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Old January 30th 05, 08:36 PM
Tanya
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thank you again for the reply...
[...below...]

"Trent©" wrote:

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 21:33:24 -0500, Tanya
wrote:

Get a good battery...then we can continue.


what next?



I think you may have drained your battery the other day.


?

If the battery is working properly, you should not be loosing any time
when you have the computer turned off for a few hours or so. So check
that part.


it has not had the date and time error (since it successfully booted
yesterday (?2 days ago?) -- i've lost track :-) so i guess that the new
battery is functioning as it should

Recap for us. Exactly what problems are you still having?


1. NO post start up errors.
2. it is running EXTREMELY slowly (i am running my antiviral scan which i
started over 2 hours ago) it has NEVER taken this long!
(now it is still running THREE hours later -- it has to finish of course
but there are "no infections" listed yet???)
3. the bios settings have reset themselves (i see what you wrote below) i
am just trying to be accurate (it's a Pnp BIOS)

for example i have a 30 gb maxtor hd (i have print outs of the CMOS
settings prior to several days ago) it was set to ENABLE read prefetch AND
disk BIOS translation WAS LBA
HOWEVER currently, read preFetch is DISabled AND disk BIOS translation is
CHS?????
ALSO numLock is USUALLY on by default (the keyBoard light is usually on
but now it is off.)
(when one boots, the numLock light is off and should be on)
i do not have any explanation for the above values........

One bit of information for you...

The BIOS is an area of your computer where YOU tell the computer what
hardware you have...and how to configure it...along with some other
configurable settings. And then the computer uses that information in
its boot process. In general, the computer does NOT detect your
hardware (except in some cases, especially on a computer as old as
yours) and tell you what you have. YOU tell the computer what you
have. The exceptions started with the advent of IDE auto detect, etc.


i actually do not tell it what to do
(ex: adding memory years ago -- it auto detected it without me having to
set it)

I say this because you talked of 'phantom' errors...on the floppy
drive, for instance. This is probably NOT a phantom error.


i believe that i am confusing things -- perhaps just forget the "phantom
errors"
(this bios is NOT like others, it is called "ibm surepath setup utility"
-- it is different from award, amiBIOS(?), phoenix, etc.)

You tell the computer...in the BIOS...that you have a 3 1/2" floppy.
You boot up the computer...but have a loose cable that yer not aware
of. You'll get an error message if the drive is not detected.

In like manner...you can put in a 10 gig drive...and tell the computer
that you actually have a 6 gig drive. The computer will boot...and
you'll have a 6 gig drive.

The same is true of other hardware and ports. For instance, you can
tell the computer that you don't have a printer port...by not enabling
it in the CMOS. When you boot, you won't be able to print.


i just want to be accurate: it was running well -- and without touching
it, downloading things, changing h/w/ s/w etc (i.e. with NO provocation --
sorry:-)
it began eliciting error messages (instead of the usual POST pass (1 beep)
it gave 2, and the aforementioned errors on the screen))


Get back to us as to where you stand now...what problems you have.

P.S. You DON'T have a PSU problem...so don't mess with it.


good to know

Good luck.

Have a nice one...


i really appreciate your help and patience!
sincerely
Tanya



Trent©

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