I have had a sudden error at boot stage.
My motherboard - Gigabyte, GA-7N400 Pro 2,REV. 2 has given no problems since 2004 and thinking it may be a hard drive problem, I changed the hard drive (SATA) back to my original IDE but the same message came up - "CMOS Checksum Error, CPU was changed. Please re-set CPU info in CMOS set up". I had not made any changes so I pressed DEL to enter SETUP and found that all my settings had been changed. Are you able to say what could have caused this?

Dave

Are you able to say what could have caused this?

I happen to have the same board in my wife's machine - and have been very happy with it.

This "appears" to be a bad motherboard battery - and fortunately, one of the easy problems to fix. The problem comes from the current battery unable to hold a charge on the CMOS memory module, causing the CMOS to lose it's programming (your settings), reverting (CMOS reset) back to the factory defaults. Then upon next boot when the system does a "POST" (power-on self test), what the system finds attached does not match what it now expects to find, and you get a CMOS checksum error.

Power down AND UNPLUG the computer from the wall. Open the side of the case look inside. Note the location of the small wafer battery, about this size of a quarter. See page 8 of your manual.

Touch bare metal of the case BEFORE reaching in to discharge any destructive static in your body. Note the polarity of the battery for future reference and carefully pry out the old battery. It should be a CR2032. Go to your local battery/camera/watch counter and get a new one. They are just a couple dollars. Take the old battery with you as most of these counter recycle too.

Install the new battery but do not touch the new battery with your bare skin as oils attract dust and promote corrosion. Then immediately boot into the BIOS Setup Menu to set the date and time, and to verify your drives are properly identified, and any other custom features are set. Then Save and Exit to boot normally, and to establish and set the new checksum.

Hopefully, all should be fine. now.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have tried what you have suggested, however, I am unable to get to Windows. I had a similar problem before when I changed from an IDE drive to SATA 2 years ago. The computer just keeps going through the boot process. By the way, I am also unable to change date, time etc in the Standard CMOS features of the SETUP menu of the Award Bios. I have also noticed that just before it attempts to go to start Windows it gives a long list of System32/drivers/... What is this?
Hopefully you can throw some light on this.

Dave

By the way, I am also unable to change date, time etc in the Standard CMOS features of the SETUP menu of the Award Bios.

Why not? This is important because you must ensure the correct boot order is set.

The list of drivers is most likely the long boot process - another setting in the BIOS.

Going back to your opening post, if this error is happening before the boot process hits the drives, then you may have some RAM issues too.

What happened just prior to this sudden error? Any hardware or software changes?

After many attempts at sorting this out without success, I reverted to re-installing my original IDE drive. Re-booting was no longer a problem after minor adjustments. This leads me to ask why the SATA drive is a problem - my theory, as you have said, is the battery becoming flat resulting in all settings in the BIOS being lost. Just like when I had problems with the settings back 2 years ago, I had to change the RAID setting for SATA drive under Integrated Peripherals from the default setting to recognize the drive. I no longer have these details on what had to be changed or others. Possibly you can help me with this.

Thanks again,

Dave

You should changed the raid settings ONLY if you are using a raid configuration for 2 drives. You motherboard should be able to use a sata drive without configuring the raid settings. Can you enter the BIOS? If so I suggest that you reset it back to the manufacturer's defaults settings and go from there.

I am pleased to say I have managed to sort out the problem with the SATA drive. Gigabyte Tech eventually responded to my message and advised that I should disconnect from power and then remove the battery for a couple of minutes. Then replace it and boot and enter SETUP and go to "Load Optimized Default" settings, save settings and exit. Go to " Load Fail-safe Default" if that does not work. Well I tried it as instructed and it did not work, so I then went back to SETUP and into "Integrated Peripherals" and changed the SATA function from "Raid" to "Base", and saved the setting and everything now seems OK.
Gigabyte omitted the last part but I remembered this part from when I first installed the SATA drive back in 2006.

Thanks again for your support,

Dave

Yes it should only be set fore raid if you are using a raid system which is probably why it didn't work. I'm surprise that the optimal settings set it for a raid. I'm glad that you where able to figure it out.

I am glad too and thanks for the followup.