We had a problem at work with Checking NVRAM error. Couldn’t boot into Windows. I Googled Checking NVRAM and came across a post from 2001 here at Computing.net. I couldn’t post a result there because the post was so old. I wanted to let everyone know in case someone else ever has this problem. “We had the Checking NVRAM problem at work. I had tried everything I could think of. I eneed up going to Google and typed Checking NVRAM. I ended up here. I saw the #2 Response from B. Rowland saying to unplug USB's. I haden't tried that so I thought, what the heck. I unplugged all then restarted. The computer booted fine! I then tried plugging in an External USB Hard Drive we used for backups then rebooted, it wouldn't get past the Checking NVRAM. I then tried the same in all of the USB hubs with no joy. We had to unplug the External Drive for good. All other USB devices work fine, it was just the External drive. We've had this drive for over 3 years and have used it for backups. It's never been a problem before. I wonder why it is now? It's not a big deal, I'm using another way to backup now anyway. I'm using a program to Clone the hard drive, much better than a backup! Thanks B. Rowland for the advice!” AMD Athlon X2 6000 Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe 4x1gb G.Skill DDR2 800 PC6400 2x500gb Seagate 7200rpm 16mb SATA Lite-On DVD Burner DL / LG DVD MSI nVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS 256mb

If that external drive is one that gets it's power from the USB cable, it might be that there are too many USB devices connected for the motherboard to supply enough power for all. If that's the case, using a powered hub for the external drive might fix the problem.