Replacing the CMOS battery

[nihil]

OK Madseel,

Sorry for the gap................slight local electrical problem .............It does not sound like "just" a battery problem...........give me a little while to think it through and I will get back to you tomorrow.

Cheers

[helplesslyhopin]

uhhh.. keep in mind here that when you go to reset the bios via the jumper..

1. you must unplug the AC cord from the power supply or turn off the switch on the supply.
(if you don't, it most likely won't work as power is still avail to the mobo, it's in sort of a standby mode)

2. move the jumper to reset , then move it back to the normal position
( you didn't say if you did that)

AFAIK.. most mobo's will power on and work even without a battery in the socket. it's just that you won't be able to save the values.. you might have to reflash the bios if things don't seem to be getting any better. I really hate to suggest reflashing unless it's the only thing left to try.

now what is the motherboard type/model ? did I miss that in the previous posts ?

edit : yeah.. you said an emachine and model of the emachine but that's not what we really need.. you need to look at the motherboard and read the labels on it.. emachines might use various vendors for the mobos.. I don't really know..

typically, if one had a bios string.. (of which you probably won't be able to give us) that would point out the bios type ,mobo manufacturer.. and would lead to a certain mobo model. maybe see if you can read what printed in the bios chip.. it should be located fairly close to where the battery and jumper is.. it'll usually have a sticker on it.. with a date code and maybe bios revision.

[Madseel]

Ok. I found the specs to my mother board. Here they are.
http://www.ecsusa.com/products/l7vmm.html

[Madseel]

I'm not sure but could it possibly be that i shorted the mother board?

[nihil]

Hmmm,

I don't think you have damaged the mobo, as it is generally quite hard to do.

It sounds like something has failed. If you still have the old battery get someone to test it with a meter, as well as one of the new ones..............it might not have been the battery at all.

I don't suppose you noticed if the system clock was losing time before this happened, or would show the wrong date?

Now the only light that is on is that yellow one, the green one won't even flicker.

That suggests to me that the machine is not powering up properly. The little yellow light is probably the powers supply or hard drive. Check that all connections to the power supply are firm and that all wires are firmly connected to the MoBo. That green light should come on, even without a CMOS battery.

If the batteries are OK and you have reset the BIOS properly then it looks like another fault altogether.

Check to see if there is a little fuse (clear glass) behind the switch (the big button with the green light), is it "black and horrible". If you have the manual for the machine, you might find out what the lights are for...........did the light around the big button use to flicker when the machine was running?

Other possible causes:

1. Failing power supply
2. Failing RAM
3. Dead hard drive

If you can check those batteries and what the lights are for it could get us closer

[Madseel]

The clock thing I did notice. It was losing time. After about every week it lost about 10 to 15 minutes.

If I were to turn on the computer even with a dead hard drive, shouldn't it boot up at least to a certain point? Also, would it effect it if the battery was out for an hour or too?

I'll check the connections right now along with that fuse thing. The only thing i touched though was that stupid battery.

[nihil]

Well 10 minutes in a week means that it still had some power in it, unless you leave your machine on for extended periods, like overnight.

As for the HDD, it is hard to predict exact behaviour when a component starts to fail. Particularly if you have "fast boot" enabled in your BIOS.

Taking the battery out is one way of clearing your CMOS memory.

I don't know your machine so I cannot be sure, but usually the light around the power switch means that the system is switched on.

Depending on your machine, it might have a rocker switch at the back near the power cable socket. When you turn this on, it puts the machine into a "standby" mode so power is getting to things like fans and the Hard Drive, and you may well see some lights come on.

It is the power switch at the front that actually boots the machine.

Cheers

[Madseel]

Yeah. What you said about the light in the front, that is when it is powered on. I do leave my computer on over night and for extended periods of time.

I have checked that everything is plugged in compleatly and it seems like they all are. I am not able to see the fuse thing as I don't know how to get to that, but would that cause the whole computer not to start up or anything?

Last, that rocker switch in the back near the power socket, is it usually red? There is something back there but I haven't touched it. That red switch thing in the back has a number 115 on it, but the 115 looks like it was pushed in the middle a little.

One more thing, I was looking at the jumper diagram and it said there is one for "BIOS PLASH". This is enabled. Should I set it to disabled then back to enabled or just leave it alone?

[nihil]

Right,

Leaving the machine on for long periods will hide the fact that the battery is run down because the clock is running off the mains power during those times.

There may not be a fuse on your I/O button (switch) some do and some don't. Now that light SHOULD come on. If it does not, then there is a problem with the switch, the light has blown (unusual for an LED), or there is a problem with the power supply.

If there is no rocker switch (like a modern light switch) at the back. the machine is getting standby power as soon as the mains electricity is turned on.

The little red switch with the numbers on it tells the power supply what current your mains is usually they go 115v and 230v. The switch is not easy to move, so you won't have done it by accident. I think that you have mains voltage of 110-120v where you are. The only problem is if you set it to 115 over here where we have 240v mains current.........that would fry it.

It sounds to me like your I/O switch is broken...............with the case off can you trigger it manually or poke something NON-CONDUCTIVE into the hole and see if you can get it to start.

Basically a cleared CMOS will not prevent the power on light from coming on. However, NO POWER will prevent the CMOS from being reset.

Now, some case/motherboard configurations are a bit difficult to put back in the right alignment, which is why I would like you to try to activate the switch with the case off. I have had several experiences of putting the case back on and the I/O switch didn't work.

I hope that is the problem, as it is easy to fix.

With the case off, check for any noise when you push the button. You should hear the HDD start to spin up, also you should have a brief flickering of lights on the floppy drive (if there is one) the CD drive and the keyboard.

If you don't get these I strongly suspect that the machine is not booting at all, as opposed to getting part way then failing.

EDIT: Please leave the BIOS Flash jumper alone, if it is set to "ON"

[Madseel]

I am not able to find another switch to power it on but I will look harder. When I do press the power button, the hard drive does sound like it is spining, but the lights on the floppy drive and CD drive and keyboard are not flickering or anything.