[vox-tech] CMOS problems, dead battery?

[ME]

On Sat, 27 Apr 2002, Ryan wrote:
> After it's been off AC, I go to turn it on, and it whines about a CMOS 
> checksum error, and my settings have been reset to thier defaults.

Is this a home-built system, or made by a vendor?

If built by a local vendor or by a buddy, then I would suspect power
supply and/or how it is connected to the motherboard.

How old is the system? (I seem to recall you said 2 or 3 years, but am not
sure.)

On a related question, if on a power strip, what happens if you leave the
power strip "on" but halt the computer and reboot "sfot reboot via
control-alt-delete? How about leave plugged in, and AC on, put cycle the
power switch? How about power down, unplug, plug in, power on?

About how much time off of AC is required for this to happen? (Right away
or hours or ?)

> Leaving it soft-off overnight didn't cause me any problems.

Is soft-off the same as "standby mode" where it is sleeping, or "sleep
mode" where it is low power, but in use or suspend mode where an image of
memory is written to disk, and then upon powering up the image is read
into memory toa llow the machine to pick up where it left off?

We still have:
power (we ruled out the battery itself, but the socket for the battery, or
  the power supply and feed to the mb are possible too.) 
CMOS/BIOS chip(s)  (failure)
connection of chip to board
motherboard failure/short (This includes setting a jumper to reset flash
 BIOS to factory configs - possible. Look for it. If set, unset.)

What I can think of right now. Cant remember others. :-(

There may be others, but power seems a good place to check.
(Other lister reader welcome to make additions. :-)