Boot problem - NVRAM? - Pri Master HDD Error

Hi folks,
I'm having some serious problems with my PC and hope one of you folks
may be able to help.

I have a pentium III 800 Mghz with a Gigabyte GA-6VX7B-4X motherboard.
Its just over 3 yrs old only by a week or so which means its out of
warranty. It is always plugged into a surge protector - so I think I
can rule out a surge causing the problem.

The error I that first appeared on bootup was

"Pri Master HDD Error
Press DEL for setup
F1 to continue"

I thought this meant my hard drive was stuffed so being
a newbie to hardware troubleshooting I went out and bought
two new hard drives. $$

Imagine the horror (with a grin/grimace for my oversight)
when in the process of setting up the new hard drives (Win 98 SE -
FDISK and FORMAT and reinstalling windows...) the
same error begins to occur again.

The problem is intermittent, but happening consistently enough to make
me want to throw the rotten thing out the window.

In the process of troubleshooting the one thing that seems connected
to the problem is in an earlier part of the boot up sequence.

When booting up ok the following appears
1. Screen 1
"NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS VGA BIOS
Version 2.15.03.01.07
Copyright (C) 1996-2000 NVidia Corp.
Copyright (C) 1998-2000 Creative Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Creative GB0010 (AGP)
32.0MB RAM"

2. Screen 2
"American Megatrends
Released: 18/03/2000
AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends
6VX7B-4X F28

Check System Health OK,
CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008
Pentium III - 800KB MHz
Checking NVRAM..
524288KB OK

Hit DEL if you want to run SETUP"

When not booting up ok, screen 1 appears the same, screen 2 appears
like the following (its not exact because at the moment its partially
working and I need to get it to come up again). What I do definately
know is different is the Checking NVRAM line, the following line is
blank when it seems to have problems. And when the "Pri Master HDD
Error" msg appears the computer gives two short beeps a pause then
one more beep.

2. Screen 2
"American Megatrends
Released: 18/03/2000
AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends
6VX7B-4X F28

Check System Health OK,
CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008
Pentium III - 800KB MHz
Checking NVRAM..

Pri Master HDD Error
Press DEL for setup
F1 to continue"

___________________________________

At this point I'm suspecting RAM or the motherboard or both.
Cant be the new drive. The intermittent occurance has me stumped - I'm
not sure what is causing it to occur....

I'm going to keep reinstalling windows and look carefully for the next
error when it occurs.

Any and all help appreciated thanks in advance! - Sparks.

P.S. Sorry if that was a bit verbose,

Anyone know what could be causing the problem with my hard drive ? How
can I fix it ? Do I need a new motherboard or BIOS update or RAM or a
battery ?

Hopefully hear for someone soon

lid (RedSparks) wrote in message ...
Hi folks,
I'm having some serious problems with my PC and hope one of you folks
may be able to help.

I have a pentium III 800 Mghz with a Gigabyte GA-6VX7B-4X motherboard.
Its just over 3 yrs old only by a week or so which means its out of
warranty. It is always plugged into a surge protector - so I think I
can rule out a surge causing the problem.

The error I that first appeared on bootup was

"Pri Master HDD Error
Press DEL for setup
F1 to continue"

I thought this meant my hard drive was stuffed so being
a newbie to hardware troubleshooting I went out and bought
two new hard drives. $$

Imagine the horror (with a grin/grimace for my oversight)
when in the process of setting up the new hard drives (Win 98 SE -
FDISK and FORMAT and reinstalling windows...) the
same error begins to occur again.

The problem is intermittent, but happening consistently enough to make
me want to throw the rotten thing out the window.

In the process of troubleshooting the one thing that seems connected
to the problem is in an earlier part of the boot up sequence.

When booting up ok the following appears
1. Screen 1
"NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS VGA BIOS
Version 2.15.03.01.07
Copyright (C) 1996-2000 NVidia Corp.
Copyright (C) 1998-2000 Creative Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Creative GB0010 (AGP)
32.0MB RAM"

2. Screen 2
"American Megatrends
Released: 18/03/2000
AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends
6VX7B-4X F28

Check System Health OK,
CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008
Pentium III - 800KB MHz
Checking NVRAM..
524288KB OK

Hit DEL if you want to run SETUP"

When not booting up ok, screen 1 appears the same, screen 2 appears
like the following (its not exact because at the moment its partially
working and I need to get it to come up again). What I do definately
know is different is the Checking NVRAM line, the following line is
blank when it seems to have problems. And when the "Pri Master HDD
Error" msg appears the computer gives two short beeps a pause then
one more beep.

2. Screen 2
"American Megatrends
Released: 18/03/2000
AMIBIOS (C) 1999 American Megatrends
6VX7B-4X F28

Check System Health OK,
CPU ID:0686 Patch ID:0008
Pentium III - 800KB MHz
Checking NVRAM..

Pri Master HDD Error
Press DEL for setup
F1 to continue"

___________________________________

At this point I'm suspecting RAM or the motherboard or both.
Cant be the new drive. The intermittent occurance has me stumped - I'm
not sure what is causing it to occur....

I'm going to keep reinstalling windows and look carefully for the next
error when it occurs.

Any and all help appreciated thanks in advance! - Sparks.

P.S. Sorry if that was a bit verbose,

Anyone know what could be causing the problem with my hard drive ? How
can I fix it ? Do I need a new motherboard or BIOS update or RAM or a
battery ?

Hopefully hear for someone soon


Hi, Jay here. Non-Volitale Random Acces Memory(NVRAM) is RAM that
stores a little bit of basic information about your system. Types of
NVRAM are Static RAM and EEPROM. It needs a battery in order to keep
a charge so that it can save your information. This is also called
your BIOS. BIOS contains information like your date and time, Boot
Order, and stuff like what is your primary master HDD. It sounds like
to me that the battery that is used to back up the NVRAM is going.
This also called your CMOS battery. It is a flat round gray battery
on the MB. You can't miss it. Try replacing this first. You can get
it at any local electronics store.