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CPU is unworkable or has been changed. Please recheck - CPU SOFT MENU

79487 Views 28 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  bostontrader
When trying to boot my computer it works extremely slow, and It rarely resposes when I try to press Delete (to enter setup) or F8 to try to faormat the dard drive.

Today I managed to get a message saying what was wrong:


Main pricessor : AMD Athlon (TM) 1100 MHz
Memory testing : 524288K OK
Memort clock is : DDR 266 (Usually stops here when trying to reboot)
Primary Master : Maxtor 6Y120P0
Primary slave : ST340012A 3.19
Secondary Master : HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR 8161B 0100
Secondary slave : Asus CRW-4012A 1.0

CPU is unworkable or has been changed. Please recheck - CPU SOFT MENU

Press F1 to continues, Del to enter setup


First of all, I have no idea what all this means.
Second of all, when I try to press Del nothing happens (at least instantly) but sometimes I get to the setup menu... no idea what to do here either.

Can anyone tell me what can be wrong and how to fix it?

Info about my computer:

OS: Win XP
1,4 GHz
GeForce 4 MX440-SE
2*256 MB RAM
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in the bios set it to auto detect the cpu
thanks, but I can't find out where to go to do it... there's no place saying "automatically detect cpu", is it supposed to be in the "Advanced BIOS features"?
reset the cmos and it should default to auto detect the cpu
can you give me a detailed explatation on how to do that?
I don't have any experiece with this sort of things.
turn the computer off and remove the power lead from the power supply
move the cmos jumper from pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3 then move it back to pins 1 and 2
the jumper is next to the cmos battery,look in your manual if you are not sure
after I did that, it now says

Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor installed
CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded

what do I do now?
you have a 40 wire ide cable instead of the required 80 wire cable,replace it with an 80 wire
I've been using this computer for almost 3 years, and it has worked fine... but after I had installed windows XP for about a year ago, it often got errors and I had to re-install Xp several times during the last year... can those problems have been caused by the 40 wire? (used win 2000 befor I got XP)
you just posted this
Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor installed
CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded
I was just wondering why I suddenly need an 80 wire, when it has worked... well at least worked when I had the 40 wire IDE.
sometimes they do work for a period of time,other times they will not work at all or only boot with the widows cd in the drive
Well... I replace the 40-wire with an 80-wire, but I still get this error:

CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded

I still got some 40-wires from the cd-drive to the motherboard and from the diskette/floppy disk (not exactly sure what it's called) to the motherboard... should I get 80-wires for these as well?
try resetting the cmos again and see if it clears up the problem now you have the correct cable installed
It didn't work... still get that message.
go into the bios and check it is set to auto detect the cpu and that it is not set to manual
how do I do that?
is it in the setup menu, or is it something I have to do manually, like with the cmos?
CPU is unworkable or has been changed. Please recheck - CPU SOFT MENU
CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded
Replace the CMOS battery.

Post the brand and model data for your motherboard and power supply, it looks like the PSU is wearing down from the load you have running.

Did you clean the dust from the inside of the case?


Set BIOS for default/fail safe settings, to reset the bios.
The Checksum error - defaults loaded means that you reset the BIOS. You just need to go in there and set things.
Stu_computer said:
Replace the CMOS battery.
do you know how much a cmos battery costs?
Is that all I have to do to not get an error message?

Stu_computer said:
Post the brand and model data for your motherboard and power supply, it looks like the PSU is wearing down from the load you have running.
Motherboard: Abit KD7-E
Power supply: Q-Tec PSU 400W

Stu_computer said:
Did you clean the dust from the inside of the case?
No... what should I use to clean it with?

Stu_computer said:
Set BIOS for default/fail safe settings, to reset the bios.
Already done that... still get the error

ebackhus said:
The Checksum error - defaults loaded means that you reset the BIOS. You just need to go in there and set things.
Any suggestions on how I to do that? - What settings should I choose?
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