Need to clear CMOS to boot all the time ?

I came home one night and when starting to work on the computer it flashed up and said "c: drive dirty" and then advised to run chkdsk or something like that. I shut down, started it up and it started to check the files etc. It then shut down on its own, it was late so I just left it off. the next morning, when I ry to boot up - nothing. I can see all the fans start up, I can see it trying to access the HD but no post beeps and a blank screen.
I've tried booting up with:
1) no HD plugged in - no post
2) no vid card or HD - no post
3) tried another Vid card - no post
4) tried another PSU - no post
5) clear CMOS - POSTS and loads until I restart or shut down then I need to to clear CMOS again to get it up.
6) ran memtest - no errors

Motherboard is the only thing I can think of but have no idea how a messed up "c" drive would have caused that kind of damage ?

Thoughts

coincidence.

coincidence.

That and you might just need to replace your CMOS battery.

CR2032

Thanks for the suggestion .. I tried that as well.

It runs perfect once it boots up and that is what is troubling. I hate to have to replace the mobo just so that I don't have to clear CMOS, especially when I reboot so seldom anyway.
It's an old system ( S939 AGP ) so it woudl be costly to switch it over to the new PCI standard.

Any other ideas are appreciated and in the meantime I guess I'll start saving my pennies for a new system.

Flash the BIOS?

Unfortunately that didn't work either. When I am asked to restart I need to clear CMOS again to get it to boot so........

Oh well it is fate I guess ..new Mobo ..new stuff :|

Yeah it's probably just a new battery is needed.

Nope new battery didn't work ... sometimes it even freezes up now while loading windows .. MB must be toast.
Again thanks for the suggestions

Try a new power supply, it can cause the kinds of problems you're describing. Also, check the mainboard for any blown caps.

Good idea, I will try a new PSU as I would buy a new one anyway if I needed to upgrade everything.

I'll let you know ...

Have you tried looking at the jumper settings for the CMOS? Different motherboards have different options, so it could be that yours is on a setting that it has now decided it doesn't like.

Alternatively, you could just set the jumper to "reset" (often means just pulling it out entirely) and booting that way.


Oh, also search on your favorite "store" for Hiren's Boot CD (perhaps with a US keyboard patch already integrated as well). Boot to that and run some of the diagnostic programs. In the older versions of Hiren's discs, I always used to use PC Doctor, but I think there's a better program on there now. I haven't used the disc in years, but I remember it being a real gem back when I was in charge of diagnosing hardware problems. I recommend that every computer savvy individual have a copy of it.

Well I replaced the MoBo (Not easy finding a S939 socket board these days). But now it wouldn't post at all no matter what I did. I tested the harddrives, ram and graphics card in another working system and all was good.
Only the CPU and PSU left so I went and bought a new CPU and all is now fine.
No idea what happened but obviously the CPU was fried. Not sure why the old MoBo worked after clearing CMOS most times though?
I think the whole system overheated and fried a few things or degraded them to an unstable point.
I'm just happy it's up and running again with minmal cost.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas.