Author: Stephen Ham
Date: 13:27:13 12/29/04
Dear Readers, I posted here a few days ago about a problem that initially paralleled the problems that others with J9 reported. Namely, my computer displayed error messages about "program 8", and generated emails automatically to ChessBase. Again, I don't have J9 (it's on order), but was in S8 setting up a tournament. Within minutes after that, my computer locked up, and then refused to reboot. http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?402964 Since then, I looked up in Google the "BIOS ERROR checksum error" comment that appeared on my screen when I tried to reboot. Generally that's caused by a faulty motherboard. Many helpful readers here (Thanks guys!) advised that I should try to reboot with either a floppy disk, or with my Windows XP CD. Both failed. So I called a friend who's a hardware expert. He said something about shorting out the jumper on my motherboard as a possible solution. But shorting anything out on my computer sounded scary to me. Heck, I'm petrified at the thought of even opening my computer up, since I;m a computer dummy. I called the manufacturer this morning. He suspected that the battery on my motherboard was faulty. So he had me remove it. That didn't help. We tried many other things, none of which helped. Then he said that my BIOS was somehow erased. So I downloaded his BIOS from another computer onto a floppy disc, and we tried to boot up from that. But, the computer wouldn't take the new BIOS. He'd never seen a BIOS reject a new BIOS program before. Just before giving up completely, he said he may need to send me a whole new BIOS physically. I'd need to remove my old unit on the motherboard and plug in the new one. But he worries, since I'd have to remove cards and might break something. So he had me reconnect everything that he'd earlier asked me to disconnect. Being afraid of all things electrical, I reminded him that my computer is still connected to the power cord and my machine is still on. He said, "No problem. Begin by pluging the power cords back into your hard-drive. As soon as I touched that cord the the HD, there was a spark and I got electrocuted for a nonosecond. But before I could panic about my health, the computer rebooted and suddenly downloaded the new BIOS!!! I then rebooted the computer. It worked! I then went to SYSTEM RESTORE and picked a safe date. Now it appears that my computer is as good as ever! The service guy on the phone was mystified. I asked how my BIOS both got erased and then refused to accept the downloaded BIOS from the floppy. He speculated that I got some bad virus from somebody which erased my BIOS and refused to accept a new one. I assured him that my McAfee detected nothing, claiming my computer to be 100% clean. However, just prior to my crash, A Polish opponent sent me something in Polish with links, which I assumed would lead me to an electronic Xmas card. It lead me instead to some Catholic Church stuff, all in Polish. Was it a coincidence thatmy computer began to act strangely after that? Long story short, it seems that my computer is OK now. I'll examine it in greater detail tonight to check matters out. But I thought you may be amused that my electrocution and the power surge through the computer seems to have fixed the problem. To me, this makes as much sense as beating a machine with a wrench when it's not working. All the best, Stephen
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