ROM Checksum Failure?

<rant>I really don't like those hypnotic "you are a winner" flashes on screens, or ads emulating error messages you have to click on, so rather than provide link, I'll clip the text, which comes from links off the link provided by war1.

Main reason is to support the above claim on bios getting to be a problem, that a flash of bios can either fix or create problem, and that this causes boot issues which may be repairable through software. I would not recommend board level repair, such as replacing chips, for the general public. There's another level of talent needed for that, and potential for causing more problems than fixes. I'd vote to either go for warranty replacement of parts, or if out of warranty, consider this an excuse for an upgrade.

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Some newer viruses, when activated, overwrite part of the BIOS code in systems that employ a flash BIOS. If the BIOS is corrupted, the system won't boot. See here for ideas on recovering from this.

I flashed my BIOS, and now the system is dead!

Explanation: The system BIOS is the key piece of software responsible for booting your PC. Incorrectly flashing it will often cause the PC to fail to boot.

Diagnosis: The cause is usually flashing the wrong BIOS image file into the BIOS chip. This happens more often than you'd think, since most flash programs are not intelligent and will allow you to program the wrong BIOS code into the chip. The BIOS corruption can also result from an error or interruption during any BIOS flashing procedure. Finally, some new viruses can corrupt the system BIOS.

Recommendation:

Some newer PCs come with a boot block feature that enables them to recover from a corrupted BIOS situation. If the BIOS code is whacked, a tiny built-in program will look on the floppy drive for the appropriate files to reload the BIOS. You should contact the manufacturer for instructions.
You can usually purchase a replacement BIOS chip from the motherboard (not BIOS) manufacturer. Physically replacing the chip with another that has the right code will solve the problem.
See this section of Wim's BIOS FAQ for other ideas on how to recover from this situation. Warning: Some of the procedures described on Wim's page are not for the faint of heart, especially hot-swapping BIOS chips, which has the (low, but non-zero) potential to cause injury or damage.

Well...as it turns out I may be able to call the distributor and get a new board for free.  That would be quite nice because the whole issue of doing it as cheaply as humanly possible would be gone, and replacing the motherboard is probably the simplest solution.  I'll get back on how that went.

I'm getting this error every time I start up.  This is a Shuttle AK35GT2 motherboard originally with the AK35S20C BIOS.  After the problem happened I upgraded to version 'G' of the BIOS but that hasn't seemed to answer the problem.

The system still lets me begin to boot but every time I do now I get a message just after it starts booting from the hard drive:
"Windows 2000 could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk.  Check boot path and disk hardware."
This problem does not come up when booting to DOS on a floppy (which I did to flash the bios).

Nothing was installed and no CMOS changes were made when the problem arose.  That leads my diagnostic instincts to believe that it has something to do with the checksum error.

Ideas anyone?

(repost of original q)

What checksum error?

If you got a checksum error while flashing a new BIOS, then yes, the motherboard is hosed until you can flash the old BIOS back.  Some let you boot from a flopy still even after checksum errors.

If your getting RAM checksum errors, that's another problem having to do with RAM.  If you are getting checksum errors while trying to save CMOS settings, that is a problem with your CMOS chip.  If you see battery low errors, could be a loose or dying battery.  But batteries down't cause checksum errors.  Dying power supplies can cause checksum errors while saving your CMOS settings.  Vary rare though.

Original error did NOT occur while flashing BIOS, as stated before.

I got the part replaced, and what happens?  Exact same problem as before.  I haven't a clue why that would be present across motherboards.

There used to be problems with BIOS corruption associated with a bad "power good" signal from the power supply.
I haven't heard of it in years.
The power good signal is produced by the power supply to let the motherboard know that the power outputs have stabilized and it's OK to start the boot process.
The power good signal is a 5V signal with very specific attack/decay properties.
If it doesn't have these properties, one of the problems was occasional BIOS corruption & [rarely] CMOS damage, among other strangness.

New motherboards use EEPROMS for the BIOS that no longer rely on the on-board battery, but, I suppose, they could still be vulnerable to the power good signal corruption
You could be looking at a defective power supply.

I actually have a known good power supply that I am swapping out as we speak.. I'll repost as to the results of this test.

Well, I swapped out power supplies, that didn't work.  After that I tried flashing the BIOS (again), and that didn't do anything either.  I'm pretty much running out of ideas.  I'll probably try swapping out CPUs because that seems like the only even vaguely reasonable explanation left.

Well, I swapped out power supplies, that didn't work.  After that I tried flashing the BIOS (again), and that didn't do anything either.  I'm pretty much running out of ideas.  I'll probably try swapping out CPUs because that seems like the only even vaguely reasonable explanation left.

Damn.
That was my last shot, too.
Keep us posted.

Well, found the problem.  Turns out that it was a ROM failure, but not of the motherboard BIOS. Actually it was a RAID controller card that failed, which was promptly replaced.  I have another problem related to the new hardware since the OS was Windows 2000, but that belongs in a different section.

didn't know you had a RAID controller card.

mike5904,
  Well, I was in the right area, ROM failure, but wrong card. Glad you got the problem fixed.

mike5904,
   If an Expert help you, please accept his/her answer and provide him with an excellent or good grade. If not, you may want to post a 0-point note in Community Support board with a link to this page to close this question and get your points back. Community Support board link is to the left of this page.

Yeah...I didn't expect it to be something like a drive controller, mainly since the error actually occurred on the same screen as the motherboard BIOS, I only discovered it out of frustration when I started removing nonessential components (network cards, individual drives, etc) to see if I could get past the BIOS check, and when I removed that card, it worked.

yes it is.

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