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Loss of CMOS settings, what did I miss?


Marc_G

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Hi folks,

 

I've retired a computer from 2008, but it always bugged me that I never figured out what was wrong with it. Maybe one of you can help me put the issue to rest.

 

It was based around an AMD Phenom 4 core processor, not sure the original variant... it was in a Gateway box, pretty beefy for its day.

 

After 5-6 years, it had trouble starting. As in, in the rare case where power was lost, or if I shut it down all the way, it would become largely non-responsive to the power button. Unplugging/replugging various things would eventually get it going. But, more likely than not, it would have lost its BIOS settings.

 

So, I figured it was the CMOS battery, and replaced it, verifying it was a good battery I was using, and that the battery was making contact with the terminals (tested with a multimeter). No joy.  I tried an alternative power supply in the box, no joy.

 

Eventually I retired the computer (after about a year of this fussing around), figuring something strange was wrong with the mother board.  A year later I pulled the processor out of it, and put it in a motherboard I got off of eBay. I put a brand new CMOS battery in that "new" board, but I had the same problem: often, not always, when power was removed from the system, it would lose all of its CMOS settings.

 

It's certainly possible that two boards, both "old" by this time, could have some fault, but it just doesn't add up to me. It's like the problem followed the CPU.

 

That computer / processor has been permanently retired now, but this quandary still tasks me now and then. What might I have missed?

 

Marc

Edited by Marc_G
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That's what I figured, Thanks. I just couldn't figure out how a failing processor would have this specific failure mode. It's just a curiosity at this point since I've retired that PC permanently.

Edited by Marc_G
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PenkethBoy

When i tried Xpenology on a couple of completely different m/b cpu/ ram combo - it would randomly nuke all the bios settings on shutdown - known Xpenology bug!!

 

So it could have been something else.... Think in this case it was a fault with the grub bootloader IIRC

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Swynol

i have seen faulty capacitors on the mobo do this. any of them swollen? very common on Dell machines that the caps swell or split. usual signs are that after powering off it wouldnt power back on straight away. Sometimes i would have to discharge all other caps before powering back up. This coupled with a failing bios battery would usually mean all settings would be lost as the bios battery and the power caps couldnt hold a charge to retain the settings

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This is a really interesting idea! I Will check both mobos for this. One was original Gateway (foxcon?) and the second was an MSI board. Both were of similar age so could have been prone to this.

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