On Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:24:14 -0500, John Dulak <Johnd@Booogus.com> wrote:

>Group:
>
>I am getting an error on starting a Tecra 9000 that had been working 
>well for years but gets only light use. I shut the system down 
>compleatly - not "Hibernat" or "Standby" but OFF. When I went to 
>restart it I get:
>
>1.) A normal Toshiba logo screen with a message "press F12 for boot 
>device selection".
>
>2.) A normal black and white screen with the message "starting 
>Windows" and a progress bar.
>
>3.) The normal color Microsoft Windows 2000 Pro screen with a progress 
>bar.
>
>4.) A low res blue screen with the message:
>*** Hardware Malfunction
>Call your hardware vendor for support
>NMI: Channel Check / IOCHK
>*** The system has halted ***
>
>
>Does anyone know if this message is generated by Windows or some 
>onboard diagnostic. Even better would be WHAT hardware component to 
>look at.
>
>If I try to boot into safe mode via the F8 key I get either "IO Error" 
>or the F8 selection menu is partly overwritten with what appears to be 
>  an error message that includes a bunch of Hex values.
>
>I've also tried starting without the CD drive installed and on AC only 
>with no battery. The results are still the same.
>
>John Dulak
Your BIOS battery may have gone bad over the years  (W2k implies a fairly old
model) of low use and your BIOS settings scrambled.
At boot, press F2 when given the  F2, F12 choice.

Check the clock, ca lender: if it is really wrong, that is a good clue the
battery is weak. Correct that and check other settings(Disk...) or restore to
setup defaults (F9)
F10 (Save and Exit)


BTW My old Satelite ha3 THREE batteries.
The External access one you think about :)
BIOS that most PC's have and a Internal "Keep Alive" that allows the external
one  to be changed out (if you carry a spare) with stuff in memory.
The last 2 require Factory trained replacement as they require disassembly.