# Solved: Still "Checking NVRAM"...



## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

Ok, I recently booted up my computer, after a couple months of being turned off. When I turned it on the first time it worked, and botted fine. then i shut off my computer and when I came back and turned it on, my system hung at "checking NVRAM". I left it for a while but when i came back, it was still in the same place. I was wondering what caused this and how I could fix it. If you need any more info, just tell me.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

ok i figured this out. I just switched the IDE cables, and it worked, but now I have another problem: none of my drives are being detected in my BIOS. can anyone help me with this?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Check the cables again.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

that was my first idea, so i tried that, and it still doesn't detect them. I tried it with different cables too, and that also didn't work.


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## Rumpo-Stiltskin (May 9, 2006)

Popular suggestion today.......
You should change the motherboard battery.
It'll be drained after refreshing the CMOS for all that time without mains power.

Not saying that it's a solution to the primary problem you're experiencing.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

yeah i just cleared the CMOS and it says that the battery is low, so i probably should change it


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Even without a cmos battery, with the computer powered up, the bios should still see the hard drives........it will just 'forget' them after a shutdown....and lose time and date.....but, still should function normally without one.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

oh.


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## MysticEyes (Mar 30, 2002)

Try re-seating the memory and running a memtest.

http://www.memtest86.com/


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

ok. 

This is just a hunch, but do you think that upgrading the BIOS would solve the problem?


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## Rumpo-Stiltskin (May 9, 2006)

No reason why it should.
BIOS updates are generally to make corrections or add vital functionality, but not to cure running problems.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

oh. wasn't sure about that.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

And just to back up what was said with the bios update....NEVER do one that doesn't address your specific problem. 

The newest isn't always the 'bestest'


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

Yeah i wasn't planning on performing one, i was just curious about whether it would do me any good or not


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

on average, how long does a meory test take, and will it stop on its own? ive been running one on my computer for over 16 hours now and i havent got any errors


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## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

I'd say you have checked it out thoroughly with 16 hours of running.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

ok, so there were no errors found during my test, and i still can't detect the IDE devices. anything else i should do?


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## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

Try new ribbon cables, check your bios to make sure everything is enabled, make sure you have power to all the drives, finally, get a new mobo.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

I tried different ribbon cables already, but ill try them again, also, i never thought about checking the power for them, so im gunna try that also.

What hsould be enabled in my BIOS? (I have AMIBIOS) from like 2001

I hope i don't need to buy a new motherboard, because I'm really short on money and don't have a very stable income (I'm only 14, of course)


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## Skivvywaver (Mar 18, 2001)

Power to the drives comes from molex connectors most likely on a 2001 bios.

It is really sounding like a bad drive or a bad motherboard if the machine isn't detecting drives. Try unhooking one drive at a time.


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

yeah i tried that, and i hang at the "Checking NVRAM" thing.

and if i don't use specific IDE cables, I hang at the NVRAM thing. (which i think is really weird)


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Is there more than one drive? If so, connect only the master boot drive, then restart and go into the bios setup again to check.


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## MysticEyes (Mar 30, 2002)

almightybob7 said:


> on average, how long does a meory test take, and will it stop on its own? ive been running one on my computer for over 16 hours now and i havent got any errors


That's fine, you can rule out memory as a cause.

Some similiar posts from here.

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-n...-checking-nvram.html?highlight=Checking+NVRAM

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/178106-solved-pc-not-running-up.html?highlight=Checking+NVRAM

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/452910-computer-freezes-after-post.html?highlight=Checking+NVRAM

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any easy fix, here's some Google results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=chec...ient=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Actually, I've had memory run through the test many times, and upon replacing it, the machine ran fine 

I'm not too sure I'd rely solely on that testing


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

You need to replace the CMOS battery. While it is true that most newer boards will still boot up with a dead battery, some older boards will not. I have a couple of old DELL machines here that absolutely will hang up with the battery dead or removed. I suggest you invest the $3.00 or so in a new battery a give it a shot. I have also seen strange things like this happen with the keyboard or mouse being loose or not fully inserted.

Good luck.

Kilowatt


 I'll sit back now and wait on Candy to give me a tongue lashing about the CMOS battery issue.


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## Rumpo-Stiltskin (May 9, 2006)

kilowatt1 said:


> I'll sit back now and wait on Candy to give me a tongue lashing about the CMOS battery issue.


 Ooooh!!
Me next!


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

I think i've made a step in the right direction... 

I disconnected my slave HD, and my master and slave disc drives, leaving my master HD the only one connected. I booted, got into bios and it detected my master hard drive. finally!

but how do i get the other ones to be detected?


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

oh, just hooked up my slave HD, and that works!

that leaves only the 2 disc drives.

I noticed that when i turn on my computer with the disc drives unplugged, the master disc drive powers on and opens and stuff, but when i try to power on with them plugged in, the disc drive doesn't work.


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## kilowatt1 (Oct 27, 2001)

If you are sure that the IDE cables are good then recheck the BIOS settings to be sure that the Primary Master/Slave and the Secondary Master/Slave are all set to "Auto". Also there is probably a second setting somewhere in the BIOS that allows you to enable or disable one or both of the IDE channels. This would explain why the Primary IDE channel is working but not the Secondary IDE channel. My guess is that the default BIOS settings enables only the Primary channel and when the battery died or got too weak, the BIOS reverted back to the default values.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

kilowatt1 said:


> I'll sit back now and wait on Candy to give me a tongue lashing about the CMOS battery issue.


Good to know  Thanks :up: I guess I've never tested an older one for that theory  Or the 'right' older one


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

oh i got them to work.

i tried different IDE cables and now they work

But when i boot up my system to windows xp i get past the loading screen and i get stuck at a blank blue screen where the login screen should be

any solution to this?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

You might have to do a repair installation. Can you get into safe mode using the F8 key upon bootup?


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## daddyhominum (Dec 2, 2005)

almightybob7 said:


> oh i got them to work.
> 
> i tried different IDE cables and now they work
> 
> ...


The cables are 40 pin, 80 connector, ?


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

yeah, they're both 40 pin, 80 connector


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

ok i just figured it out. i just pressed ctrl+alt+delete and a login form came up. now i can get back into windows.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Do you have to do that all of the time?


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## almightybob7 (Apr 7, 2005)

no, just that once. when i got back into windows, it said that my video drivers had become uninstalled somehow. I just reinstalled them and things worked fine again.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Great, thanks for the following up.


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