Corrupt XP?, Can't open Bios Setup, MB won't update

[Mustash]

I think I have a number of issues. It looks very much like my elderly XP SP2 OS has been corrupted. My Genie BU software disappeared.

I was still able to restore from the BU disk using a util that Genie installed there. I'm not sure what to BU though.

I am unable to enter BIOS setup.

I cleared the CMOS rebooted got a CRC Bios error, Hit F! and was eventually able to boot into Windows. I updated the latest nForce 4 driVER, The latest BIOS ver & attempted to install the latest processor driver.

I uninstalled BitDefender (what a dog) MB was still singing along. A complete scan came up clean. Installed AVG Pro 9.0? got a clean scan there as well.

I had previously deleted Tuneup util 2010 but some legacy files remained including the option to boot to Tuneup Restore which saved my bacon.

Ran chkdsk \r & ended up with a boatload of chk files.

After installing AVG Pro MB loads at startup but won't do anything. After looking at this site I installed the recommended exceptions in AVG (I think) MB is still crippled. XP help files are missing and probably much more. Ran HiJackThis & have the log.

I thin the first order of business is to get into the BIOS setup and I'm stuck.

I'd like to replace this box but can't afford it right now. I won't even risk a CPU UG with the BIOS problem.

I know this is a lot to ask. Please help me!

Win XP Pro SP2 (System would never load SP3)

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium nvidia nForce4 northbridge is "Hammer"

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ "Winchester" 1.8 GHz

Maxtor SATA 1.5 250 Gig Boot Seagate SATA2 400 Gig secondary

2 Gig Kingston K PC 3200 (I think)

2 Burners 1 Floppy

ATI Radeon 7000 series GFI (SLI stopped working I don't know if its the board or the socket)

Monster Thermaltake tower with bells on.

[noknojon]

Ran chkdsk \r & ended up with a boatload of chk files.

There is a deep (most likely) mother board problem in there -

I would start replacing Ram sticks (one at a time) carefully and see if it improves anything - But it could be anything from a faulty Power supply up to a badly corrupted/faulty Motherboard -

A replacement mother board sounds like the 'logical' next step - This may be too complicated to handle without testers etc -

I would take it to a shop for testing and just get a report from them - Then decide what will be the next step -

Sorry -

[szgr]

Maybe the CMOS is corrupted for some reason.

ACTION 1

You can try to change the (round) battery on the motherboard with a new one.

ACTION 2

You can try to disconnect the hard drive from power and motherboard and then switch on pc to enter BIOS. You should be able to do this without a hard disk drive.

Are there any beeps or warnings when you turn on your PC?

[Firefox]

As you have a Maxtor hard drive, I would download and run the MaxDiag tool and make sure your hard drive is not failing.