ECS K7S5A - Bios keeps resetting - Please help !!

[billandkez]

Hi

I have a fairly new system with a K7S5A motherboard
AMD Athlon 1400 processor
256 RAM
40 Gb Hard Drive

The system came with windows 98 and I upgraded to XP a few months ago which all went fine.

Ever since I have had my PC I have noticed that every three/four weeks that my Date on my PC resets itself back to 27/8/ 01 which is the same date that I see when PC initially boots up.

It also changes my processor speed to 100/100 1050.

To rectify this I have to go into the set up screen and change the processor settings back to 133/133 1400 and also change the date and time of my clock.

My system is running great apart from this small problem and I have never tried to flash or tamper with the Bios settings.

I can’t imagine it being the battery as it only happens every three to four weeks. Can anyone possibly advise on what may be causing this problem and advise me on how I may be able to resolve it.

Your help in this matter would be most appreciated
Bill

[smelanson]

I would try a new CMOS battery it sounds like your is bad

[Bovon]

In addition to replacing the cmos battery (always a good shot in the dark with bios problems) Also check the battery holder/socket to see if you can detect any looseness of the battery. The battery should be tight in the socket, if not...it could be loosing contact every so often causing the bios to reset to the defaults. Also, there is probably a clear cmos jumper on your board..most all new mainboards have a 3 pin header near the battery or cmos rom chip. There should be a jumper there, probably on pins 1 & 2...you move this jumper to pins 2 & 3 to clear the bios back to factory defaults...then replace the jumper back on pins 1 & 2 to run. The voltage going to the rom chip from the battery goes thru that jumper on pins 1 & 2. If that jumper is defective in any manner, that would cause a loss of voltage to the chip, and result in a return to factory defaults.

[Peter M]

Loss of CMOS settings also happens when your power supply unit is too weak on the +5Vstandby line. 2 amperes required here (by ATX PSU specification 2.03).

regards, Peter

[billandkez]

This system is only 6 months old. The battery is securely fixed in its holder and surely if it was bad it wouldn't just reset the settings every 3 to 4 weeks and it keeps good time on the clock.