random CMOS clear

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kleinmeister

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I have a computer (not six months old) that is randomly clearing the CMOS for no apparent reason. Every so often, when you push the power button to turn it on, it complains about not finding a boot disk because it's set to boot from just about everthing BUT IDE0. When you restart and enter basic CMOS Setup, all 4 IDE entries are blank (default to AUTO). After auto-detecting the HDD and optical drive, and setting the boot order sequence, computer restarts and boots into Windows XP just fine.

I have used a multi-meter to check the CMOS battery voltage as well as the current drain across the circuit. All appears to be normal. Anyone have any ideas other than ditching the mobo for another one (forget that the tech is 3 years old)?

Thanks for any ideas.

Specs:
Gigabyte GA-7ZXE
AMD Duron 1Ghz
256MB PC100 SDRAM
Maxtor IDE HDD
Creative CD-RW
Older ATI AGP video card:cool:
 
sr5 said:
Are u online, do you have anti virus. Maybe u are infected?

99% chance virus has nothing to do unless it's a rare boot sector virus.

How many volts was the battery?
 
The voltage across the battery was 3.1 micro-V, current draw across the circuit was 2 micro-A when system was unplugged and 0 when power supply was plugged into the wall. I'm beginning to suspect it's the PS, because the modem (brand new) has been having problems connecting to AOL (the modem it replaced would not connect at all, but another computer at the same location connects to AOL first time, everytime). I'll have to run some tests on the PS. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm listening. :)

BTW, the antivirus is current, so I'm quite sure it's not a virus.
 
I dont think that a CMOS virus even exists :/

I would replace the CMOS battery. This problem definitely sounds like a dead battery.
 
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