Blown CMOS
 

I may have touched several of the contacts and blown the interiors of the CMOS to hell last time I pulled it from my stronger desktop unit. I've searched around online for a replacement and hit paydirt (right down to the model number). But before I shell out the clams for it I need to ask if dropping in a replacement chip will do me any good, or if I should just buy a new motherboard? :06:

MTIA

krash (ala kart) :D

Depends on your skills and cost of chip.

Refering to the former (skills) No offence but, YOU broke it in the first place. :haha:

Well, that's true (the latter portion of your post). I do have to give myself credit for one thing, though: that is the only time in 12+ years of tinkering that I've actually blown a component (not counting the time I bayoneted a keyboard :rotfl2:). *woohoo!*

Anyway, I am confident that I can drop it in no problem... as long as I remember to manage my own static and keep all ten thumbs away from the chip. I'm just wondering if there would be any compatibility issues that might bite me in the hindquarters. :DL

How much is chip ?

Twenty-five smackeroos last I checked. I'd best dig around in the volumes of irrelevant bookmarks to find the website that had it listed. I half gave up on it when a friend told me there would be low-level compatibility issues, but I've a renewed interest in getting the old monster machine running again. :DL

What is your CPU Socket and is it a pci-e or Agp vid slot ?

Athlon XP

Socket A motherboard (Soyo K7VT series, IIRC)

AGP slot

Give me alittle time to search around before you buy that chip.

Roger that, FIREWALL.

There's alot of deals on ebay for an A socket mobo starting at $1.00 on up.

But no luck anywhere and I mean anywhere else. Yikes !!!

You say you touched several of the contacts, could you tell me with what? A piece of wire, to the case, with fingers, was the motherboard powered up etc etc, if it was only with your fingers then there should be no harm at all, and shorting contacts with power off shouldn't really do much either?:hmmm:

I would just throw it away and buy another mobo, if its an agp slot mobo, then you could pick up another mobo for real cheap. Or might give you a good reason to upgrade now.

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to put money into a replacement motherboard. Just thought it would be killer awesome to play Frankenstein (that's Frahnkensteen) and drop in a new CMOS.

A full rebuild is out of the question for the time being. And I have so many parts that still work that it would be a shame to let them gather more dust. Won't be able to run any of the newer games but that's not much of a problem for me right now.

Reece, it could have been either a finger or the needlenose pliers (read further; I did use a proper tool to pull the chip. The pliers came along a bit later.). Not certain if it was static shallow fry, or if I damaged it while pulling the sucker out. They don't make it easy to yank those things out of their sockets; a couple of the prongs needed to be bent back into place after that. I don't remember a CMOS being so stubborn.

Anyhoo, I pulled the chip in the first place because during bootstrap it would print about half of the "Press <KEY> to enter Setup" message and then stall out, preventing the computer from booting up at all. Methinks it was buggered before I buggered it. :dead:

Ah I see, you just finished it off!!:oops::yep: Yes once out they are static sensitive so yes probably stuffed, if you're relatively certain that the chip is the problem I would probably purchase the new one, on doing so take care inserting, ground yourself to the chassis & make sure power is off.:yep:
You probably know this but don't hurt to mention.:yep: Good Luck!:up:

Yeah, I probably did finish the poor little devil off. :88)

I always unplug the computer, and ground out on the power supply housing. Plus, an ESD strap clipped to the chassis. Routine. I remember the course materials (years back) mentioning that the best way to repair a computer would be bare naked on a hardwood floor. Not in my realm of possibilities... yet. :haha:

Lessons learned:

Do not muscle the chip from its socket. Bad.

Do not perform computer repairs after six or seven beers. Wait until the fridge is mostly empty. :yeah:

The ESD strap is NOT a roach clip. *glares at room mate*

I'm going off the deep end here... :DL