Dead battery in motherboard. Would it cause these symptoms?

[Muse]

I thought I had a dead motherboard and was pillaging the system for components and then I tested the CR2032 battery and it was 1.07v by my multimeter. Now I'm wondering if that could be the only thing wrong with the system. Before I put it back together I figured I'd check here. Here's what was going on that made me think it was a fried motherboard:

It won't boot. The minute I plug in the PSU, the system turns on. There's no video, no beep, no access to the BIOS, no response to any buttons, either on the keyboard or the power button on the machine. It does this with either of two PSUs. My conclusion is that the MB is fried. Is there another possibility?

Could a bad battery have caused those symptoms?

At the same time I took out and tested the battery I inspected the motherboard (still mounted in the case) and I see no obvious problems: no bulging capacitors, no signs of a short. Here's the thread I had a few weeks ago when I was troubleshooting the problems:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2023140

 

[Blunc]

a dead bios battery will usually only cause the system to not save bios settings and not keep time/date.

the symptoms you describe indicate a bad/shorted mobo (IMO).

 

[max347]

I doubt that it would cause it, however f there is nothing shorting the pwron header, and the system is turning on, there is obviously something wrong with the mobo

 

[HalfCrazy]

I would pull the motherboard out. Place the board on a table then temporary hook it up. Using only the basic parts of course. Just to see if the thing will post or not.

 

[mpilchfamily]

There is a good chance the PSU may be at fault here.

 

[Muse]

There is a good chance the PSU may be at fault here.

If you read the linked thread you know that one of the first things I found out about the system was that the PSU's fan had stopped. So, yes I do suspect that PSU. I replaced the fan and tried to restore the system to functionality. However, when things got to the point where nothing showed up on the monitor, no post, no beep and the PSU turned on when plugged in, not when the power button was pressed, I swapped out that PSU for another and the same conditions prevailed, so I decided whatever the shape of that PSU, it wasn't causing all the problems. Maybe I should try to post with the 2nd PSU, just in case. That is a spare PSU I have lying around.

 

[Muse]

I doubt that it would cause it, however f there is nothing shorting the pwron header, and the system is turning on, there is obviously something wrong with the mobo

This is what I figured. However, someone has said that a virtually dead battery could be the problem.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I would pull the motherboard out. Place the board on a table then temporary hook it up. Using only the basic parts of course. Just to see if the thing will post or not.

Muse, have you tried this already?

Have you also tried removing the RAM and VGA to see if you get POST errors?