my computer keeps shutting down without notice. i'll be chatting online or typing up my homework and it will just shut off. when i boot up it either acts normal as in booting up regularly OR i get a message saying my cmos settings are wrong and on some cases it will say CMOS/GPNV CHECKSUM BAD. i cant stand this thing anymore. i tried putting in a new battery for the motherboard, that didnt help. i tried the ClearCmos thing, no help at all. im running out of options. HELP GUYS!

I'd start with the CMOS battery first. It can cause checksum errors when you boot. The battery holds all your CMOS settings while power is removed from your PC. If the battery is weak, the settings get lost every time you turn the PC off.

When you reboot, you get an error message and the default values get loaded. i had a problem similar and it turned outt hat the battery wasnt seated correctly. Also check the CMOS chip itself because on this same Biostar board the chip wasn't seated in the socket all the way. I think Fedex had a field day with my board.
Bad memory can cause this symptom. Have you changed/added any memory lately?

Clearing the CMOS is worth a try also. There should be a jumper on your motherboard to do this.

hey dude...same problem still comes up. the battery is pushed in correctly. the ClearCmos.exe doesnt do anything. i also tried switching the cmos jumpers, still no luck. its progressively getting worse and worse. i havent put new memory on my comp either.

here are my specs

MSI SIS 645 CHIPSET BASED MOTHERBOARD (645 ULTRA333)
1.7 GHz INTEL P4 PROCESSOR
40 GB SEAGATE HD
256 MB MEMORY

i think thats it, no?