Computer won't boot unless CMOS cleared! HELP!

By jbarcus81
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jbarcus81

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Well I'm stumped this time. Came home and went to turn my computer on, when I hit the power button, it flickered for a split second.. then nothing. Now after some tinkering and tearing it completely apart I discovered that if I push in the "Clear CMOS" button and release, while pressing the power button almost at the same time, it will power on and boot properly. If I go into the BIOS setup and change settings to where I had then for the last 3 years, it powers down, and never comes back on.. just flickers for a second. I have no idea what is going on here.. I'm on it right now and there is no hardware issue that I can see.. HELP please.. LoL.. Here are some specs....

  Quote
ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38

Mushkin Enhanced 550250 580W ATX12V

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ (2 set's)

I think this should be sufficient to start.. any info would be very helpful!! Bad CMOS battery?!?!!!?

Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

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  On 31/12/2010 at 00:39, Flawed said:

Could be a motherboard or PSU problem. Do you have any spare parts to test with?

Have you changed the CMOS battery? It might be faulty.

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jbarcus81

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  On 31/12/2010 at 00:47, Frazell Thomas said:

Have you changed the CMOS battery? It might be faulty.

I can... as for spare parts to test I don't have anything.. it's still running and has for over an hour now with no problems.. I can restart but if I power it down, it won't come back up and will only stutter for a second... no power.. all of my indicator lights are green including the light on the PSU.......

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

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Hello,

Your initial diagnosis of the CR-2032 +3VDC coin cell not putting out enough voltage to keep the CMOS memory and Real Time Clock charged sounds spot on.

Fortunately, such batteries are available just about anywhere that sells batteries and should not cost more than $2-3.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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jbarcus81

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  On 31/12/2010 at 04:15, goretsky said:

Hello,

Your initial diagnosis of the CR-2032 +3VDC coin cell not putting out enough voltage to keep the CMOS memory and Real Time Clock charged sounds spot on.

Fortunately, such batteries are available just about anywhere that sells batteries and should not cost more than $2-3.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

I will definitely try the battery... I may also find a PSU to try as well.. just to check, but the PSU has all of it's indicator lights green, as they should be so.. I was wondering about the battery myself. I don't have any computer shops in town, at least reputable shops, so I'm stuck with either online ordering or RadioShack.. But I will look around for this battery..

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philcruicks

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Its a good place to start, but normally BIOS will tell you if the CMOS battery is dead.

If its not even getting to BIOS then it could be a fault with the Mobo/BIOS but then holding the clear CMOS button shouldn't make a difference if it was Mobo/BIOS...so I'm a little confused.

But for the price of a battery I'd deffinatly replace it as a 1st point of call.

Any shop that sells batteries should have these as well, they're not specifically for PC's so you don't have to go to a PC shop for one.

Grand Master

Detection

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A dead CMOS battery on an ASUS board - I would expect it to just lose its settings everytime you unplugged it from the wall (As happened to my ASUS board when I put the battery in upside down, thinking it was dead for a few days)

Sounds like something else.. maybe a piece of hardware is no longer able to cope with the BIOSs auto clock/voltage anymore

I would down-clock everything you can, RAM, CPU, etc in the BIOS and save those configs one at a time, then try a boot with each setting

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jbarcus81

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The thing is, once I am able to power it on, it will stay on and run just fine.. in fact last night I tried a few things, I encoded some video... zipped and unzipped large files and even played some Black Ops.. Everything went along with out a hitch.. it's just when I turn the power off, it stays off, then I have to go through the process of pressing the clear cmos botton on the back of the board, and simultaniously press the power button as soon as I let off the clear cmos button.. I did find out that there was a power surge in my neighborhood yesterday and the computer was on at the time... it's plugged into a surge bar so.. who knows..

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jbarcus81

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New battery did not fix.. maybe find a PSU tester?

  On 31/12/2010 at 14:10, Detection said:

A dead CMOS battery on an ASUS board - I would expect it to just lose its settings everytime you unplugged it from the wall (As happened to my ASUS board when I put the battery in upside down, thinking it was dead for a few days)

Sounds like something else.. maybe a piece of hardware is no longer able to cope with the BIOSs auto clock/voltage anymore

I would down-clock everything you can, RAM, CPU, etc in the BIOS and save those configs one at a time, then try a boot with each setting

All of my settings are default.. and it doesn't even attempt to post. Hit the power.. Lights, then off.. maybe for a second..

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jbarcus81

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***UPDATE***

The PSU is perfect... Everything else is in perfect working order so I'm down to my motherboard.. I think the power surge took a capacitor or two.. so I need an LGA775 board that can get me through another year or two before I do a full system upgrade.. any ideas what I can throw in there? I know LGA775 is dead but I still have a strong Intel Q660 Quad Core CPU and other components.. I searched Newegg.com and found the highest rated ATX LGA775 board to be ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 ... this has a VIA chipset and I'm not familiar with them and how they perform.. I also found the second highest rated ATX board to be MSI P43-C51 ... Any one better than the other? Any other recommendations?

Neowinian

DopeyFish

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Posted

I have the exact same issue - suspected battery as I tested and it was almost no good... But problem still persists

Maximus formula and q6600

I have a feeling it's a problem with the date now that I see someone with the same problem as me. Yes, I just registered just to reply to you - I'll find out if it's time related

edit: and I've noticed some others with related problems occur in the last week ... it sure sounds a bug in the storage and use of time settings in the CMOS. guess we'll see.

Neowinian

DopeyFish

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Definitely not what I suggested :(

ATM I don't have my hard drives in order via SATA, so when I boot up I have to clear my CMOS,start with default settings, reboot, go into setup, adjust settings and save. Every time.

I am at a loss as to the cause or the fix - sandy bridge here I come? But in all honesty it seems like a minor glitch and the system seems fine otherwise - just a nuisance

  • 4 weeks later...
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jbarcus81

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***UPDATE***

Since my last post on here, I have purchased a new motherboard and RAM ... I still have the same problem, but I don't have to reset CMOS or anything weird.. I do have to hold the power button in on the front and then release, hit again, and hope it powers. Very strange.. not sure if it's the power button on my case or my PSU, either way it just keeps getting more strange each time I power down the system. Once I get her going, she's fine. Oh well.. guess I'll live with it..

Grand Master

ozgeek

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I'm leaning towrds that the power button on the case might have gone shoddy (faulty)

Can you start the computer by shorting the power pins on the mainboard. Some manboards have emergency power and reset buttons on them that safely does this. (like my MSI P45 Platinum).

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jbarcus81

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  On 02/02/2011 at 03:33, DJDY said:

Reading this threat for the first time, I thought of a faulty power button/wire.

Check out these posts: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f76/faulty-power-switch-439011.html

I was actually thinking about just that.. if maybe it's just the power button on my case.. I'll have to dig around and see if I have another case around that everything will fit in... test this out...

Neowinian

PorkinsWingman

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I'm getting a very similar problem.

Just upgraded some RAM and the cpu in my Mum's pc and it's not booting unless I remove the CMOS battery. Then, as soon as I switch on the power on the psu box the pc boots - without me going near the nutton on the front of the case. Then if I shutdown and try to boot using the button on the front nothing happens. I'll give the screwdriver trick a go.

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