I have run into two computers that won't post, or begin to read cmos to begin the boot cycle. changed the cmos battery in both with no luck. Has anyone run into this one?? perhaps a virus that erases cmos??

They claim to have viruses that will flash/erase bios chips...never seen one up close, but read about it on symantec's site. I believe magistr "attempts" to do so.

Yes magistr will f'up the bios and I think the CIH virus does that too. But maybe the motherboards are just dead or maybe the power supplies?

well, I'll have to look into those viruses - -- one of the computers is a compaq - -- if i take the cmos battery out when its pluged in, it will power up. It gives strange cmos errors and boots. if i shut down, it wont power back up unless I put the battery back in and then take it out again. the other is a laptop, and I replaced the battery, and no luck. If I press power the fan kicks on and the drives spin, and thats it. I put in a bootable floppy to see if it would read the boot track - - but the drive make any noice indicating read.

im thinking the desktop has a bios problem, and the laptop?? bad processor?? pIII 900