bty

Gah, I hate this laptop..
I just typed out an entire summary of what was happening
and i guess i grazed the mousepad and poof gone..

anyways..

I bought a new cpu..

Right now there's a brand new mobo and cpu in this system..

ECS ELITEGROUP N2U400-A
AMD Barton XP 2800
1gb Samsung PC2700
Radeon 9600 XT
Austin 450 watt p\s

I didn't look up the beep codes there, but I called Asus tech support
they told me that it was a memory error
that it was either my processor, power supply, or ram..

well..
I bought a new processor
it still doesnt work..
I tried a spare power supply that a friend brought over like you suggested.. set it up outside of the case and everything..
it still doesnt work..
i tried reseating both sticks of my ram one at a time in every slot in both motherboards assuming that both sticks wouldn't just go dead at the same time.. then i tested them with memtest86+ and passed it over and over all night long with 0 errors...

So right now a little refresher of the problem..

"CMOS checksum error - defaults loaded"

I get this everytime i boot
I cant change any bios settings, it keeps loading the defaults..
I've tried 3 different bios batteries that I think all work
Unless I managed to kill all 3 batteries within a few months, lol..

I have the option then to go into bios or to continue to booting windows
If I try to boot into windows..
it takes me to the boot screen
normal, last known good, safe modes..
normal and last known just freeze right there..
safe mode it shows the drivers loading and then freezes at Mup.sys

Tried to boot from the xp cd to repair the file or format..
Oh yeah, I can't cause I can't set my bios to boot from a cd, how cute!
use a dos boot disk, of course i can't run the setup from dos..

so now.. I try a completely different spare hard drive with it's own seperate copy of windows on it...

I still get the same error? wow.. it froze at mup.sys too..

so i'm baffled.. what's going on?
i've completely interchanged every part that i can think of..
(except the ram, but i'm thinking it's insane for both sticks of ram to go bad at once already, and i tested it in memtest86+ and it passed with 0 errors.. and i'd really like to stop wasting money if it's not a sure fix.."
I have stil yet to try the new cpu on the old mobo
but unless anyone suggests a better idea..
then that's my project for the afternoon!

Ah.. and as far as cooling goes..
I've got Arctic Silver 5 and a Thermaltake Volcano 12 in there right now..
it's hugeeee compared to the last heatsink haha...
but, yeah.. if there was any kind of heating problem, it's not there anymore!