Hi everyone, firstly I have an old (but still very spry) AMD 850 Duron 20gHd, award Bios with XP Pro Sp1 updated to Sp2 via updates.
Well silly me was reading about overclocking (which I know nothing about), and decided to change a setting in the bios to Enable, ummm the " CPU temperature shut down" ?? not sure exactly what it was called but something very close to that. When I hit "Y Enter" the screen went black and thats how its been ever since. Ive tried tapping delete on startup and the XP CD but nothing .. just the black screen! Any sugestions on what I can try? Thanx

Ps I've since read a number of reports refering to AMD chip tempretures being misread by bios's, sounds related maybe ??

Hey BadSanta,

Welcome to PCHF. We have a wonderful team of techs here, and I feel certain that we can get that spry old PC up and kicking again.

Just for the record, Iwouldn't recommend OCing an older PC, it just wears it out faster.

OK, do you know where your CMOS battery is? If not, let me know, I'll see if I can get a shot for you; unplug the PC, remove the battery, (you might even consider getting a new one, if you haven't replaced it in a while,) give it a couple of minutes, the replace the battery.

Now plug the PC back in, and try tapping the Delete key,(I'm guessing that's how you get into your BIOS), and see if you can get it to respond.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

2 ways to fix this (that I know of)

Shutdown unplug power cord remove coin-battery on MOBO allow it to rest for a while-- might take an hour--might take overnight. Clears all settings -resets to default

Some motherboards have a jumper setting which resets all to default. see manufacturers website or MOBO manual.