Re: Acer M5640/MSI OEM motherboard - NO POST
Well, since Spinrite was able to see the hard drives (SATA or PATA) by bypassing the BIOS, I decided to reflash the BIOS with the original version even though the original version didn't work, but I wanted to get rid of that CMOS corrupt message. Of course, I couldn't find it on Acer's official website so I had to search around.
I couldn't find the original so I downloaded everything else and tried one version at a time until the CMOS corrupt message went away. I tried 5 different versions (using AMI bios recovery with floppy drive and pressing Ctrl-Home) and none would get rid of the CMOS corrupt message. So I went back to the latest one on Acer's official site.
I just happened to have the PATA drive and Windows XP home CD disc as my last test configuration and I thought I would try reinstalling it again. To my surprise, XP home found the PATA hard drive and I was able to install it. Same for Win 7. Lubuntu, however, cannot see the PATA drive at all. Lubuntu, Win XP, and Win 7 all failed to find the SATA drive. The BIOS reports finding the SATA drive and correctly identifies it.
So I suspect upgrading, downgrading, upgrading, downgrading the BIOS may have cleared up a bad entry or something? It still complains about the CMOS corruption and I have to hit F2 to load defaults and continue, but for now, I will run the system as is with Windows and a PATA drive and move onto the next socket 775 dead motherboard in the pile.
I may do some more research at one of the bios mod forums to see if anyone has this CMOS corruption message.
I have had poor dealings with Acer netbooks with respect to their BIOS having a number of bugs (not properly charging the battery, black screen of death, etc).
A huge thanks to all the regular contributors. Motherboards and its theory of operation and repairs are new to me and I'm learning a lot.
Well, since Spinrite was able to see the hard drives (SATA or PATA) by bypassing the BIOS, I decided to reflash the BIOS with the original version even though the original version didn't work, but I wanted to get rid of that CMOS corrupt message. Of course, I couldn't find it on Acer's official website so I had to search around.
I couldn't find the original so I downloaded everything else and tried one version at a time until the CMOS corrupt message went away. I tried 5 different versions (using AMI bios recovery with floppy drive and pressing Ctrl-Home) and none would get rid of the CMOS corrupt message. So I went back to the latest one on Acer's official site.
I just happened to have the PATA drive and Windows XP home CD disc as my last test configuration and I thought I would try reinstalling it again. To my surprise, XP home found the PATA hard drive and I was able to install it. Same for Win 7. Lubuntu, however, cannot see the PATA drive at all. Lubuntu, Win XP, and Win 7 all failed to find the SATA drive. The BIOS reports finding the SATA drive and correctly identifies it.
So I suspect upgrading, downgrading, upgrading, downgrading the BIOS may have cleared up a bad entry or something? It still complains about the CMOS corruption and I have to hit F2 to load defaults and continue, but for now, I will run the system as is with Windows and a PATA drive and move onto the next socket 775 dead motherboard in the pile.
I may do some more research at one of the bios mod forums to see if anyone has this CMOS corruption message.
I have had poor dealings with Acer netbooks with respect to their BIOS having a number of bugs (not properly charging the battery, black screen of death, etc).
A huge thanks to all the regular contributors. Motherboards and its theory of operation and repairs are new to me and I'm learning a lot.
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