Motherboard Of A Problem
Newcastle Herald
Monday May 12, 2003
Q: I have a 10-years old ASI computer. It uses MSDOS 3.1. The C: drive has material on it I would like to access.
Recently on starting up, after the initial recognition of the A and B drives, it announced ``1701(04) ROM BASIC ERROR SYSTEM HALTED". Can I do anything?
A: Happily, it still may well be possible to recover data from your computer. The ROM error is most likely to indicate a problem with the BIOS on the motherboard.
Essentially, this is the part of a computer that keeps track of the date and time, the number and type of hard drives your computer has and other details.
If your computer has not been used for some time, it may well be the problem is simply caused by a flat $3 battery on the motherboard. You needn't bother replacing the battery unless you do want to use the computer again, regularly.
However, what you will need to do is get into your computer's BIOS to re-set things up. This usually means you need to hold down the DEL key while turning the computer on. Perhaps your computer flashes a message ``Press ALT+S to enter SETUP" or words to this effect. Hopefully, you can determine the right key combination for your computer, but DEL is most common.
If you see a menu then this means the BIOS is still functional. Unfortunately, the hard part will be trying to get it to recognise your hard drive, because it will have lost its settings.
All modern motherboards can auto-detect the type of hard drive they are connected to, but I suspect yours will require manual configuration.
At worst, the details you need should be recorded on a label on the hard disk itself, should you be comfortable taking the computer apart.
If you can't get into the BIOS menu, another option you have is to simply remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer.
Any modern computer shouldn't have problems detecting the capacity of the hard drive, and using it.
You can then boot the computer into whatever operating system it uses, and inspect the contents of the hard drive, opening and copying files as desired.
David Williams is the national IT manager for Advantage Personnel. Send questions to dwilliams@advantagepersonnel.com.au.
© 2003 Newcastle Herald
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