Board losing time - remedies?

[Jeff H]

Guys,

I picked up a reconditioned MSI 845PE board for a P4 Northwoods I have, to be used as a second machine for internet access and email.

I did a Windows XP Pro SP2 install on it today, and all went well, with the exception of the board/system losing approx. 1 minute every 10 minutes. I've replaced the battery and did the Windows unregister/reregister time thing, but it's still losing time. I've also noticed that the BIOS changes settings (such as AC97, LAN BIOS, Serial port/parallel port, etc.) when I enter the BIOS.

Would a BIOS update potentially address this, thinking something in the BIOS is "messed up?" It has an AMI BIOS on it and the MSI website in almost cryptic in their instructions for updating. Is there any reason I couldn't simply do the update via a Win98SE bootable floppy? Any other ideas why this board is losing time?

TIA,

Jeff

Edit: This morning I remembered I omitted what could be a rather important point (I hope). I currently don't have an I/O shield installed, as the board didn't come w/ one (I knew that). The manual diagram doesn't match the actual I/O design, so the shield I picked up from a local mom & pop computer shop doesn't work. I'm currently waiting on one that I hope will fit (from all places, Intel's accessory e-shop).

Could the lack of an I/O shield have any impact on the stability (specific to this time loss issue) of the board?

 

[Conky]

That sounds crazy and I don't even know how you could fix that. I suppose you could run some sort of internet time sychronizer and have it update every 5 minutes but that doesn't address the real problem, lol.

What do used P4 boards go for on the secondary market anyway? I have an ASUS P4P800(865PE Chipset) which is still a great board. I have an Epox SiS chipset board which is pretty decent too and an Abit P4 Via chipset board which also isn't that terrible but simply old.

 

[Jeff H]

Beachboy, thanks for the reply. I'm w/ you, I don't know what to do, if there's anything to do at this point. I'm going to edit my message to include what could be a rather important point (I hope) that I omitted from my original post. That being that I currently don't have an I/O shield installed, as the board didn't come w/ one (I knew that), and the manual indicated a different design that the one I picked up at a local mom & pop computer shop. So I'm currently waiting on one that I hope will fit (from all places, Intel's accessory e-shop).

As far as what used boards go for, I picked up this MSI 845PE Neo L (6580 v5) for $27 shipped from PC Direct. They have a pretty good Resellerrattings rating so I took the chance <g>. If you're interested in selling either the 865PE or SiS boards let me know.
The board needs to support 533MHz FSB and PC2700 DDR. If this clock issue isn't fixable I'll be looking for another board. PM me and we can talk.

Jeff

 

[Jeff H]

Here's an update. I did a BIOS update (7.2 to 7.5) w/ the MSI LiveUpdate tool and the system is still losing time. FWIW this morning when I fired up the system (approx. 920a) it indicated the time was 648p Sat. That's a lot of "time" lost just overnight.

I have a hunch I simply got a bad board. I'm d/l'ing a utility recommended by a HardOCP forum member that's supposed to correct time issues. I'll let you know if it works.

Jeff

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Jeff H
Beachboy, thanks for the reply. I'm w/ you, I don't know what to do, if there's anything to do at this point. I'm going to edit my message to include what could be a rather important point (I hope) that I omitted from my original post. That being that I currently don't have an I/O shield installed, as the board didn't come w/ one (I knew that), and the manual indicated a different design that the one I picked up at a local mom & pop computer shop. So I'm currently waiting on one that I hope will fit (from all places, Intel's accessory e-shop).

As far as what used boards go for, I picked up this MSI 845PE Neo L (6580 v5) for $27 shipped from PC Direct. They have a pretty good Resellerrattings rating so I took the chance <g>. If you're interested in selling either the 865PE or SiS boards let me know.
The board needs to support 533MHz FSB and PC2700 DDR. If this clock issue isn't fixable I'll be looking for another board. PM me and we can talk.

Jeff

The I/O shield shouldn't make any difference. I don't even use them most of the time when I build a system.

And I PM'd you on my boards.

 

[lopri]

This happened to me once with A8N-SLI Premium board over 1.5 years ago. The board was horrible in many ways, when it comes to durability. I still can't figure out what exactly was going on with it, but I know what you're talking about.

 

[Jeff H]

Beachboy, I'm w/ you in that the I/O shield shouldn't make a difference. I was "hoping" that it would be something simple. I d/l'ed a utility that's supposed to keep the clock current, and that didn't work either. So, I guess I'll call PC Direct tomorrow and see if they want to do anything about it. I don't feel I can press them too hard on a recertified $26 board.

 

[Baenwort]

The only thing I can ask is are your BIOS settings staying set? I've seen a board loose time before when the CMOS battery was about to die but it was on a UPS that cut the power to it when turned off so only the CMOS battery was keeping the time. If you computer is pluged in through a normal power strip it shouldn't be a issue as the PSU should supply power to the MB all the time to maintain the clock.

 

[Jeff H]

Baenwort, the BIOS settings would stay when I shut off the machine. What was weird was when I would go into the BIOS settings to change something, then some of the settings would revert back to original values. I swapped out the battery, and it had no affect. I don't know what else to do other than go with my "hat in my hand" back to PC Direct and see if they want to do something about this.

Jeff

 

[compuwiz1]

Last time I had a mobo that lost time, I replaced the battery.

 

[LifeStealer]

Yeah thats most likely (It's what it is) whats happening,

 

[compuwiz1]

What happens, is your board can maintain time when powered up, but it is when it's shut down that the real time clock goes to sleep, or slows, if the battery is bad.

 

[Jeff H]

Guys, I replaced the battery (see original post) and that didn't make a difference. As I mentioned in subsequent posts there are other things going on, such as the BIOS changing settings that I didn't even look at, when I would enter the BIOS setup. Even the DS4 clock setting TSR didn't impact the time keeping problem w/ this board.

Jeff

 

[Jeff H]

UPDATE: I RMA'e d the board to PCDirect. They were quite nice about it (why do we expect that RMA'ing should be a hassle these days?). I checked out the battery that came w/ the board, as well as the one I replaced it with, and both checked out @ 3.1v, so the battery wasn't the issue with this time-loss thing. Hopefully the next board won't exhibit the same issue.

Jeff