Blown CMOS

[Reece]

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?

[kiwi_2005]

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.

[krashkart]

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.

[Reece]

Ah I see, you just finished it off!! 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.
You probably know this but don't hurt to mention. Good Luck!

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Reece

Ah I see, you just finished it off!! 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.
You probably know this but don't hurt to mention. Good Luck!

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

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.

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.

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

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

[Reece]

Do not muscle the chip from its socket. Bad.

Yes it's best to use fine tools such as a jimmy bar.

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

Excellent, you're right on the ball!

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

No but it can't hurt except for the roach!
Instead of connecting to the power supply case you could always connect it to the mains!