Replies embedded towards the end. . .

"Anna" wrote in message
...

"SC Tom" wrote in message...
On my Asus board, the battery MUST be removed (as the manual states)
in order to clear it. If I only move the jumper, not all settings are
reset. I found this out for a fact less than 2 weeks ago when a BIOS
flash went bad.

SC Tom


"SC Tom" wrote in message...
Mine's the M2NPV-VM and it clearly states on page 1-20, step 2 to
"Remove the onboard battery." If you'd like to see for yourself, go
he
http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/so...7_m2npv-vm.pdf

SC Tom


"Mike Hall - MVP" wrote in message...
I don't doubt that it does. Looks like Asus can't make up their minds.
:-)
--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/


"SC Tom" wrote in message...
My guess is that on the newer boards, the jumper bypasses the battery
completely (or more so than on the older boards) making it unnecessary to
pull the battery. Engineering, you know- "If it ain't broke, redesign
it!"
I was looking at the board you have as an upgrade, but it only has one
EIDE channel, and unfortunately, I still have 3 EIDE devices that I'm not
ready to part with. I really don't NEED to upgrade (my AMD 64x2 Dual
4800+ is plenty fast), but every once in a while I get that need for
speed. Not having a larger income kinda curbs that feeling, but it's
still there :-)

SC Tom


Gentlemen:
I've worked with a considerable number of makes/models of motherboards
over the years and I really can't recall a single instance where it was
necessary to remove the CMOS battery in order to reset the CMOS-BIOS
settings to their factory defaults when the motherboard was equipped with
a CMOS jumper. In every case that I've experienced it was only necessary
to short the jumper to reset the CMOS-BIOS values.

As I'm sure you both know, many motherboards (particularly early types)
were not equipped with a CMOS jumper so obviously the only way to carry
out the preceding was to remove the CMOS battery for some seconds and then
replace it.

I understand SC Tom's reference to that ASUS MB instruction indicating the
need for also removing the CMOS battery in addition to shorting the CMOS
jumper. All I can tell you is that it isn't the first time (and I'm
confident it won't be the last time!) that a motherboard's User Manual
(let alone technical advice from the manuf. itself!) provided misleading
or outright incorrect info re their products & their use. Although I have
to quickly add that our advice to users is virtually *always* follow the
instruction(s) in the motherboard's User Manual/Guide.

Anyway, having said all this and notwithstanding my own experience re this
CMOS battery issue, I learned a long time ago that when it comes to PCs,
*anything* is possible.

So SC Tom...assuming you haven't already done so, have you tested to
determine whether simply shorting the CMOS jumper without removing the
CMOS battery will reset the time/date info & BIOS configurations?


As I replied to Mike, yes, I did try just using the jumper to clear the BIOS
and some settings were not reset. To list a few settings that were not reset
to BIOS default we
Boot order
Onboard NIC not re-enabled
Onboard sound not enabled
Parallel port not enabled
Ability to boot- not enabled.

Granted, part of this might have been caused by the bad flash, but after
removing the battery, then changing the jumper, changing it back, and
reinstalling the battery, all was well and the settings were back to factory
default.

Having worked on and with computer hardware since the mid-60's when I was in
the Air Force, I realize that most manuals add things that aren't necessary,
leave out things that are necessary, or are blatantly incorrect. And it is
most certainly not relegated only to the electronics field. Try a shop
manual for any vehicle sometime. It's easy to get hurt if you take them as
gospel.




Incidentally, re your refererence to the fact that your motherboard has
only a single IDE channel...
Are you aware that some of the newer (usually the higher-end ones)
motherboards are now coming through without *any* IDE channels? And more &
more motherboards - are equipped with only a single IDE channel. As the
youngsters say, "SATA rules".
Anna


Yes, I realize there are lots of SATA-only MB. I just mentioned the one that
Mike used because it was one of my choices if I did decide to upgrade. All
things considered, I decided to stay with the one I have since it performs
well enough for me (so far ;-) ).
BTW, mine has 2 EIDE and 4 SATA channels.

SC Tom