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So my BIOS just reset itself. Should I panic?

TetraNitroCubaneTetraNitroCubane The DjinneratorAt the bottom of a bottleRegistered User regular
edited June 2008 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
Every so often when I boot my computer, it will hang before the OS loads. Usually I just reset the thing, and then it starts up fine. It hadn't happened for a long while until this morning, only this time, when I reset the machine, suddenly my BIOS said it wasn't set up properly.

Turns out that it had somehow been set back to default overnight. That's really weird, to me. I managed to reset all the settings and get it to boot fine, but I'm wondering what the hell happened. Is this a cause for panic? I'm running an Asus P5K (vanilla) motherboard, and using a Corsair 620 W PSU.

Thanks in advance for any help.

TetraNitroCubane on

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    fightinfilipinofightinfilipino Angry as Hell #BLMRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    how old's the board? it's possible your CMOS battery has run out of juice. you can try replacing the battery and seeing if your BIOS settings stick.

    are you trying to overclock anything?

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    TetraNitroCubaneTetraNitroCubane The Djinnerator At the bottom of a bottleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    fightinfilipino wrote: »
    how old's the board? it's possible your CMOS battery has run out of juice. you can try replacing the battery and seeing if your BIOS settings stick.

    are you trying to overclock anything?

    The board is less than a year old, but I suppose the battery could've died regardless. I'm not overclocking anything at all... mostly out of fear of screwing things up. But apparently I didn't need the help from overclocking to do that!

    Is there any way to tell what size battery to buy, short of yanking out the one in my case and bringing it to the store? The manual is pathetic for this motherboard, and I can't find any information about the battery in there.

    EDIT: Oh, I should note something else, too. Even though all of my settings were cleared when the BIOS reset, the date and time were preserved perfectly. I'm not sure what to make of that, but battery failures I've seen in the past usually clear the clock and calendar.

    TetraNitroCubane on
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    ArcticMonkeyArcticMonkey Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Every battery I have pulled out of old motherboards have been CR2032s.
    So if it looks like its 20mm in diameter and 3.2mm in height thats what you want.

    ArcticMonkey on
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    adamadam Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    How much ram are you using? If you get more ram it might not load so slow. Propably reseting it too many times is what caused the BIOS to reset itself, just for caution.

    adam on
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    TetraNitroCubaneTetraNitroCubane The Djinnerator At the bottom of a bottleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    adam wrote: »
    How much ram are you using? If you get more ram it might not load so slow. Propably reseting it too many times is what caused the BIOS to reset itself, just for caution.

    It doesn't load slow at all. I've got 2 GB of RAM, but when the computer starts up, it starts up in <20 sec. If it takes more than 1 min, I know it's not going to load the OS and I reboot. This happens at max once a month.

    After a full night powered down, it kept my BIOS settings, though. I'm inclined to agree with the assessment that the reboot during the hang was the problematic culprit. But I'm buying a CR2032 just in case.

    Thanks for the heads up on that one, ArcticMonkey.

    TetraNitroCubane on
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    mazelonmazelon Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Doesn't sound like a battery issue to me. After all if you PC is off and still plugged into the wall it is not using the CMOS battery. Unless of course the power went out.

    I have seen a Bios reset itself in the past but not very often. Check you MB website and see if there is a upgraded bios. If so it might have a fix to the problem.

    mazelon on
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