World Magazine 2024

ROM Checksum Error If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: Some peripheral devices and expansion cards contain executable BIOS code stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory). The ROM has a checksum value in it that is used …

A20 Line or 8042 Gate Memory Errors 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 trying to access the 21st address line, A20. This line is used to provide access to the high …

Display Switch is Set Incorrectly If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: Some older PCs (and we do mean older) have a switch on the motherboard that can be toggled between “monochrome” and “color”, instead of having a …

CMOS Display Type Mismatch If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The system has detected that the type of video card actually installed in the PC is not the same as the one you selected in the BIOS …

Error Encountered Initializing Hard Drive If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The BIOS POST process has detected a failure with one or more of the IDE/ATA hard disk drives in the system. The error appearing on the …

Keyboard Data Line Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The data line is one of the control lines between the keyboard and the keyboard controller that interfaces the keyboard to the motherboard. Early computers relied upon …

CMOS Checksum Error If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Note: Includes Checksum Error – Defaults Loaded and Checksum Failed Explanation: A checksum is an error-detecting code containing a numerical verification used to compare the BIOS settings stored in …

Memory Access Failures If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: The BIOS POST process detected a failure within the system memory. This usually means a failure of the simple memory tests performed at boot time, which generally consist …

Shadow RAM Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: Shadowing refers to the system copying the contents of ROM code into system RAM to improve performance. The error results from attempts to shadow one or more of …

Level 2 Cache Failure If you have arrived here through a search engine, and there’s no menu to the left click here! Explanation: Some BIOS’s perform tests on the level 2 or secondary cache to ensure that it is functioning correctly. If the level 2 cache in the system is …