ASUS sabertooth Z77 suddenly lost BIOS settings

zougou

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2009
21
0
18,510
Hello. I haven't made any changes to my homebuilt recently, but this weekend my computer beeped in POST and then had an error message saying I needed to hit F1 and go into BIOS settings.

I immediately saw that it thought it was January 1, 2009 and that my overclocking settings were gone.

I tried correcting the date/time, settings,and my computer ran normally.

i tried starting it again today, and the same problem occurred. BIOS settings are gone and it's 2009.

I tried calling Asus and "Fred" told me to reset the CMOS, which makes no sense to me. I lost all my settings, so why would resetting them again help?

I tried sending Asus tech support email, but after filling out the long form, nothing happens when I pressed send.

So, does this sound like the CMOS battery needs to be replaced?
 

zougou

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2009
21
0
18,510


Thank you. I was worried that was the solution as this motherboard has 'thermal armor' covering the battery. ASUS helpfully doesn't include instructions on how to remove it in the manual.

Apparently i will have to remove the board and unscrew the cover. Yikes.
 

zougou

Distinguished
Jun 17, 2009
21
0
18,510

I found a youtube video where the guy says there's something like 8 screws on the back of the board one has to remove to get the plastic off.

Part of me wants to get a new mobo/cpu and put that in since it's slightly less work than this.