I just built a computer. After many errors and weird wire mixups, I’d like to shoot myself. Does anyone know how to correct “CMOS memory wrong” and “CMOS setup wrong”? When I push the button to go to the Setup, I get weird gibberish in various characters. Can somebody help me 
Well, if a malfunctioning computer is what you REALLY want to leave as your legacy to the world, then go ahead and shoot yourself.
If you can’t sort out the computer problem, and you’re in a hurry to die, then maybe you could bake a nice cake and leave THAT as your legacy to the world. I’m thinking angel food cake.
lol… Fine, I’ll cut the melodrama. I’m just a sleep deprived college student that’s short on money and needs to finish this computer. I won’t shoot myself, but if I were going to, I’d bake banana nut bread.
Check the motherboard manual. There is probably a jumper that resets all the CMOS settings. Use it.
Next, disconnect all the non-essential components from the motherboard, including all the drives and all expansion cards except the video card. Make sure it works properly. Then add one component at a time, each time checking that the system still works.
Sounds like an overheating CPU. Insure that any protective pad or thermal gunk has been removed from the bottom of the heatsink, apply thermal paste to the CPU core, and carefully reinstall the heatsink, making sure it is seated properly. Also insure that the fan is spinning. What are the specs of the system?
Sounds to me like something wrong with your mobo. Have you tried pulling cards to see if any of them are bad? Tried yanking different RAM sticks? (Bad RAM could possibly cause this problem). Most importantly, what’s your board, and what’s your cpu? Anything else you have handy would be helpful too.
If it happens to be a K7 S5A, I’d recommend reading this forum thread, and possibly also this one.
OTOH, I now crave banana loaf at 2am, and who else is going to get me some? 
Sometimes a difficult problem has a simple solution. Try replacing the battery. This once saved me from a $2000 furnace repair bill. Who knows, maybe it’ll solve a computer problem too.
actually, this sounds like your using semi-virginal goats blood instead of pure, replace it and see what happens… 
Seriously, I have never heard of that error before but it looks like you have a corrupt BIOS. Look in your motherboard manual for a “BIOS Reset” switch. Failing that, possibly remove the CMOS battery.
Your thread title sounds like a really sweet blues song.
Built my first computer,
Now I wanna die.
Ohhh, I built my first computer,
Now I wanna die!
Damn CMOS RAM problems
Makin’ me scream an’ cry!
Gotta tear the thing down,
Go at it piece by piece.
Gotta tear it all down,
Attack it piece by piece!
See just what’s failing
As the complexity increase!
Gotta check my mobo manual
See how the jumpers lie.
Oh, gotta break out that goddamned manual
See how them jumpers lie!
'Cause maybe it’s those bastards
Making me wail and cry!
Gotta reseat the CPU’s heat sink
Make sure it don’t get too hot.
Gotta apply gunk to the processor
So’s it don’t get too hot.
'Cause if I can’t fix this problem
I may well end up shot!
Built my first computer,
Now I wanna die.
Ohhh, I built my first computer,
Now I wanna die!
Damn CMOS RAM problems
Makin’ me scream an’ cry!
– Dumb Terminal Derleth
Bwa ha! You wouldn’t be familiar with Air Farce’s blues singer Blind Willy, would you? 'cause I heard his harmonica in my head all through that.
Nanoda, no, I was thinking of Cheech & Chong’s Blind Melon Chitlins, actually.
You people ROCK… I thought a song was appropriate…
In any case, I tried to reset the jumper thingy (I’m resorting to girly computer jargon) and that wasn’t very effective. I disconnected the ram, no dice. My boards is a Socket A and I’m running an AMD Duron (1.3 Gig). There aren’t any cards really connected to th motherboard because everything that’s needed is pretty much on board (less the ram, of course).
As for the thermo grease thing, I greased the processor before I connected the heat sync/fan thingymabobber.
Well, I’m now in search of the BIOS reset switch and if not, I may try getting an additional li battery…
Can you boot to a DOS prompt at all? Try a basic DOS boot diskette. If you can get that far, you can flash the BIOS. I’ll need your BIOS ID number and version to find you the correct file. You can get that info while booting. It should appear in the lower left corner of the screen, after the memory count, assuming you have a common AMI or Award BIOS. Hit the <Pause> key to give you time to write it down exactly. I’m thinking this is a long shot, but hey, it’s worth a try.
Did you try removing the BIOS battery? If it’s a BIOS problem, removing the battery should reset it and hopefully correct the problem - of course, my computer knowledge is limited - but i did notice someone else also suggested removing the battery - after removing the battery…don’t forget to put it back hehe - you dont’ acutally need a new one…just to take the existing one out for a …well…give it a minute
you didn’t mention if you checked the CPU fan was connected to the power supply?
Also check that you’re not shorting the motherboard - it should be installed in the case chassis with the proper standoffs. If any of the electrical traces contact the case, you may run into some really odd problems like this.
Also be sure that any jumpers related to the Front Side Bus speed are set to the proper speed that is compatible with your CPU.
I just went through this crap, again, this weekend. I’m not the most careful of technicians, so I’ve developed a “crisis-mode assembly” method which works wonders for me. Maybe it will help you as well, C-Kix.
First, get a good system building guide. But don’t follow it right off the bat.
Second, work on the assumption that you’re going to screw something up. What that means is you must build a base-system which completely checks out.
This weekend I was rebuilding an old BX system, but I doubt things have changed much. A base-line system can be assembled on a desktop, sans box. Drop the motherboard down on its own static-free bag and connect only five main items:
[ul][li] Processor and heatsink/fan (and make certain this is done correctly before powering up–an Athlon chip will smoke itself in seconds if not properly cooled)[/li][li] Memory[/li][li] Video card (if not integrated)[/li][li] Power supply[/li][li] The little power-switch jumper from your case (so that you have an on/off switch)[/ul][/li]
Of course, connect your monitor and keyboard as well so that you can navigate your BIOS. This gives you a bare-bones system which allows you to evaluate any jumper and BIOS settings you need to work with.
It has been my experience that most of my mistakes are some sort of base-level screw-up among these few variables. Once you get things stable and running from there, it’s a piece of cake to add items. If you’re really paranoid, add hardware in a specific order and test with a restart each time. In the old W98 days, I went with: floppy, restart, hard drive, restart, cd-rom, restart, cd-R/dvd, restart.
DO NOT add a sound card, or a NIC, or a modem, or any other bullshit until you get the system stable and the operating system loaded. This will save you hours of heartache, as reducing the number of things Windows can screw up on its first run is essential to a stable computer.
Anyway, hope that helps. If you want a “success” story, I managed to transplant an entire W98SE-based system to a new motherboard without wiping the hard drive, which in my opinion is nothing short of miraculous. It took about five hours and at least thirty re-starts, plus a lot of creative thinking and a registry protection program, but it only cost me fifty bucks and allows me to continue saving up for the uber-sytem I plan to build exclusively for Doom III (supposedly due out in about August).
Good luck.
Oh, one other thing, and this is really important:
If you’re planning on using Windows XP, don’t do that product activation crap until every last bit of hardware is in and working. XP creates a unique identification number by reading the serial numbers of the hardware you add and running it through some funky calculation. That number changes any time you change the configuration of your system. If you activate the OS off the bat, you’ll change the number and have to go through the MS interrogation to prove you didn’t steal their software.
Try reinserting the video card. Make sure that the top of the card is parallel with the surface of the Mobo (some cases I’ve used have forced the front of the cards to be slightly higher than the rear).
If all this fails, I suspect a faulty mobo.
never mind, you did say everything was integrated…
Don’t forget to use the raisers/washers.