Help with old pc

[Lubener]

I use an old PC to do general web surfing and run some legacy programs. I run XP pro (not concerned with security on this one),P4 processor and Intel D845BG motherboard. I removed the unused floppy and put an internal card reader in its place. The pc always want to boot off this device even though I have the hard drive set for booting.I have turned off USB booting in the bios and have the hard drive set for 1st boot device. When it hangs up before POST, I can pull off the connector for the card reader and normal boot up resumes. In windows, I can connect the card reader to use normally but have to disconnect again for a reboot. BIOS is the last one which was issued for this aging motherboard. Any suggestions?

 

[berniedd]

Maybe the CMOS battery died and the BIOS settings reset to default once power is turned off?

A redneck solution is never to turn it off. Just make it sleep when not needed.

 

[racin4ds]

When you go into BIOS, are your settings being saved? berniedd may be correct in that your CMOS battery is dead and not saving any of your settings.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Given that the motherboard is older, and given that the CMOS battery is almost certainly a garden variety (read: cheap and easily-obtainable) watch battery, it might be worth a dollar and five minutes of OP's time just to swap the darn thing out for a new one, anyhow.

I am not sure that this is your exact motherboard, but this is a 845 chipset. The CMOS battery is just below the white PCI slots:

As a temporary workaround, there is almost always a key (F9, for example) one can press during boot to "select boot device". That might save you some aggravation.

 

[Lubener]

Thanks for responding. I have replaced the c mos battery several times during its existance and currently measures 3.25v. I do save on exit and have verified that my settings are being saved but this boat anchor refuses to boot when the card reader is connected.I even expermented with changing master/slave configs with the boot hard drive w/o success.Got me stumped.

 

[slug_bug]

Is the internal card reader connected via a USB cable or the original ribbon cable that was connected to the floppy drive?

If ribbon cable, then disabling USB boot won't do anything. You would need to remove the floppy drive from the list of bootable devices.

 

[punisher]

For grins, see if there is a "Disable Bootup Floppy Seek" option you can select. Old OEM boards like that the option may not be there. I ordered one of those MOBOs from Hong Kong awhile back for a client.

 

[Lubener]

Originally Posted By: slug_bug
Is the internal card reader connected via a USB cable or the original ribbon cable that was connected to the floppy drive?

If ribbon cable, then disabling USB boot won't do anything. You would need to remove the floppy drive from the list of bootable devices.


There is a connector named "front panel control", not the ones for power switch, reset etc.It is the only way to connect.It is the one next to the battery as seen in previous post. The pins toward the front are for the front panel switch closures.