BIOS keeps resetting

pickarooney

Every couple of days my BIOS resets itself to factory settings, messing up the boot sequence and the fan speed among other things.

I get the following error on screen:

power supply surge are detected during the previous power on. asus anti-surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply unit.press f1 to run setup. press f2 to load default values..

The PSU, the last remaining component from my PC before the 'upgrade' is a 600Watt and has never given any problems. I'm tempted to just disable the anti-surge in the BIOS and see if it still happens. Would this be a foolish move? Is the ASUS anti-surge detector reliable and should I think about getting a new PSU?

I'm not well up on what kind of voltages I should have or what else to check but I have a detailed hardware info output I can post bits of if I know what to look for.

pickarooney

I found a thread on the Asus forums where the general consensus seems to be to just disable the option.

pickarooney

I can't get the machine to boot up at all now This morning there was no response from the power button and I had to plug it out, hold down the ON switch and plug back in for it to power on. It only gets about 10 seconds into the boot sequence before it hangs on a black screen with a flashing cursor. I've tried with a liveCD but likewise it gets about 10-20 seconds in and drops to a black screen and cursor.

Any ideas?

kippy

pickarooney wrote: »

I can't get the machine to boot up at all now This morning there was no response from the power button and I had to plug it out, hold down the ON switch and plug back in for it to power on. It only gets about 10 seconds into the boot sequence before it hangs on a black screen with a flashing cursor. I've tried with a liveCD but likewise it gets about 10-20 seconds in and drops to a black screen and cursor.

Any ideas?

You say you upgraded some components in the PC - can I ask did you check before you bought the new components whether a 600 watt power supply was powerful enough for them?
( http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp )

Morlar

I would try replacing the cmos battery too.

pickarooney

kippy wrote: »

You say you upgraded some components in the PC - can I ask did you check before you bought the new components whether a 600 watt power supply was powerful enough for them?
( http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp )

I calculated it would need about 500-550 tops. For info I just tested with a different graphics card and with all USB devices unplugged and the same happens. I must check if I have a spare CMOS battery.

kippy

pickarooney wrote: »

I calculated it would need about 500-550 tops. For info I just tested with a different graphics card and with all USB devices unplugged and the same happens. I must check if I have a spare CMOS battery.

Indeed. However you may now also have a software issue due to the power cuts.
Can I ask did you try booting the PC with a live CD with ALL non essential components disconnected?
Are you sure you calculations are good?

Solitaire

It does sound like you had a dying CMOS battery, and it has finally run dry Most CMOS batteries are standard CR2032 coin cells, you can find packs of them in Euro2 shops

kippy

Solitaire wrote: »

It does sound like you had a dying CMOS battery, and it has finally run dry Most CMOS batteries are standard CR2032 coin cells, you can find packs of them in Euro2 shops

I'm getting the impression that the OP had gotten a new motherboard but I am making a few assumptions there so I could be incorrect.
That being said, there is a chance the battery could have been faulty.

pickarooney

I managed to get it to boot up by simply removing and replacing the CMOS battery (and redoing a few BIOS settings that got undone such as the time and boot sequence) but I'm not too confident of the problem just going away.

It is a new motherboard but the battery may be dodgy. I'll get a replacement tomorrow in any case.

Nothingbetter2d

double that your psu is properly connected to your motherboard... if there is a loose wire just as it goes into the plastic header it might cause a slight surge.

pickarooney

I plugged everything out and back in again when I reseated the CMOS battery. There have been no problems in the last 4 days but I'm still a bit concerned.