Boot order randomly changes?

[bevills1]

The boot order randomly changes in the BIOS on a MSI K8T Neo-V motherboard with VIA chipset. All drives currently in the system are PATA drives if that matters. It stays to what I set it for a few restarts and then changes at random. Is this likely a motherboard problem, or could it be the battery or something else?

There are no other problems with the PC with stability, keeping time or anything else, and I can change boot order as needed in order to boot to CD, floppy, etc. It's just annoying to have to reset the boot order which shouldn't be necessary if the BIOS kept it correctly.

[filmboss80]

If it's not a bad bios battery (this would also cause date and time to be incorrect), the mobo firmware might be the culprit.

Search for info from the website of your mobo's manufacturer. There might be a bios update.

[CobraPilot]

I had a similar problem . . . even after replacing the CMOS battery (circular button-type).

Reason: Not a bad battery, but poor connection of the battery hold-down clip. It wasn't making steady contact with the battery, so the circuit was often interrupted, causing me to lose my CMOS settings with regard to boot order.

I carefully bent the clip so it would make constant contact: End of problem.

Maybe you'll be as lucky!

[redwudz]

I'd guess corrupted BIOS. You might try pulling the BIOS battery with the PC unplugged for about five minutes and then putting it back in. That should reset it to default. You will lose any custom BIOS settings, so you might want to write them down first. You could replace the battery at the same time if you like. They are fairly common to find in Walmart or other chain stores. Don't forget to reset the clock.

If no help there, try updating the BIOS and see if that fixes it. If no luck, make sure all your PATA drive jumpers are set correctly. I've seen odd problems with boot from that at times. Check the IDE cables condition also and make sure they are firmly plugged in and not damaged.