I am trying to get an old computer of mine to work and whenever it boots up it says CPU is unworkable please check-CPU SOFT MENU I checked that and everything looks ok so I push f1 to continue and it says PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM BOOT DISK TO CONTINUE.... I have tried to create a bootup cd-rom disk and I just cannot figure exactly how to get an iso to run correctly on a cd-rom.. please help me out with correcting this problem this computer was running fine about 3 weeks ago and now its acting like this. Please help me out.

You may need to replace the cmos battery. Once that's done go into cmos/bios setup and make sure both IDE controllers are enabled and the hard drive is properly identified.

After that it may boot OK but if not use a floppy bootdisk if you can't make a bootable cd. You can download a bootdisk file from www.bootdisk.com, among other sites.

How do i replace the cmos battery??? and i cannot make a floppy disk because the computer im on now doesnt have floppy drive. any other suggestions?

ISO is a disk image and need to be 'burnt' to CD. Also you have not stated wether the BIOS has a boot from CD Option !

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/...

I think DAVEINCAPS has the right idea. Sounds like your CMOS battery has died. The battery is a nickel sized flat silver battery that looks like an oversize watch battery. You can buy a replacement at most computer stores or at radio shack. Take care whan removing the battery you don't bend any contacts and pay attention to which side is up to maintain polarity when replacing.

A bad CMOS battery would only cause a problem if all power is killed to the PC, either by switching off the power strip or pulling the power cord from the wall.

To determine if the battery is dead boot into the BIOS screens and check the date and time. If the battery is dead the date will have reverted back to the original BIOS date.

well i checked its not the BIOS DATE and yes it is booting from cd rom although I have tried to make about 4 different disks to boot from and none of them either are made correctly or something because what i did is i downloaded win98 bootdisk then opened in 7-zip and extracted the file and burnt it to a cd... if that is how i am supposed to do it it does not work or can someone send me a step by step way to make iso disk... thanks and please keep helping me out.

How you create a bootable disk from an ISO image varies by the burner program. What program and version ore your using?

PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM BOOT DISK TO CONTINUE

This message means your computer BIOS is looking for the harddrive. Have you checked in the BIOS screens to see if the drives are proply configured? Check to verify the cabling to the drives is connected properly.

"I am trying to get an old computer of mine to work and whenever it boots up it says CPU is unworkable please check-CPU SOFT MENU I...."

Last night and today I was setting up an Abit BH6 mboard, for a friend whose mboard failed (bad capacitors), and trying a slot 1 PIII 450 and a socket 370 PIII 500E on a Gigabyte GA-6R7+ slotket card.

The BH6 mboard has "CPU SOFT MENU II" in it's bios Setup - your mboard may be an Abit mboard too.

Your message means the bios has detected the settings you are using for the cpu don't match the cpu type detected by the bios, and the bios is using default settings for the cpu type detected instead.
How did it get that way? If you didn't set the cpu settings wrong directly youself, loading bios defaults, or clearing the cmos, or flashing the bios will do that, or in some cases some bioses are very sensitive as to exactly when you press a key to get into the bios Setup, and merely doing that at what it "thinks" is the wrong time will reset your cpu settings.
You can also get the message if your mboard bios battery is too weak, or dead, or in it's socket upside down (usually + is upwards), or not making a good connection in it's socket, but in that case, the time and date would be set to defaults every time you booted the computer after having turned the computer off.
(If you DID flash the bios, you MUST load bios defaults in Setup after you flash - otherwise the settings you see in Setup may not be a match to those that go with the bios version - they may still be those for the old bios version - flashing the bios often does not load the bios defaults automatically.)

What you need to do is to go into the CPU SOFT MENU I in your bios Setup and choose the right mhz and fsb speed for your cpu from the standard choices provided, save settings, reboot.
I tried slightly overclocking the two cpus I tried, but every time I did, I got the "CPU is unworkable......." message while booting.
When I chose the standard settings, I no longer got the message.

If you're not sure which cpu you have, open up your case and use a good light to read the not so obvious grayish cpu mhz and fsb specs on the top of the slot one cpu, or if you have a slotket card with a socket 370 cpu on it, remove the fan/heatsink unit if it has a fan, or the heatsink if it doesn't, and read the same things on the cpu.
If you remove the slot 1 cpu or a slotket card, you MUST unplug the computer or otherwise remove the AC power to the computer, BEFORE you do that!
The slot 1 cpu or slotket card are often locked into the retainer brackets - see your mboard manual for how to unlock it.
Or - use the CPU ID utility available on the Intel web site.

The bios finds the correct cpu core voltage automatically.
.....

By the way, 98 and 98SE cannot run as they should unless you have at least 96mb of ram. E.g. If you have a spare ram slot space, many people who have older computers have 32mb Dram or SDram modules they aren't using and could give you - ask them.
I did some testing with Sysoft Sandra - if you have less than 96mb your hard drive cannot achieve it's max speed, and there is a lot more hard drive activity ("thrashing") accessing your virtual swap file, especially while booting.
128mb is a better minimum and works very well for most people's uses - you won't notice much difference with more than that.

I would like to comment that you should have enough RAM. I have a W98 machine with 32M and a W95 machine with 16M.

Win 95 will run well on less ram than 98 and 98SE will - 64mb is enough for 95 to run as it should.
I didn't say you can't use less ram - but you need at least 96mb to have 98 or 98SE run as it was intended to do, without it being throttled.

wizard-fred

You may have 32MB running Win98 but Win98 takes 47MB just to fully load into RAM. So you are using the swap file alot.

OK I understand the fact that I need to setup cpu soft menu, but whenever I try to save and exit when it restarts it doesnt save it just goes back to the defaults repeatedly and I am using sonic recorder to try and burn the iso images although I have no clue exactly how to burn them i just tried 4 times and they obviously didnt work please someone help me out I really need this computer fixed.

You've got a hardware problem and booting from a boot cd or floppy is not likely to tell you anything.

The cpu softmenu message may mean your cmos isn't holding the setup info which, as already mentioned, usually means a bad battery. Or it could mean the cpu is configured wrong. You may have options for both auto and manual CPU configuration. Try both.

Irrespective of that, the reason it's not booting from the hard drive is either:

1) The IDE controller it's connected to isn't enabled in cmos
2) The hard drive isn't identified properly.
3) The drive data or power cable is loose or bad.
4) The drive is bad or corrupted.

Check the posting screen when you first turn on the PC. Does it show the hard drive?

"...whenever I try to save and exit when it restarts it doesnt save it just goes back to the defaults repeatedly...."

Only one setting will work. It has to be right. If you're not sure what settings to use, see response 9 for what you need to find on the cpu, or get this - a bootable floppy version is available:
Intel® Processor Identification Utility
http://support.intel.com/support/pr...

As I said
"You can also get the message if your mboard bios battery is too weak, or dead, or in it's socket upside down (usually + is upwards), or not making a good connection in it's socket, but in that case, the time and date would be set to defaults every time you booted the computer after having turned the computer off."

If in doubt replace the battery.