8/18/2006 - Lost HD Master function / CMOS checksum error

Win XP Pro SP2; Celeron 2.66 GHz; 256 mB RAM;
40 GB HD (WD); PARTITIONS: C: = FAT 32 / D: = NTFS; (50/50)
Western Digital HD (2004)
Phoenix Award BIOS v6.00 PG, (2005)

No boot to Win XP in morning. OK last nite. Nothing new installed
nor major changes made. No known recent virus infection. Kept
re-booting endlessly:

(1) 1st screen = logo, w/ following message at bottom:

"Press TAB for POST, DEL to enter SETUP"

(2) Then:

"CMOS Checksum error - defaults loaded
Warning! CPU has changed. or CPU ratio changed fail
Please re-enter CPU settings in the CMOS setup and remember to save
before exit!

Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter SETUP"

(3) Then displays mid-screen "POWER SAVING" message (in normal
OPERATION, this same msg screens for 5 seconds just before pc shuts
down).

Then it recycles to (1) again and so on...

If I press F1 (at end of (2), above), get the regular device detect
screen on top and "verifying DMI pool data ...." message at
bottom and then "starting..."

Then the looping repeats...

Pulled BIOS battery & pwr plug to let things bleed off and reset
BIOS. Ran w/o the battery. Not much dif. Battery OK (> 3 Vdc).

Changing a few things temporarily in the BIOS didn't help.
If DISABLED "quick boot" though, the screen would hang at
"Press TAB for POST screen, Delete for Setup". Had to pull the
BIOS battery to reset BIOS to get operational again.

Settings in BIOS all look OK. Most are automatic anyway. Health
good. All voltages within +/- 5%. Both fans going. Also tried
"optimal settings". "Fail SAFE defaults" only works for 1st
menu and it's difficult to repeat this choice (think the BIOS has
to be reset before this choice can be REPEATED. It is not offered
as a Main menu option).

-----

I've 'detailed' the above for ref only, in event there's a clue in it. Don't
OFFHAND see how the BIOS or battery could be the problem, because any
changes I make are retained.

Additional info:

(a) On each boot, the HD was recognized OK but boot
would recycle before it ever got to Windows.

(b) Can get into drive C: (FAT 32) OK, via DOS diskette boot,
to access all files on C: - but not into D:, the NTFS partition
(one reason I prefer FAT 32).

(c) The HD works OK in the spare comp - but only as "Slave";
so full data recovery is (as yet!) no problem. Next...

(d) ran 'chkdsk' on both partitions. Windows reports no
problems - but shows the old 1 MB in bad sectors on C:. Next...

(e) ran a full 'Scandisk' on both partitions. All I got after
about 15 minutes of Phase 1 and 2 was "Scan complete".
No report. Next...

(f) checked Device Manager - OK. Troubleshooter wasn't
much use (there was no branch option for a Master or Slave
configuration problem and all else was irrelevant or OK).

(g) When I first used this comp 6 months ago, did a chkdsk
and found around 1MB of bad sectors. There's no change in
the nr of bad sectors.

Haven't tried replacing it w/ another HD yet. Understand the
HD install was only about 18 months old. Mfr date = 2004.

Wondering now if some more (critical) sectors went bad and
which are preventing the boot to the OS. Yet neither ChkDsk
nor Scandisk found any problem. If the MBR was affected,
there should have been some indication.

Like to test the spare comp HD in the bad HD comp, just
to 100% rule out other system problems. I hesitate for now
because:

(a) Bad HD works OK as "Slave" in spare comp - but not as
Master. If jumper it for Master or CS, exact same problem
recurs at the spare comp as at my comp. Seems to imply
an HD only problem. Otherwise, it should run OK as a
Master at spare comp.

(b) Oddly enough, spare comp had same problem some weeks ago!
at which time I went thru tons of diagnostics, virus checks, boards
reseating, disassembly/re-assembly - and found nothing; yet the
problem's disappeared after all that.

So, am reluctant to put the now good spare-comp HD into my own
system as yet (to prove that there's nothing amiss w/ my
system) lest the transfer operation might cause the same
problem to re-emerge at the *spare* HD or comp. That would
leave me with NO system at all; and I don't have any other
HD to spare for the test.

So I'll leave that for a potentially last-resort check.

BTW, would there be a utility available via which one
could get either a screenshot or a text copy of the
BIOS settings for one's future ref?

What can I do to get my HD to work as Master again?
Would re-formating it help?

Note: Since I've just read thru your BIOS/CMOS info here
and checked out Western Digital via your link, I'm now
inclined to believe there's been a possible virus infection
at either the BIOS/CMOS memory or at HD MBR.

Thanx in advance for any assist on this issue. :-?

Jed...
Quote

..."CMOS Checksum error - defaults loaded
Warning! CPU has changed. or CPU ratio changed fail
Please re-enter CPU settings in the CMOS setup and remember to save
before exit!...