged in the cable.