Motherboard scratch, can't get to bios

gijoe50000

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May 27, 2013
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So my z97 Gaming 5 has been dodgy getting to the bios for ages.. it finally gave up a few weeks ago, just kept looping and not getting as far as the "beep".. I had it retrying for hours and a few times it posted and then failed.
I was just looking at the board there (been using my old AM3+ board since) and I noticed a scratch on the edge of the board, looks like it's only on one line, down the back of the 24-pin side. I can't follow the trace the whole way but it looks like it definitely gets very close to the bios chips.

pmYbBCH.jpg



D1zdIDy.jpg


Could this be the problem? The board is a bit of a stupid design.. it's not as wide as a full normal atx so it doesn't hit the three right-hand-side standoffs at the edge in my case, and it's a bit flimsy when plugging in the 24 pin. Maybe it's from holding the back of the board while trying to plug it in, (oil from my hands?) or something could have been rubbing there.. not sure.
Think this is the issue?
Is it fixable by DIY?
Any tips?







 
Solution
with the mb out of the case pull the cmos battery and clear the cmos using the jumper. see if it goes into the bios on next post. if it does make sure it has the newest bios on the mb. also put in a new cmos battery in case the old one is weak. of the short leanth of the mb use rubber sapcer you find at hardware store to keep the mb from shorting to the case.
with the mb out of the case pull the cmos battery and clear the cmos using the jumper. see if it goes into the bios on next post. if it does make sure it has the newest bios on the mb. also put in a new cmos battery in case the old one is weak. of the short leanth of the mb use rubber sapcer you find at hardware store to keep the mb from shorting to the case.
 
Solution

gijoe50000

Distinguished
May 27, 2013
170
3
18,715


The battery is fine.. it's in my AMD board now, as I'm typing and it's reading 3.264v. The Intel board (above) has always had bios issues, almost since I got it. It'll never hold a bios for more than a few startups, usually it reflashes the backup bios after a day or two, but the problem has got worse over time, until it finally gave up and I threw in my old AMD board again.
That's why I think it's a hardware problem. I thought it might have been a faulty bios chip, until I saw the damage above.

I'll definitely check, if I put it in again, that it's not rubbing against the case though, but I don't think it was.