Thread: HELP - Boot requires F1 key press

I had that happen to my brothers computer, we ended up having to replace the battery because the BIOS wasn't holding the time and configuration, hence the error and F1 key.

What do you mean by "I can't hook up a monitor, my case is not big enough to get a cable in and I can't take the motherboard out." and "I really don't want to have to break open my case"? Did you glue your case into one big piece with no access points? And if you can't hook up a monitor how do you know to press the F1 key?

Well I have made my case out of aluminium and made it as small as possible so that it would fit underneath my seat. I don't normally have a video card in there but I can put it in if I want to. I used pot rivets to hold it together, silly really as it won't come apart, but I never intended to take it apart as it was working fine.

After a while of not getting anywhere with the error I decided to plug my normal keyboard in and press the F1 key (I assumed it was waiting for some kind of input).

Just found a web site saying it may be the battery so you were right, thanks for that. Now I have the problem in that if I replace the battery I'll have to plug a monitor in to set up the BIOS again. Doh!!!

Cheers Maveric, quick responses again as usual

Originally posted by mkkbb


Just found a web site saying it may be the battery so you were right, thanks for that. Now I have the problem in that if I replace the battery I'll have to plug a monitor in to set up the BIOS again. Doh!!!

No, you wont. The battery is already flat, which is the equivelent of no battery at all, so all you will need to do is put a new one in then press F1 the first time, which will accept the BIOS defaults. The BIOS defaults are obviously fine for you PC otherwise it wouldnt boot when you press F1.

The message will say something like "CMOS checksum error, defaults loaded. Press F1 to continue".

Ah, quality news, thanks Phil. I'll try this later on then.

I think you've just saved me cutting up my case.

You still have to open the case to install the battery, and you may need a monitor if you have specific changes needed in BIOS.

Are these Checksum errors the battery in most instances??

My SV24 gets that message at times. It has been very finiky. I am going to flash the bios to the newest one SV24 offers as its a flakey board right now. Sometimes it boots fine, others I get a check sum error.

I swapped the battery over (incidentally the top comes off the case so I did'nt need to pull it apart - then) but it made no difference.

I cut an "access panel" in the case and put a monitor on the video card. It was looking for a floppy drive. Obviously the settings would have resetted when I swapped the battery over but why would it have asked for the floppy before the battery was swapped. I had all errors turned off and the floppy disabled.

Originally posted by mkkbb
I cut an "access panel" in the case and put a monitor on the video card. It was looking for a floppy drive. Obviously the settings would have resetted when I swapped the battery over but why would it have asked for the floppy before the battery was swapped. I had all errors turned off and the floppy disabled.

It didnt have a battery in it before - yes it was physically there, but the battery was flat - the same as no battery at all.

Originally posted by nolmscheid
Are these Checksum errors the battery in most instances??

My SV24 gets that message at times. It has been very finiky. I am going to flash the bios to the newest one SV24 offers as its a flakey board right now. Sometimes it boots fine, others I get a check sum error.

Yes, since most MB`s sit in storage for some time before they are sold the battery is draining during this time. They are only supposed to last about a year anyway, so they can be pretty much dead by the time it gets in your hands. Stick a new one in!