> I recycle older computers computer to lower income
> people at little or no cost. I recently inherited an
> older CTX machine, which the BIOS seems to damaged or
> the load had been botched by the previous owner.
>
> It has the following symptoms:
>    During boot, BIOS checksum error appears.
>    Does not allow access to CMOS settings.
>    System does not boot off bootable floppy but
> continually as for one
>
> Is there any way to fix the BIOS or should I just
> chalk this one for parts?

     From what you are saying is does not sound like a failed BIOS load.
Most BIOS's use a Flash chip for storage. One of the unfortunate
consequences of Flash chip technology is that you can't change a single bit,
a whole block has to be changed at once. If there was indeed a failed BIOS
write then I would assume NOTHING would appear on the screen. Sounds more
like you have corrupted CMOS settings. Have you tried wiping the CMOS? There
is usually a jumper that allows you to do this, or another method is to
remove the onboard battery for an hour or two (unfortunately not an option
if your board uses a Real Time Clock module).

If it indeed does pan out as a corrupted BIOS there are three options.

1. Contact the manufacturer for a replacement.

2. Locate the flash chip on the board and remove it, bring it to someone
with a writer for that chip along with a copy of the BIOS from the
manufactures' website.

3. This option is the riskiest but doesn't require any fancy stuff. Locate
someone with the identical board. Borrow their BIOS chip, put it in your
system and boot to a command line. With power on, remove their chip and
install yours. Use the writing utility supplied by the manufacturer and
write the BIOS image to the chip. Power down and you should now have a
perfectly functioning board (assuming everything else on the board is
functioning!).

Hope this helped, TTYL

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