Re: I think I wrecked it!

[merlin]

what system bios password have you lost?this>http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000451.htm

[cmosbios]

Thank you for the passwords    but first I must be able to see the screen. I tried resetting the cmos again but nothing, could I have possibly done it... Have I wrecked my motherboard I cannot afford a new motherboard at this stage, so please HELP!

Oh and my friend has the exact same motherboard as mine and last year he said his stopped working so he pulled it out and its been collecting dust under his bed for a year now so we put it in my computer and it worked and when the screen first came on it said that cmos error (I understand you see this message after succesfully clearing the cmos) ,so this brings me to a solution (maybe) If I take the motherboard out and leave it for say 24hrs would this totally discharge the board of any power and perhaps fix it?

[cmosbios]

I dont think anything was damaged because the manual said to power up the computer with the jumper on for a few seconds then turn it off and finally remove the jumper (could it be wrong?). I sent an e-mail to asus tech support and they said to try shorting it again and nothing about it being damaged at all, I have sent another e-mail to asus to see what they say.

I have now pulled the motherboard out and I have searched high and low for a battery but I cannot find anything that resembles one, I'll leave the motherboard out for a couple of days and see if that fixes it.
Really resetting the cmos is just draining it of its power right? or shorting it to reset it? I hope its not stuffed because I dont think there is a way to fix it. Also I looked at the motherboard to see if anything looked burnt out or if any capiscators are leaking but everything looks fine.

The computer still powers up fine and there are no noises indicating a faliure somewhere... I dont know I'll see how it goes in a few days. Thanks

[chade]

Don't panic.  Yet.

Some CMOS chips are very delicate, and may require a little coaxing to reset.

Resetting it via jumper shouldn't harm it (but of course, shouldn't isn't perfect...).

Double check to see that you've removed the same jumper you put on to clear the CMOS.  I'm assuming nothing else was disturbed at the same time - its always a mistake to adjust more than one thing at once - makes it harder to find the cause if and when something goes wrong.

Try what dl65 has suggested and pull the battery out (computer turned off and unplugged of course).  A few minutes should be enough.  Put it back in, and reboot.  If it doesn't work, clear the CMOS again.  I know it may not make much sense, but I've seen this before - where a CMOS has not reset properly and requires resetting again.  Technically pulling the battery and using the reset jumper should do the same thing - but again, you never know!

Good luck, and let us know how it went.

[chade]

I thought not, otherwise you would have mentioned it.

There _has_ to be a battery.  The CMOS is volatile RAM - it wipes it its not receiving a current.  There are two basic type of battery attachments to motherboards - a flat, 1.5cm across (approx) metallic disc battery (like a hearing aid battery only flatter and wider) or a battery capsule that is usually wired to the motherboard via short wires.

If you can find your motherboard model number (should be printed on the board, near the centre of the board, usually in white writing) you can look up the manual online and get the battery location from it.

[cmosbios]

Ok chade I think I found what you were talking about, there is defentley no circular disc battery (like a watch battery) but there is however a small silver capsual which is soldered to the motherboard, I dont think its removable unless I solder it back on.

I'm just going to see if leaving the motherboard out of the case with nothing else attached to it fixes it, I'm preety sure this has happend to a few of my friends after coming home from holidays (yes we unplug all our equipment in case of an electrical storm) but I've never done it before so...

But everything else seems fine besides the fact my monitor doesnt turn on.

[chade]

Actually, if it's soldered to the board, its probably not what you're looking for (possible I guess).  You don't have a digital camera do you?  Or can you make out that motherboard model number?

Don't know if anyone else has any new suggestions - otherwise I think I need more info to help on this one.  It's so much easier when it's in front of you to be played with

[dl65]

Here's a little blurb on changing a battery......
How to Install a Battery...


Turn off the computer, unplug it, and remove the case.
Remove the old battery. Record which end faced what direction. Each end has a + or -- on it. With skill and dexterity, the battery should snap out. Just study it, and you'll figure out how to get it out. Don't force it, though. It may be soldered in.
Get a replacement battery. Take the old one to the store and match them up.
Put the new battery in. Make sure the + and -- face the same way as before. It should snap in. If you are experienced at soldering, and your computer demands this, you may want to do that yourself.
Put the case back on and plug your computer in. When you turn it on, expect some type of error message like incorrect CMOS. Don't cry; this will happen. You just need to go into CMOS and plug in all the information that you recorded before you started. If you didn't do that, you'll need to break out the manuals and find the information the hard way.

Hope this helps

dl65  

[Raptor]

Every mainboard has a BIOS battery.

Unless you removed it. Donot rely on the manual to find it, instead, open the computer case and look inside.

Seek and ye shall find.

[cmosbios]

I give up looking for this battery, here is a pic I found on the net, knock yourself out
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20000725/images/asus_p55t2p4.jpg

In a few hours it will have been 24hrs scince I pulled the motherboard out of the case.

[Raptor]

I could be terribly wrong, but perhaps the battery is located behind the mainboard?

I donot know if this is possible, but I do believe that each mainboard requires a battery in order to save the BIOS settings when the powercable is disconnected or the computer is turned off.  

Edit:

I donot know if mainboards come shipped with a battery installed. The photo you showed seems to be an unused mainboard.

[MalikTous]

My ASUS CUV4X mainboard has a 2032 coin cell for CMOS on the front left of the mainboard, as did the P5A that preceded it.

If your P55T2p4 doesn't have one of those Orion or Dallas combo CMOS and battery modules, it will either have a coin cell or a capsule about 1 to 1.5 cm long and 1 cm in diameter soldered to the board, marked Varta or SAAB NiFe or PCPower or something similar. The capsule is a rechargeable NiCd 3 or 4 cell battery.

If the board has embedded video, your CMOS probably defaulted to it when you rebooted after wiping CMOS. Plug the monitor into the embedded video jack and you should be able to open CMOS and change the default graphics device to your expansion video card and disable the MB video device, after selecting 'Default values' first to flush out any corrupt data in CMOS.