CMOS Battery

[mtsj]

I have changed the motherboard battery several times because of a persistent problem. The time always stops at the point where I turn off my computer. Before, no problem with the CMOS settings. The new batteries will only last for about one week or so. Now, the time gets back to Jan 1, 2003 and the default settings of the CMOS is loaded. Do I need to adjust anything? Please help.
Also, I am using a ECS motherboard that supports DDR333 with a memory of DDR400. Will this destroy my system?

[GX1_Man]

If a new battery drains that quickly there is a short somewhere.

[dopatton]

I need the help of the experts here. My system's battery also drains out every few months.

I have Windows XP SP2 on a Gigabyte mobo with 875P chipset, 3.2 GHz Northwood CPU, 2*512Mb Corsair mem sticks and a fully loaded system on all PCI slots with Creative sound, a Canopus capture card, Terratec TV card & an Adaptec SCSI controller with 9 (!!!) hard disks.

I've contacted Gigabyte via email and they also suggested a short, however I feel that maybe the video card is causing this; I have an MSI 6800GT with 256Mb. The whole system is driven by a quality 460W Enermax PS.

I got the video card from a friend and he said that it is already overclocked as an Ultra (425/1100) - is this causing it or is it due to the fact that my PC is heavily loaded as I said?

Any help would be very much appreciated guys; I'm desperate. I've already changed 3 batteries which is a pain with all this cabling in the case.

Cheers

[Computer_Commando]

...

1.  he said that it is already overclocked as an Ultra (425/1100) - is this causing it or...
2.  ... is it due to the fact that my PC is heavily loaded as I said?

1.  No.
2.  No.

When computer is off, there is no load on the battery, except for the CMOS/clock.  When it is on, battery is not being used.

[GX1_Man]

And if it is a short that is causing this, there is no way to fix it short of a new motherboard.

[dopatton]

So, from what I gather a short is causing leekage current that drains out the battery when the system is off.

It does make sense, although I'm not sure how to overcome this.

Anyway, thanks a lot guys - any more thoughts are always welcome.


Cheers

[GX1_Man]

So, from what I gather a short is causing leekage current that drains out the battery when the system is off.

It does make sense, although I'm not sure how to overcome this.

The answer was already posted. Look up!  

[Fed]

A battery with a bad connection in the battery holder could cause this.
Have you tested a drained battery after removal?

[dopatton]

Yeah I did that; the drained battery would give me no video signal whatsoever.

I had a closer look to my system these past 2 days and there was something suspicious that could give a short I guess. I had the mobo secured with bolts instead of screws one of which was errhh... sort of loose.

Don't know if this was causing it, however I had them replaced with screws and now all I can do basically is wait for a few months to see what happens.

That's it - once again, thanks for the input guys.