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BIOS won't retain hard drive settings

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15 replies

by zog the mighty

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I have an ECS Elightgroup motherboard (their K7S5A model) with a 30 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM IDE hard drive. I have the BIOS flashed to the latest version. I am running a dual-boot system with Windows 2000 and Windows ME. (I have my reasons! :-] )

Whenever I power the computer on after ANY interruption of power, I have to go into the BIOS each and every time and re-declare the hard drive to the CMOS setup. If the system's running, and I reboot it without interrupting the power, it retains the settings, but takes an unusually long time to get past the part where it's finding the hard drive. I have researched this problem up one side of the web and down the other and can find nobody else that has this particular problem.

About theonly thing I can figure that it might be is my power supply... here's why: ECS recommends a 300 Watt power supply for this particular motherboard, but states that it will run at 250. I did not have a 300 W power supply available; all I had was a 250. Could this possibly be the source of my problem, or should I look elsewhere?

The drive is a master drive; there is a DVD drive on the same channel. The secondary channel has a CD Re-writeable drive on it. All of the jumpers are correct.

15 replies

by thechas

Sounds like the CMOS backup battery is either dead, or is not makeing good contact to the socket.

Is the clock keeping time?

If the clock is keeping time, then the battery is probably not at fault.
I would suspect a problem with the CMOS memory, or a related motherboard problem.

2 things to check;
Is the clear cmos jumper in the correct position?
When you flashed the BIOS, did you go through the clear CMOS procedure? If not, go through the clear CMOS procedure, or load BIOS defaults.
Shut down the system, re-boot, and then set your BIOS options as desired.
Then save and exit.
Many BIOSs act in abnormal ways after a flash. It is always a good idea to clear the CMOS settings, and start over.

After this, I would suspect a bad motherboard, or a problem with the new BIOS program.
Either way, you will need to contact ECS for resolution.

The low wattage power supply shouldn't be part of the drive settings problem.
It may however start to give you problems after a fewmonths. Especially when you are writing CDs.

by zog the mighty

Tried a new battery; no go.
Cleared CMOS and set BIOS options as desired; no go.
Looks like I'm contacting ECS....

by hinrgman

you need to check the battery on the mother board that feeds power to the CMOS memory when the power is turned offon the computer.

It sounds like the battery is dead or not seated in its socket properly. The battery looks like a size of a quarterand is located on the mother board.
good luck

by zog the mighty

Although the system is keeping good time, and retaining all other settings but this one, I went ahead and tried replacing the CMOS battery. This did not help.

by dcosgrove

if the above solutions don't help you can set the drive as user defined and skip the seaserch all together. I have seen drives which were failing to become more difficult for the bios to read. Sometimes chaging from master to cableselt will reducethis problem as well. Good luck.

by zog the mighty

It doesn't retain the hard drive no matter what method I use to set it. It keeps the DVD and CDRW drives without a hitch, but it loses the hard drive every time whether I use AUTO or User Defined.
The hard drive isn't very old (half a year or so) so I don't think it's failing.

by d_v ant

There is a jumper on the motherboard to clear the CMOS settings. This jumper is probably in the wrong position. ECS had a number of boards got out with this jumper set wrong. Look in the manual for the jumper location and proper settings.

by edsdave

In the standard cmos settings select the option to automatically detect the hard drive.

by zog the mighty

It doesn't retain the hard drive no matter what method I use to set it. It keeps the DVD and CDRW drives without a hitch, but it loses the hard drive every time whether I use AUTO or User Defined.

by zog the mighty

- the system is keeping good time, so I don't know if the battery is necessarily the problem.

I will check the CMOS jumper as suggested by rahouseholder and I will try the cable-select idea as suggested by dcosgrove. If neither of these solves the problem, then what the hell- a battery's only a couple bucks... I'll give that a shot.

Thanks for your help; I'll find out this evening if one of these helps.

by mike (from canada)

try a new battery first.
If that doesnt work, then try setting the hard drive as master on the primary channel and move the CD writer to the same channel as the hard drive and set that to slave. Put the DVD rom drive on its own channel and set it to Master.

If you have cards (like SB16 and I/O) that have IDE controller(s) on it then disable the I/O functions or remove the card.

Also try setting the devices (in the bios) to AUTO mode and have the bios detect them and their correct settings for you. Your hard drive should come with a manual specifying the correct settings or the settings should appear on the drive itself.

by zog the mighty

Tried the battery
The hard drive is already master of the CD Writer on the primary channel
No I/O controllers present
If I set if for Auto, it doesn't pick it up at all. I have to go into the BIOS every single time I power the system down and tell it that there's a hard drive there.

Unfortunately, the answers, while very good answers, haven't helped resolve this issue. As a PC Tech, I knew to try most of these solutions. Sadly, I have to assume that it's a glitch in the motherboard or hard drive. I have decided to simply live with it, and close this question, even though it's a pain in the a$$. Thanks to everyone who replied.

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