cmos help on old pc(win95)

[rfjk]

Any help would be great. I am trying to help a friend with his computer. I don't know much about it as it is nearly fifteen years old and I'm scared to open it up in case it crumbles.
The problem is when it is turned on a message comes up saying something to the effect: CMOS memory checksum mismatch. the only option is to enter the setup screen. from there I don't feel very confident as the set up is completely different to my own computer.
2 things I did notice were there was no c: drive in the setup screen and the wrong type of drive is asigned to the A: drive ( a 5,1/4" instead of 3,1/2&quot
I am about to down load a win95 startup .
Is there anything else I will need, and how do I get rid of thise error?

 

[Neo81]

Ya usually get that message when there is 2 different speeds of memory in the mem slots

 

[edfair]

The CMOS battery has either gone south, or in the case of a rechargable , has lost it's charge.
This type of error is common whe batteries die. Normal fix is to replace the battery, reset the variables and go back to work.
Date should have reset to something like 1-1-80 at midnight and the hardware should be set to defaults.
You may have to open the box to get the hard drive model number or specs. You may also have to go on the web to get the drive specs which will be needed to set CMOS so it can read from the drive. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[rfjk]

thanks for the tips I'll crack it open check out the battery and then find out the specs of the hardware.
Then maybe put it into the shop

 

[edfair]

If it is a soldered in battery, M/B manufacturer probably has an offboard connector for you to use for an offboard battery.
Will be close to the existing on-board battery, have 4 pins with the center ones jumpered together.
If you find this you can probably put the battery in yourself.
Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[rfjk]

thanks for all your help. I cracked the PC open to find out what hardware it had, then I entered the hard disk data in the BIOS as it wasn't automatically detected, the PC then fired up no problems. My friend then informed me his PC hadn't been used or plugged in for months. I left the PC on for a couple of hours and since then it seems to start OK.
I have persuaded him to buy a new pc.
his current one is
33mhz
20mb RAM
420mb HDD
no cd-rom
He is then going to donate this one to me to use to play around with linux