Asus /Nvidia SK8N .motherboard won't wake up

[bwizz]

Help please I have a strange quirk happening to my "otherwise working fine" Asus motherboard

If the power is disconnected for more that a few minutes , the board will not power up normally . The only way to get it to come back to life is either to remove the battery /then clear the cmos jumper /put back. Or remove a small jumper and replace nr the bios chip . Then I obviously have to reset all the cmos settings. Board will then work normally till next power cut. Seems a problem in the area of the bios chip ,but I don't want to risk trying to get a replacement chip till i get a second opinion. I have the latest bios installed , I have also replaced the PSU with another known working item. any ideas appreciated. thanks in advance

[JustAnEngineer]

It may be time to consider an upgrade.
$88 Pentium G850 + $65 Cheap LGA1155 motherboard + $19 4 GiB PC3-12800 = $172

[bwizz]

I am interested in repairing ,not upgrading !

[Captain Ned]

I am interested in repairing ,not upgrading !

Hey, I understand not wanting to move on (says the holdout still running a 2007-vintage LGA775 Abit IP35Pro mobo for the BIOS-level fan controls), but at some point a board gets so old and so out of support that you just have to admit that it's time for new hardware. In your case the last BIOS update is from February 2005. If you put a proper value on the time you'll spend chasing down a gremlin like this, a new mobo & CPU will be cheaper.

Besides, I'm in the same spot in a year or so.

[just brew it!]

Maybe the BIOS battery is marginal -- just enough that the BIOS settings get scrambled when the power is shut off, but not enough to cause it to reset to defaults without pulling the battery entirely?

Have you looked at all the capacitors (especially around the CPU socket) to make sure none of them are bulging or leaking?

[vargis14]

I have the same motherboard but its collecting dust asus sk8n with a gig of registered corsair xms ram pc3200 and a fx-53.I have not touched it in over 6 years.

Did you happen to get a dual core working on it?I researched recently a 1008 bios was the newest possibly custom that I came across JAE reminded me.
Ill yank it from the case and mail it to you if ya really want it,never upgraded the bios ever,even have the box it came in,with a manual too:)It replaced my ecs k7s5a that started life with a 900tbrd then a 1400tbrd nows its still chugging along with a 2400xp at my work.But since my 9800pro died in the 2400xp i put the x800xt in it from the fx53 setup, card hard artifacts in 3 days and that with a ArticCooling AM cooler on it and the paste was still good since i ripped it apart to see why it died so quickly.Now i am running a rage pro 128mb whoo hoo
Throw me a number you would be willing to pay plus shipping, it would include the fx-53 cpu+ a 4800x2 AMD stock heatpipe heatsink and mem.The 4800x2 was my upgrade over the fx53 But that was water cooled with dual x1800xts in crossfire with that goofy dongle setup with a dedicated master card plus the slave card.I remember that memory costing around 500$ for 2 512 sticks "PM me if interested".I am going to use the case over for a cheap htpc.Its a coolermaster centurian 5 i think. All tool less nice for the day,Still worth using in my book.Heck it just might hold my current 2600k, once ivy bridge comes out and its worth it to upgrade my cpu on my current GB board.

JAEs suggestion is way more powerful then a single core though but kids like to play mine ran 24/7 at 2.6-2.7ghz no prob

[bwizz]

I am asking for technical advise here ,not how to value my time ! a replacement bios chip on E bay uk is not much
I know first hand the expense and hours involved in loading a new system up
I have checked the caps and changed cmos battery thanks. this problem seems quite rare so probs worth trying a new bios chip?

[bwizz]

Please , I don't want to upgrade! my main pc is even older a +2 939 K8t I am quite happy with my old crap!

[Captain Ned]

I am asking for technical advise here ,not how to value my time ! a replacement bios chip on E bay uk is not much
I know first hand the expense and hours involved in loading a new system up
I have checked the caps and changed cmos battery thanks. this problem seems quite rare so probs worth trying a new bios chip?

Since you say the problem occurs on power-up there's a simple solution. Leave it running.

The point we're all trying to make is that troubleshooting hardware that is several generations behind current tech is difficult because the resources just aren't there. Could a new BIOS chip be the cure? Possibly, but no guarantee.

[just brew it!]

This does not sound like a BIOS chip problem to me. If the BIOS chip was bad, the system would almost certainly fail to POST all the time, and clearing the CMOS would not help. The CMOS settings are not stored in the BIOS chip itself; they are stored in a separate NVRAM device, or in the northbridge (neither of which is going to be easily replaceable).

[JustAnEngineer]

Maybe the BIOS battery is marginal -- just enough that the BIOS settings get scrambled when the power is shut off, but not enough to cause it to reset to defaults without pulling the battery entirely?

I have checked the caps and changed cmos battery thanks. This problem seems quite rare so probs worth trying a new bios chip?

Just Brew It!'s suggestion was my second choice after replacement. It may be easier just to keep this system plugged into a UPS.

[bwizz]

Hi thanks for your thoughts, leaving this system plugged in is not an option! I have just got a reply from asus technical , they recon " possibly e prom chip" Which I assume refers to what i call the bios chip. So for only £ 4 posted ,surely worth a try. I am not sure that any more could be done in being sure of the cause of this fault even with a modern mb.
Its a weird fault which in many builds etc , I have never encountered before. and has become quite interesting

[P5-133XL]

A bad bios (eprom) is a computer that won't boot at all! More to the point, that it does not change when the power goes off. Nor does it change if you need to reset the CMOS settings. The BIOS reads the CMOS settings and that determines what it does. If the CMOS has bad data then the BIOS can't do what it is designed to do.

When the power goes off, the power to CMOS goes off too. The battery is what maintains CMOS when the power goes off. As the battery gets weaker over time, it will eventually get to the point it can't supply enough power to CMOS to keep its data valid but it is still supplying voltage, just not enough. So you have to reset the CMOS to a zero state to get data that the BIOS can understand so as to boot.

Personally, I'd replace the battery as the far most likely cause of a CMOS problem and its solution. If it isn't the CMOS battery, it is time to replace the MB. The next step is likely replacing all the capacitors on the MB and that will take some money, a whole bunch of time, and expertise with a soldering iron. The process of resetting the CMOS also removes any charge in all the capacitors which is why it is the second step.

[vargis14]

Shakes dusty old/new sk8n motherboaed"cough cough" hey there's my battery bet that sucker is dead.
if you really want to keep your crap i have a MB..Just saying:)

[Jason181]

The real culprit: the mobo is too tired after all night skatin'.

Sorry, somebody had to say it.

[bwizz]

I have already replaced the battery with a new one "and checked the voltage" !
I'm gonna change the cmos chip " clutching at straws" i will report back on outcome. How much is the m/b/
Ta

[bwizz]

MOBO won't wake upp at all now so I will have to look for a replacement board on Ebay UK.
In reply to all the suggestions to upgrade. Seems the missed point is "what do I intend to do with it"!
In this case it is a second computer running xp which is ooccasionally networked to my main desktop , "Which is even older" But doing everything I want it to do. I enjoy tinkering, I have an electonic/mechanical background I don't mind ocassional challenges. I do mind throwing money at chasing numbers and doing endless system reloads, been there done it for other people, Old adage "You pays yer money and makes your choice" If you need an new shiny all singing and dancing pc to make your life complete ,Who am I to argue. Another adage is that , "If you don't ask you dont get" Always worth picking brains
Cheers all!