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Help needed with computer problem

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wraith808:
So, more information... it's not the RAM.  I put one stick at a time in, sat in the BIOS, and it hung with either.  So I noticed that while in the BIOS, everything would be going fine, then the time would reset to 00:00:03 and the date would reset to some date in 1980 (assuming date.min for the system).

So I did the reset as suggested, and it seemed to work... for about 15 minutes.  So next is to try the hard reset by removing the battery.  Not sure after that how I determine the difference between needs a battery and needs a MB.  But yeah, I'll just assume MB I think after that.  Just hate waiting until Tuesday/Wednesday to get anything in.

Got a stupid CSM thinking that when I needed it, it would be in stock.  And no, two years later, it's not. 

40hz:
^From that symptom, it sounds like your battery is mostly shot. Try replacing it if you don't have a battery tester to check it first. Most times it's a just a standard 3V lithium (like a CR2032). These batteries are inexpensive. And you can buy them anywhere - like a drugstore or a Target.
 :Thmbsup:

Stoic Joker:
Can check the battery with any voltmeter ... If it reads less than 2V toss it.

Quick idiot test I use (for when it's in dead mode) is to remove the memory completely and start the machine. If it cant get (/boot) far enough to generate a memory error... You're looking at MB or CPU as the issue.

Note: test does assume you have a speaker to beep the memory error with.

wraith808:
^ I hope you're wrong.  I already tried that test, and just assumed that newer motherboards wouldn't boot without RAM as I hadn't tried that in a while.

Stoic Joker:
They won't ... but just like back when they should (Beep!) complain about the missing memory.

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