Re: asus a7n8x- deluxe cmos ram failure

In article <glasshopper.1ywn1b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, glasshopper
<glasshopper.1ywn1b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi I have been having real headaches with a relatively new machine
> after making osme hardware changes.
>
> I tried everything and kept getting stop errors and failure to detect
> ide drives on boot etc etc, even upgraded the bios to a latest version
> and bought a new Seagate drive for testing. I was starting to pull my
> hair out.
>
> So I stripped the machine down - removed the mother board cleaned it
> and checked all expansion slots for cleanliness and nothing was
> scratched or shorting.
>
> Put the board back in with a graphics card: matrox millenium g400 Dual
> Head AGP and a floppy drive, original stick of kingmax ddr400 pc-32000
> ram @ 512mb
>
> I booted to dos 6.22 and ran a low level hardware test.
> On the motherboard test I get the following errors:
> System Timer : FAILED
> CMOS RAM : FAILED
> Battery Check : FAILED
> Clock Ticking : FAILED
> Alarm : FAILED
>
> Is it possible that just switching out the CMOS battery would fix this
> or is it a case of replace the BIOS [time consuming and costly] or just
> the motherboard [much easier].
>
> Incidentally the CMOS seems to hold all the BIOS settings adequately so
> I am inclined to think it is the BIOS itself that is the problem.
>
> Can a BIOS be reseated carefully?
> Will this solve issues like this?
>
> Look forward to any thoughts on this.
> Cheers. GH.-- glasshopper

How do you know that the DOS 6.22 boot disk plus test program are
compatible with the chipset ? Maybe your test program doesn't work
on a known good A7N8X board either ?

I think I would start again with the symptoms of the problem.
"After making some hardware changes" - elaborate on what exactly
you did, to get to your current state. What are the exact
error messages you are seeing ?

Failure to detect IDE drives, could be a chipset issue, a bad
cable, or a bad drive. A weak power supply could contribute to
a drive not responding to probes from the motherboard. If you
can get into the BIOS, have a look at the hardware monitor
page, and see if the voltages are within 5% of their normal
values. The A7N8X draws a lot of current from +5V, so finding
the +5V output reading a bit low is OK. If it was 10% low,
I'd be concerned.

As for the BIOS chip, remember it is protected by a checksum,
and if the processor was having trouble reading the BIOS, you
would get a checksum error early in the POST when you start
the machine. You can kinda tell the CMOS is working, if your
settings are being maintained in the BIOS setup screens, from
one startup of the computer, to the next.

If a computer is able to boot, but exhibits a bit of flakyness,
I would think a hell of a lot of the hardware is actually working.
Only some tiny thing is broken, if at all. If you had any sort of
major subsystem failure, there would likely be nothing printed
on the screen, and no booting to DOS etc. For example, to boot
DOS, the CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, SuperI/O, memory, BIOS
chip, video card, are all involved. (Things not covered, would
be the hard drive, and a lot of unused peripheral chips.) Just
getting the DOS prompt, is already a major achievement.

If you have any concrete evidence it is a motherboard problem,
then get it repaired under RMA. I don't recommend any kind of
home cleaning process, because virtually any chemicals you have
access to, will leave more residue behind than was there in the
first place. Using compressed air can cause harmful static
discharge into components on the board, and I shudder every
time I read an account of somebodies adventures with a can
of "dustoff".

Paul
.

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