Toshiba Equium/Satellit A60 Texas ieee 1394 host controller wont start

Hello: I have a Toshiba Equium a60-692 approx 2years old. On rare occasions the above will install and also the network/ethern card etc with it. Usually it wont. Toshiba tech tell me its the CMOS battery, but the time has stayed OK for the last week so perhaps it could be something else. Any ideas from anyone as worried about wasting time desoldering the battery if that is not the problem. Could it be a motherboard fault that is unfixable? I am a relative novice so require someone's help here. This has got me!