Sam
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Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I'm just refurbishing a PC for a customer at the moment, one of the problems it had was that occasionally it would lose all BIOS info and the date would become something silly like 1st June 9999 
First thing I thought of was the CMOS battery is dead, I took it out and checked it with my multimeter and it seems ok - multimeter records 3.01v, similar to the spare ones I've got here.
I've cleaned the battery up and reinstalled it, battery doesn't seem loose in the holder on the motherboard.
Could there be anything else that might be causing this problem? Would it be an idea to update the BIOS to the latest firmware, or could it be something dodgy going on in the Windows installation that could reset everything in the BIOS?
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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Windows shouldn't interfear with the bios should it?
I'd upgrade firmware, but would also put a brand new battery in too, just in case.
Can you check battery voltage in your bios? Dogey connection onto the board maybe?
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Sam
Moderator
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I'll check but I don't think there was anywhere in the BIOS that reports CMOS battery voltage?
Definately will update the firmware though, just have to wait for the system to finish installing XP before I can do those bits. 
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Steve
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Registered: 30th Mar 02
Location: Worcestershire Drives: Defender
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i would try a new battery anyway regardless of what your multimeter says they are pence and iv never known it be anything other then the battery
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I checked in the BIOS after it rebooted and in the health check section there is an entry for the battery, values seem to fluctuate between 3.3v and 3.4v.
I've got some spare batteries here anyway so I probably will change it Steve.
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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I'd try another battery and invoice the customer for it. Could update the BIOS as well.
However, you're a company and i wouldn't be pissing around for hours for £50 or so, it's just not worth it.
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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Isn't there a jumper that can be set or removed to reset BIOS? Could this be at fault?
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Root
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Registered: 28th Dec 08
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First thing I thought while reading your story is battery. Then read the end of your story.
Tbh, if it's not the battery, it's more likely the hard drive, but also potentially the motherboard.
I'd try mix and match a few hardware pieces, if you have access, to pin point the problem.
We know it cannot be the gfx/RAM/PSU. I would doubt it's the mobo. I'd try a new battery, then a HDD, then a mobo, if I were in your shoes, to pin point the problem.
[Edited on 05-01-2011 by Root]
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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^ How do you get to hdd from BIOS reseting?
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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They batteries can be dead when reading 3.3v.
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
Location: Armchair
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
I'd try another battery and invoice the customer for it.
you complete tool
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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I ran some diagnostic checks on the HDD, and even wrote zeros over all the sectors before reinstalling Windows on it, no bad sectors or anything and no whining/bearing sound so I think we can rule out the HDD.
The motherboard is actually a working pull from another computer as the original board in that PC died due to blown capacitors, so we can also rule out the board too.
The Windows install on the HDD before always had random errors and never shut down properly so I suspect it went a bit tits up, but it's been working fine since I reinstalled everything.
And @ invoicing my customer for a battery 
I've said to them this morning after I've dropped it off that if it becomes dodgy again I'll just swap the whole box out with a working system I've got in stock as I'm nice like that. 
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Cavey
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Registered: 11th Nov 02
Location: Derby
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian W
Isn't there a jumper that can be set or removed to reset BIOS? Could this be at fault?
did you try the jumper?
Although, saying that, if it's only intermittent then most likely not that, would only be when the computer is off or resets etc...
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Russ
Member
Registered: 14th Mar 04
Location: Armchair
User status: Offline
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jumper usually flashes to default though, not wipes it.
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VrsTurbo
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jun 10
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Russ
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
I'd try another battery and invoice the customer for it.
you complete tool
Its how he affords to buy CTR's and scoobys!
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