everytime the computer turns on all that comes on to the montior is "Award BootBlock BIOS v1.0 copyright (c) 1998, Award Software, Inc. BIOS ROM checksum error Detecting floppy drive A media... INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" i looked for what type of mobo is in the cpu and the only numbers i could see was S1854 AGPX4-PCI-ISA maybe the bios needs to be flashed? I cant get into the bios settings, the person who was using the computer said she just turned it on for would and this is what happend any help would be great thanks

BIOS Checksum Error is usually an indication of a failing CMOS battery. The BIO has lost it settings and is trying to boot from the only device that doesn't need configuring. Replace the CMOS battery and try again. You will have to reset your BIOS. If you don't know how to do that there should be a setting for optimum defaults. Use that. It should tell you on the bottom of the screen which key or keys to press to get into the BIOS settings. Del, F1,F2, Ctl-Alt-S are some to try. Flashing the BIOS should not be necessary and it is an action of last resort when everything else fails, and I mean everything else, absolutley everything. Stuart

Sounds like Stuart is right...the motherboard has lost its mind and doesn't know what's attached to it. Follow his advice. "the person who was using the computer said she just turned it on for would and this is what happend" Possible you didn't get the whole story? Check to make sure all the hdd's are cabled correctly etc. Is this the motherboard? http://www.tyan.com/products/html/trinity400.html Skip

There is a problem with one of the peripherals, or possibly the video card or motherboard also. I agree the battery is the first place you go, then check the video card for seating. "Detecting floppy drive A media... INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" Could be a floppy disk left in the drive if these 2 sentences are meant to be joined, or if not MBR is whacked as well. I would try going into bios set for cdrom # 1 and repair XP with Windows cd from bootup, but change battery first!

Hi, If changing the battery does not help solve your problem, then it is your Bios that gets corrupted, which means that you will have to re-flash the bios. The message "Detecting floppy drive A media..." is actually asking you to put in a floppy (system disk with autoexec.bat file indicating which bios file to flash). You can read more from the Tyan website on how to do bios flashing for a corrupted bios. The worst case is that the Bios chip is bad and you have to use the hot-flash method on a new chip....

>> A media..." is actually asking you to put in a floppy (system disk with autoexec.bat file indicating which bios file to flash). << Rubbish. The last thing you need on a floppy when booting to Flash the BIOS is an Autoexec.bat file. It is a CMOS Checksum Error, not a BIOS checksum error. If the BIOS was corrupted then you you would get nothing as the would be no code to produce it. The chances of the BIOS being corrupted are extremely remote and comes into the category of last resort as mentioned my first post. Even the Tyan site tells you not to flash the BIOS except on instructions for Tech Support. There are many, many other things that could be the problem before flashing the BIOS. Stuart

I had the same problem for 4 weeks, but yesterday it solved itself! The last 4 weeks: I was able to boot up normally after some seconds (about 20 sec), by pressing the reset-button. I first thought my BIOS-battery needed to be changed, but that didn't help. And afraid as i was of flashing the BIOS, i did nothing! Then i brought my computer to a friend, and suddendly it worked! Why? I have no idea... I was amased and happy! When i come home it ran normally, i have not resived any errors! --- Sorry for my bad english, and if you understand norwegian visit http://qualbeen.net/2005/06/bios-rom-checksum-error.html to read more about this BIOS checksum error.