On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 08:52:36 +0100, "Apollo"
wrote:


"kony" wrote in message
.. .
Followups-To alt.comp.hardware

A7N8X Motherboard Low Temperature Sensitivity, CMOS Checksum
Error



SHORT VERSION:


Replace the cmos battery, that board is well known for having a
marginally acceptable battery installed. This ties in with the
temperature and cmos checksum errors, a failing battery will not seem to
work at lower temps but be fine when the temp increases.

Battery voltage (removed from board) was 3.05V with a ~ 300
Ohm load measured via DMM, but I replaced it anyway...
didn't help.



As for the board being sensitive to cold, I'm afraid that your theory is
wrong, the colder you run most electronics the better, overclockers have
run this board submerged in a non-conductive fluid at -30C.

Well the theory is not that ALL boards won't work when cold.
Rather, the fact of the matter is that cold DOES effect this
one particular board's operation so at this point the focus
is on WHAT is the cold effecting, whether it be a broken
trace or crack, marginal capacitors, bad contacts or ???



It may seem odd that a £1 battery could be causing all your probs but
I've seen it on two of those boards, and read about plenty other battery
problems, It's an excellent board otherwise.

Yes it's a nice board for it's time, and I wish it were
merely the battery. Last time i tried to power it up it
wouldn't even complete POST 1 in 5 times as previosly, so it
may be progressively getting worse? Supposedly system was
doing this "rarely" in the past month but more frequently,
frequently enough to prompt owner to bring it to me a few
days ago.

Anyway, still didn't find the time yet to individually test
any (motherboard) components but when it wouldn't POST after
a dozen times I held a hair-dryer up to the whole thing for
a couple minutes and once again it posted fine, booted to
windows, rebooted and flashed bios again successfully. Then
a few hours later I tried to turn it on and nothing again!
If it were mine (I also have an A7N8X which doesn't have
this problem) I'd try replacing component(s) and keep an eye
on it, stress testing and such but it has to be back to it's
owner so ultimately I'll probably just have them buy a new
one soon, yet I'm still curious to find out what's going on
with it.