CMOS Battery; Motherboard; failure to boot up

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Robyndbc53

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I have a DELL Inspiron 570 and it will frequently ( as in every other week or so) refuse to boot up. I replace the CMOS battery and it boots up. What could be causing the failure because I don't believe the CMOS battery is preventing the computer from booting. I think it is another failure but I am not experienced enough to know what to look at as the cause of failure to boot up.
I put a new battery in it Monday (Sept 21) and loaded the free Windows 10 and every day so far, it has booted up.
After reading all of these CMOS battery questions here, I am wondering if the MOBO needs to be replaced. Is there a way to tell if the MOBO is bad? And if it is bad, why would it boot up with a new battery replacement?
Robyndbc53
 
Solution
jbseven
Some motherboards die "gracefully" in which case you would see exactly what you see now- fans spin nothing else works, which is fixed by removing power for a while. Others will power down or restart unexpectedly. As (very little) time passes, the motherboard will eventually be unable to boot at all. It is unlikely to be the psu imho.

If you would like to confirm the mb is the culprit, there's nothing better than having a spare psu lying around. Otherwise you may be able to spot bad capacitors on the motherboard with a visual inspection although it is not always apparent.

From badcaps:
Not all caps show visible signs of failure even though they may be still performing below the required specs. The ones which do can be bulged...
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Robyndbc53

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I hear no drive noise, the cmos battery light does not come on and the display screen stays black. I know there is power, the fans come on, but the system noise I usually hear is non existent.
I read a thread somewhere about Dell offering free PSU units to those Inspiron 570 owners with faulty PSU's and they replaced them before Sept 2011, but I think I bought this mini tower from them after the fact. NIce of them to continue selling them to unsuspecting customers. Anyway, I am new here and was looking for an answer to the power failures and I enjoy reading the posts. thank you
 
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jbseven

jbseven

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Did you make any recent hardware changes? anything inside the case?

Most likely the motherboard needs to be replaced but it could also be a psu issue. The easiest way to confirm would be if you switched the psu out with one known to be working to see if that fixes the issue.
 
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Robyndbc53

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If the MOTHERBOARD needs to be replaced, why would it come on when I replace the CMOS battery? Wouldn't the motherboard just stay dead?

I guess I should invest $5 in a power supply tester before I buy a power supply. If it tests ok then I will look at buying a MOBO. Thanks for answering.

I am NOT convinced it is the Motherboard. So I will keep searching forums for more advice. thank you for your time.
 
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Kisianik

Kisianik

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I don't see any issues here.

You could have power surge and that could kill battery, I don't know production date of your PC, but it is more than 4 years for sure, battery can die after so long.

Regarding Dell power supply, as you can see from My Signature, I have the same PC, after I upgraded, I installed my original PSU into Compaq, which had burned PSU, Compaq is working with it for about 2 years already.

Dell power supplies are generally much stronger than specifications provided. I went through numerous power surges and power outages with Dell XPS GEN3 proprietary 460 watt PSU with flying colors, it died from all abuse after 9 years of 24/7 use.....

Dell PSU rules in given specifications.
 
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Robyndbc53

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I have ruled out the battery as the problem as of this morning. Now trying to figure out if the PSU is FAILING and looking for signs that will indicate it is a failed PSU or the MOBO is bad. Everything else on this 5 year old tower ( 2010 ) seems to be in working order.
I am not totally computer illiterate. It is either the PSU or the MOBO. I am down to those two. The battery issue is resolved as I put in a new battery Monday and it has powered on every morning until this morning.
This morning, it failed to come on (no screen on display and no battery light on the front of the tower; the power light was halogen as it usually is when I hit the power button, not amber and no beeps. So I powered it off; unplugged the power cord from the back; pushed in the power button; noticed the green light on the power supply went off, blinked, then stayed off. I waited 30 seconds; pushed the power button on the tower and it came on, battery light flickered and Windows 10 splash screen appeared. So it is working after doing that , BUT SOMETHING prevented it from the working the first time. Power supply or mother board, but my question about the motherboard is:
If the MOBO is "dead"or "damaged" or "broken", would the system even come on? Would it in work sometimes and not work sometimes? Anyone have an answer to those questions?
 
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jbseven

jbseven

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Some motherboards die "gracefully" in which case you would see exactly what you see now- fans spin nothing else works, which is fixed by removing power for a while. Others will power down or restart unexpectedly. As (very little) time passes, the motherboard will eventually be unable to boot at all. It is unlikely to be the psu imho.

If you would like to confirm the mb is the culprit, there's nothing better than having a spare psu lying around. Otherwise you may be able to spot bad capacitors on the motherboard with a visual inspection although it is not always apparent.

From badcaps:
Not all caps show visible signs of failure even though they may be still performing below the required specs. The ones which do can be bulged at the top of the cap (it is supposed to be flat. The vents at the top of the cap could also be obviously split open in extreme cases. There may be a brown/orange/yellow discharge which can be very small in the centre of the top of the cap. It can also be a larger quantity all over the top of the cap. The bottom of the caps may not be flat on the board because there is swelling there. The bung at the bottom of the cap may have been pushed out and the cap is making a discharge on the motherboard which may have dried on the board.
Click to expand...
 
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Robyndbc53

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH jbseven!!!! I don't have a spare PSU lying around; but I will look at the Motherboard for the signs you mentioned above and see if I see anything. I am not crazy about replacing the MOBO, it sounds far beyond my expertise but since this is a computer that has been replaced by a new one, it was sitting around and I thought I would enhance my troubleshooting skills by trying to figure out what is happening to it.
thank you again for the tips.
 
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Robyndbc53

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jbseven: I value your humble opinion. It makes more sense to me now, you said nothing works but the fans and that is exactly what I experienced. I looked at the caps on the motherboard for the the issues you mentioned. They all looked to be in very good condition, no discoloration, no bumps or swelling and all of them intact. None of them were loose or bent or off their base. There were a few that were crooked or "touching" so I looked at other mobo photos and noticed that they were not this way so I very gently straightened them and moved them ever so lightly so they weren't "touching".
I did realize that nothing on the PC had ever been updated so I updated what was valuable to me and then updated the BIOS as there was a new version. The computer rebooted many times and there was not one issue of any kind of failure, no hiccups and it didn't throw up any of the updates. YAY
However, in the next few days if it happens again, I will probably purchase a MOBO. Thank you for giving this more thought, I have hope I can save this computer. Honestly, I hope I don't have to replace the MOBO, that is far beyond my expertise.
thank you again, Robyn
 
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