General

Keyboard Error If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system has detected what appears to be a failure with the keyboard. Diagnosis: Usually this is a problem with the keyboard, such as it being disconnected from the …

No Boot Device If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system has attempted to find a drive with a Boot Sector to load the operating system, but has failed to locate one. The error message itself may …

Floppy Drive Mismatch If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The BIOS’s POST sequence has detected that the actual type of floppy disk drive found in your computer does not match what what has been defined in the …

CMOS Battery Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The CMOS memory holds the BIOS settings that you define in the BIOS setup program. This memory is powered using a small battery mounted on the motherboard so …

Detected Short in Address Line If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Detected short in address line Explanation: The system has detected a short-circuit in one or more of the lines of the address bus on the motherboard. Diagnosis: …

Unexpected Interrupt in Protected Mode If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system has detected an interrupt that should not be occurring within the system. Diagnosis: This is probably either a processor or motherboard problem. Recommendation: Troubleshoot …

Fixed Disk Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system has detected a failure with one or more of the IDE/ATA hard disk drives in the system. The problem report itself may highlight a specific device …

No Boot Sector On Fixed Disk If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: After the BIOS POST process, the system found a hard disk from which to start an operating, however it couldn’t load the operating system because …

Floppy Disk (Drive) Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The BIOS POST feature has determined that one or more of the floppy disk drives in the system is failing or missing during the boot sequence. The …

Shutdown Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system is detecting a failure on the motherboard related to the shutdown or reset logic. Note: This discussion does not involve shutdown problems you may be having with …