🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 26 Feb 1996 12:15:53 GMT, rpantjes@mxsb10.ms.philips.nl
(Roelof H. Pantjes) wrote:

>I have an 486 DX2/66, 256K cache, 4M ram, AMI bios. When I turn the
>system on, pressing <DEL> during the memory test should enter the CMOS
>setup. Instead, I get the following error:
>
>ON BOARD PARITY ERROR
>ADDRESS (HEX): 0000:0004
>
>What can be the reason of this error? I exchanged my RAM chips, but
>the error still occurs. Well, the error is probably not the RAM memory
>because the memory test goes well, and when I do not press <DEL> to
>enter the setup the system complains about a missing drive D: (true,
>but I can't get into the setup program to change that), and then after
>pressing <F1> to continue, the system correctly starts up.
>Can it be that my CMOS battery is getting out of power? I got the
>error "CMOS battery power low" once.
>
>Roelof
>
I ran the AMISETUP.EXE utility, corrected the drive D: setting and
saved the settings to CMOS. After rebooting, the problem was solved.
So I guess it wasn't the CMOS battery, but a wrong setting somewhere
in the CMOS, causing an illegal state that the guys at AMI did not
think off, resulting in the parity error message. A serious bug,
because, no matter how bad the CMOS is, one should always be able to
enter the bios setup!

The utility was found on ftp.cdrom.com in directory
/pub/simtel/msdos/sysutil under the name AMIS2990.ZIP.

___________________________________________________
Roelof H. Pantjes   <rpantjes@mcpvx2.ms.philips.nl>
Philips Medical Systems            Best Netherlands
Department URF                           room QM 73
Telephone                          ..-31-40-2763196
___________________________________________________