CMOS Battery Now Lasting Only 1 Month

My desktop PC built in Dec 2012 has a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard. At times the PC fails to boot with error code d6 (no console device) on the diagnostic display. This is fixed by replacing the CMOS battery which by this time has dropped to 2.8V open circuit. I turn the PC off at the mains when not in use so there is no +5V standby supply to motherboard requiring the CMOS battery to power the BIOS circuitry. For the past 2 years the CMOS battery has only been lasting 6 months and yesterday I had the same failure to boot after only 1 month battery use. Oddly this time the Energizer battery open circuit voltage was a healthy 3.2V and the BIOS appeared in Chinese text on restarting. I fear the motherboard has developed a serious parasitic drain and it's time to upgrade to a Windows 11 compliant motherboard & CPU.

The appearance of Chinese text in the BIOS is odd. I wonder if it's worth reflashing the BIOS with the same latest version in case of a BIOS corruption? Pending an upgrade I'll leave the PC on at the mains so the motherboard will be powered by the +5V standby line from the PSU.

I'll now have to do my research on an upgrade and am not looking forward to reinstalling all the software. A clean install is in order since the OS started life as Windows 8 and has just been updated since 2012! My initial research suggests motherboards with the useful onboard alphanumeric diagnostic display are now hard to find.

I assume you've already considered the possibility that your CMOS batteries are old stock that have deteriorated.


Best of luck,
Denis

Try3 said:

I assume you've already considered the possibility that your CMOS batteries are old stock that have deteriorated.


Best of luck,
Denis

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The batteries are from different batches and I only bought the last ones 2 months ago. I'm going to try these CR2032 Varta batteries from Screwfix to avoid any possibility of counterfeits since Ive been using Amazon and eBay.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/varta-cr2...y-4-pack/894hk

I also trust Screwfix not to falsify battery expiry dates.
And I'd trust Amazon UK as well but not their Amazon Marketplace suppliers.

Good luck,
Denis

Interesting.

Assuming the batteries are fresh and of high quality, it might make sense to re flash the BIOS with the mist current revision.
One other idea, is to gently clean the battery compartment with a drop of Circuit Cleaner and ensuring that the battery is making tight contact.

My desktops are also disconnected from the AC via my UPS and the CMOS batteries have easily lasted for 2+ years.

Other than the above, perhaps there might be a tiny broken solder trace in the battery compartment appearing under thermal duress.

HTH.

Ensure the battery is branded rather than a generic named version.
Buy from a reputable store.
Did the Chinese text appear after the BIOS update?

Bastet said:

Ensure the battery is branded rather than a generic named version.
Buy from a reputable store.
Did the Chinese text appear after the BIOS update?

I didn't do a BIOS update. I just replaced the battery which should have reset the BIOS defaults. I started up into Windows 10 then rebooted to the BIOS to set my BIOS profile to find the Chinese text. I have been buying batteries supposedly by Energizer, Panasonic or Duracell from Amazon Marketplace so perhaps the last Energizer batteries are suspect. It's odd though the PC failed to boot when the battery open circuit voltage was 3.2V.

Steve C said:

I didn't do a BIOS update. I just replaced the battery which should have reset the BIOS defaults. I started up into Windows 10 then rebooted to the BIOS to set my BIOS profile to find the Chinese text. I have been buying batteries supposedly by Energizer, Panasonic or Duracell from Amazon Marketplace so perhaps the last Energizer batteries are suspect. It's odd though the PC failed to boot when the battery open circuit voltage was 3.2V.

Thank you for the update.
Unless the batteries stated ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ then they may be fakes.
Have you tried manually resetting the BIOS to default? Reflashing is an option worth trying.
Is all the text in Chinese? Is there a Globe or other option to choose English text?

Steve,

I'm sorry that I seem to have steered your thread away from its main Bios focus so much.
I merely thought battery quality was something worth considering and I thought that the topic would be fairly rapidly resolved.


Best of luck,
Denis