CMOS Battery is dead?

[cbrunny]

Here is my predicament:

I have a K8N Neo4 PLatinum PCB 1.0 (nVidia chipset) mainboard running the BIOS it came with. I have had it for 3 years now, and have not experienced any problems with it until today. I went to turn it on this morning, and while it did power on, there was no boot sequence whatsoever. Not even the cpu beeps happened, and no boot-check to my floppy or cd-rom drives.

I tried numerous things already. I have reset the CMOS with the reset button, I have taken the battery out for 20 minutes, and have tried every hardware configuration possible, including no hardware at all.

Then I discovered a handy thing in my mobo's box called a D-bracket, which plugs into the mainboard and through a series of 16 led-light configurations tells me what the problem is. Just as I suspected, it is giving me a BIOS error. Specifically, the error in the manual which corresponds to the light pattern states "BIOS Sign On - This will start showing information about logo, processor brand name, etc.."

To me, it seems I need to flash my BIOS to update and reset it, however, I am not sure I can do that with my computer in a completely non-responsive state. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Harvey]

Two methods:

1. When all else fails, check the manual for your board to locate the jumper that does it. It's probably the three pin header closest to the battery. Move the jumper from the normal operating position to the unused position for about fifteen seconds or more. Then move it back. For example:

Move it from this position: [x x=x]

to this position: [x=x x]

2. Remove the battery, and short across the battery terminals for fifteen seconds. Then, replace the battery.

The jumper just shorts across the battery.

 

[cbrunny]

My mobo doesn't have a jumper, instead it has a Clear CMOS button. I have tried this, but with no luck. Is this the same thing/does it perform the same function?

 

[cbrunny]

fixed it. not sure what the actual problem was, but it is running stable now.. thanks for your help

 

[lenjack]

Mysterious are the ways of the computer!

 

[cbrunny]

ok, so now it is no longer functioning properly. same thing as before. I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. I have a d-bracket, but every now and then it give me different errors... any suggestions?

 

[cbrunny]

Does it make sense that my CMOS battery is dead? My Mobo does not have a jumper for CMOS reset, only the button. If the battery was dead, would that cause the same effect as if trying to start a computer with a jumper set to reset the bios? Seems to me that it is consistently shorting the BIOS, which means it cannot load properly. true say?