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CMOS Battery and PSU Relation ?

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inwell

Registered
Joined
Nov 24, 2012
Hello,

I was just curious that what is the relation between CMOS battery and PSU ?
My working PC suddenly refused to start/power up. (PSU fan not spinning too)
I thought it was bad PSU so i removed connectors from MOBO and tried starting the PSU with paper clip..that worked(PSU started with fan spinning). So i cleaned the connectors for dust and re connected them (all the connectors) but no luck..tried powering on using paperclip on MOBO instead of Cabinet SWITCH....same problem continued.

But when i removed the CMOS battery and placed that gain,system started as it should be and in no time i was up with Windows...

So i was not getting this logic ..please somebody clear my doubts...

(most of the times bad cmos battery throw error on POST or always load defaults..but it wont stop PC/PSU from starting ..? )

regards

MOBO-ASUS A8R-MVP
PRO- Athlon 64bit
RAM-4GB(2x2)
PSU-450 Watt (Brand Not Known)
 
Hey!

:welcome: to OCF!

It indeed sounds a little weird but my first thought would be static electricity.
It can prevent a PC to boot up, and MB will be uncharged if the CMOS battery is removed and the PC asked to boot (you create a physical contact between the case which is grounded and your MB while pressing the ON button. And the MB won't charge itself without CMOS battery).
 
Hey!

(you create a physical contact between the case which is grounded and your MB while pressing the ON button. And the MB won't charge itself without CMOS battery).

yeh... and one more thing... PC works great for months after this procedure is followed..and suddenly one morning it will refuse to power up...

so what you suggest me to do ? and how should i do that ?

best wishes
 
I traditionnaly don't touch to the CMOS battery.
To discharge the components from all the remaining static electricity, it is sufficient and efficient just to unplug the PSU from the wall, put the PSU on "off" then press the start button of the case during 30 seconds or so (it doesn't boot of course ;) ) then release it. Plug everything in again, your components are "clean".
Dust can sometimes have very negative effects since dust particles have a small size and very easily charge. This charge can be brought to the components even if the PC off.

So dust and static electricity have to be removed (you're allowed to say "thx, captain obvious" :D).
I personnaly do it every week: I unplug, discharge, clean the dust, and restart. It takes only 5 minutes or so every week, but I am never worried with a PC "refusing to power up" :)
 
fornoob

when my PC assembler takes my home PC to his workshop,it takes 30 mins. so i m pretty sure about the static charge discharge isn't the issue....

i know this is not a big problem but i m wondering about the logic behind such weird problems...

thanks any way..

best wishes
 
How often do you clean your home PC or send it to your PC assembler?
Cleaning one week dust and 6 months dust doesn't take the same amount of time ;)

I don't KNOW if static charge discharge is the issue or not, but it seems a possible option to me...
An other solution who might be possible would be an error in your BIOS (corrupted save, etc...) and this BIOS wouldn't allow you to boot.
Taking the CMOS battery resets the BIOS to 0 so any kind of error is deleted (except those already present in the default state of the BIOS).
It would be an other explanation... but I am not really convinced either! :)
 
i clean my pc once in 15 days... for dust...

lets wait and look for any other explanation to this weird problem if we get..(me too not convinced with CMOS battery and BIOS errors relation to PSU..as i said same cmos and bios settings work fine for months after that.. :D )

regards
 
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