Need to reset CMOS on every power-up

[Jenesis]

To get my PC to start, I have to reset the CMOS using the button on the motherboard. The board is an MSI K9N Diamond.

If I don't reset, when I power on, the monitor stays black (says "no signal" on monitor). I've tried resetting 3 times in a row and all the rest, and the only way to get the thing to start is to press the Reset CMOS button.

Before you all tell me to update/flash my BIOS, I can't. I'd dearly love to, but I don't have a floppy drive. I have a USB external one but I can't use it for flashing as it reads as a "USB Mass Storage Device" in the BIOS (it works fine in Windows) and can't be used as a boot device.

I recently installed two new hard drives and some more RAM, however it does not seem to be the drives causing the problem as I installed those first and it booted fine. I can't remember if it started immediately after installing new RAM or not.

 

[Mussels]

you can do it from CD. I used a bootable dos CD to flash my GT in my mini system, and it has no floppy either - burn the CD off on one disc, and the bios files on another. boot to 'free dos' then swap CD's... and your tools are all there ready to go.

The only things i can think of here - your defaults are bad. turn voltages up after a reset. (CPU NB and ram) and manually set the ram timings. You are mixing kingston and corsair, so manually set the timings to whatever the slowest stick is (you can read these values with the program CPU-Z if need be)

The only other option is that your CMOS battery is flat. it does happen...

feel free to PM or IM me if you need more help, theres quite a few things to check with this one.

 

[btarunr]

Replace your CMOS battery. Ensure you have stable voltages running. If your BIOS supports the spread-spectrum feature, enable it for the FSB +0.5% and PEG +1.25%. That causes the clock-generator of your board to alter the speeds by 16 MHz (per % change) every 10ms. That would flatten electronic noise, electromagnetic-interference that could be causing the flash that sores your settings to zap.

 

[Jenesis]

Righto, I'll replace the battery when I can. As far as I can tell the battery is a common large button cell so it shouldn't be hard to find a replacement; are there any special procedures I need to follow when replacing it?

As for RAM, I know that the Kingston sticks are slower speed than the Corsair so the voltages will be different. I'll reset the voltages tonight.

I'll also see if my BIOS supports spread-spectrum; it's not a brand-new board and BIOS but it's not ancient either.

 

[Mussels]

the voltages should be set to the lowest common denominator - if one set needs 1.8V and one needs 2.0V, run at 2.0

as for timings, its the same - if one kit does 5-5-5-15 and one does 4-4-4-12, you will need to set 5-5-5-15 (Slowest, and all sticks can do it)

 

[btarunr]

Righto, I'll replace the battery when I can. As far as I can tell the battery is a common large button cell so it shouldn't be hard to find a replacement; are there any special procedures I need to follow when replacing it?

As for RAM, I know that the Kingston sticks are slower speed than the Corsair so the voltages will be different. I'll reset the voltages tonight.

I'll also see if my BIOS supports spread-spectrum; it's not a brand-new board and BIOS but it's not ancient either.

Muzz answered the voltages, timings part bullseye.

Be grounded when replacing the battery, take off your woollens for a while or ESD from you can fry the components. Most Post 2004 BIOSes have it, usually located in the Chipset settings tab.

Clicky!!

 

[Jenesis]

Thanks for the link btarunr, I always ground myself (gotta love that wrist-strap!) when working on my PC anyway There's lots of useful info on that page. My battery is indeed a standard CR2032 battery; I got a new one, but I'm not going out into the frenzied pre-Xmas shopping world again today so I hope this works!

Will post later with results.

 

[trog100]

clearing the cmos just loads safe defaults.. assuming u dont alter the safe defaults afterwards clearling it again shouldnt make any difference..

odd..

trog

 

[joker71]

cmos

ok this is what u can do mate

1) update all drivers
2) update the bios for your msi motherboard
3) set dram voltage to 2.0
4) if thats no works than your mobo is damaged so u can make a rma at your dealer

i had the same mobo as u and had the same problem but for me was it to late

 

[Mussels]

and one thing: does the problem go away if you remove some of the sticks of ram? This may help you get it up and running, and figure out whats causing the no-boot on default settings.

(Clearing CMOS loads a 'safer' setting than normal, so for that first boot things are in a very slow, safe mode. Ram is slow, CPU is slow, and all voltages are default. After you reboot however, it uses the autodetect features for your hardware, and if it goes wrong here (needs more ram volts, etc) the system just wont boot til you reset it again.)

 

[Jenesis]

Clearing CMOS loads a 'safer' setting than normal, so for that first boot things are in a very slow, safe mode. Ram is slow, CPU is slow, and all voltages are default. After you reboot however, it uses the autodetect features for your hardware, and if it goes wrong here (needs more ram volts, etc) the system just wont boot til you reset it again.

That is exactly what happens Thanks for expressing it so succinctly. It's probably the RAM voltage then.