Sabertooth Battery Fun - Stable & FIXED!

[Grumpus]

Couldn't figure out why things were getting screwed up, time settings, LAN state changing, altered other states and the constant notice there was an error and the Bios warning page kept coming up at boot.
First thing you would think is the battery, not lunkhead! Sabertooth Z77 Mil-spec not have battery, welcome Bizarro.
Took some changes and re-change and boot and reboot and finally reading the manual and looking for the battery, shown clearly as a Lithium cell (usually CR2032 but un-named) right in the middle of the board layout on page 2.2.1.
Looking at board the diagram show the battery right between the two long slots closest to the small fan. Anyone see a battery? Nope.
OK, so reading some sites this thermal protective covering is not the thing you want to remove, along with going the whole nine yards and trying to remove it with no luck. What puzzles me is why there's not at least a hatch or a smaller section to remove. What happens if I want to remove the battery again?

Answer: Prybar and garden shears. The small fan has a metal housing and is anchored sufficiently deep in the MB frame to use as a fulcrum point. The shear have a small bottom part which can slide under the partially lifted plastic enough to cut through with several tries and remove a section of the thermal covering. Voilà, battery access.

Also note some damage may occur to other things if you don't watch out for them, one is the two hole jumper for the 3 pin CLRTC. This jumper maintains the time memory or clears it depending on how you plant it on the three prongs. The manual has how to put it but bending the pins and knocking off the jumper is the hazard.

Anyway all back and functional except access to my ISP account management which is borked due to the Ca-certificate and other open ssl updates. Ain't computing fun. Least I don't have to worry about the damned battery anymore.
Shame Asus, shame shame shame. But I still like the board.

[trolly]

Reminds me of the "old" RTC chips with a sealed piggyback battery. If the battery is empty you have to either replace the chip or the motherboard.

[Grumpus]

This was not so bad, lucky to have old format garden shears and small prybar.
Something still is affecting some of the setup, and the time seems to be set to a UTC or other time zone than in US EST.
Still some work to do.

[LIMPET235]

An oxy-acetalene torch will get you very quick access to the MB & battery, Grump.

(Closest I could find.)

[Grumpus]

Nah! Have window and hammer.

[Grumpus]

The board does not want to hold the BIOS settings. Granted there was a bit of rough handling but it was done carefully and did not interfere with anything except the prongs for the CMOS jumper. You can blame the CMOS jumper and prongs but that idea could be an error as they are fine and the jumper checked, standard procedure run, off one pair and on to another pair and back again to wipe the Cmos info and allow for new settings). Date keeps returning to 01/01/2009. BIOS version installed is year 2013 and as current as Asus has provided (proper for the model and CPU). It was updated prior to battery replacement and the loss of the Bios data may not have been related to the battery at all as the voltage in the old Lithium CR2032 was also checked and minimally different than the new battery. Battery is seated properly.
Normal time setting for any OS is Manual but on occasion I might use the On-line to set if the OS allows. Mint does not have NTP but on occasion I see a Cannonical server IP pop up in the UDP section of the IP Monitor. NTP.config file forMint has only the Canonical server in it and it is commented out.
What seems to be a real issue is the Bios is now looking for a 6 hour difference in order to present the right time in the operating systems instead of the original 5 hours. I know their was some security grief over NTP server compromises a short while ago, hopefully this is not the case.
Additionally - 123 port closed on Mint and Ubuntu prior to issues. Opened after for testing and resets. Mint does not have capability for some reason but Ubuntu server shows in UDP traffic panel on startup.
I've tried a number of settings and sometimes it holds for a day and sometimes it just goes to a fault condition and the Asus Bios warning pops up again.
Looked at every monitoring capability and checked things like the system logs which do show the date and time changes. Other than having to reset the Bios each time the system comes on everything seems normal.
The Bios has both UEFI and Legacy suggestions and a setting for Windows XP or Other OS. It has always been set to Other OS but keeps reverting to Windows XP.
The six hour difference leads me to the obnoxious inpout from the Sprint servers in the Mid-west and am wondering if they are transferring time codes for Windows and messing up the time.
I have noticed time changes while the system has been on line and it seems the loss is gradual as checking the BIos from a re-boot the time settings are changed but maybe not the date.
Turned off overnight the system amy or may not lose some of the settings but the clocks for all operating systems are usually wrong compared to the BIOS.
I had been thinking this was related to the use of UTC in the BIos and EST in the OSs
Checked all connections and the temperatures are around 90 deg. F.
A couple of fans seem to be recorded as running at 4000+ rpms which seems odd as the other fans all appear to be running at about 600 RPM on the low fan switch setting.
There's also some indication of a switch issue in the NZXT Phantom 410 case. Took the case apart and see a slight discoloration under the circuit board similar to what a short might do but figured this could also be from factory solder work. Checked connections and cleaned between the switches and the case actuators. The switch had some issues for about a week, not turning on or having the computer reboot several times or seem to get caught in a loop but stopped after the cleaning. Wonder if this is a switch fault causing the improper start or if possibly some insect caused the problem.
I've written to NZXT for a replacement switch but so far no answer back.

On line with the system now and everything appears to be holding so any ideas would help including the axe, flamethrower or I could just put a suicide note in the CD drive and throw the system off the Bay Bridge.
Probably get a ticket for illegal dumping if they don't believe the note.

[LIMPET235]

Grump,
I don't know how Linux operates but I recently changed my NTP servers to my "local" group.
See if that helps with the time zone differences.

[Grumpus]

Time problem appears to be resolved (knock on wood). Timezone appears stable at present and unmolested.
Leaving it as manual control but noticed Mint requires a password but for some reason administrator is not required for Ubuntu.
I'm still finding reversions to a Windows XP setting and Lan enabled when it was disabled in the BIos. Someone's idea of a practical joke?
Have some ideas and am working on it. System held after a physical review and recheck of all connections, including battery seating.
Strong possibility battery was not pushed in hard enough for lower catch, gently scraped the underside contact point as well
I noted the battery appeared to seat lower this time around and a complete wipe of the CMOS settings (using jumper procedure) and a restore allowed everything to hold with power off and power strip off for several hours yesterday.
Started the system up this morning and it opened with the proper time, splash screen delay but a review of the Bios had the Lan and Windows XP changes re-instated.
I'm starting to think this may be part of some attempt to zombie the computer through the Mint side which was reported as what appeared to be the reason for the Mint server breach.
Seems to occur after running the Mint OS, not Ubuntu or Fedora.
Also removed the Modemmanager as some of the breach may have relied on that.
I'm still playing and suspicioning <---is this a non-word? Moved to the heavy duty tin foil with lead foil liner.

I'm also picking up some nss warnings in the syslog as far as nss-myname not being enabled.
As I named the computer system using the first installation of Ubuntu and then again with Mint and Fedora.
Don't really know if it's part of the affected changes or necessary?

I really didn't need the drama and I'm sure no one else does.

[Grumpus]

Update: system held for another longer period. No reversion to Windows XP setting or Lan enable. We'll see after today.
Just guessing but not pushing the battery in hard enough could be the culprit, the switch seems to be unaffected at present.
Still waiting for a reply from NZXT on replacement.
Removal of the modem manager also seems to cut down on some of the IP traffic noise which makes me wonder if it was causing some conflict or signaling for connections.

The nss-myhostname1 error which showed up in the system, apt and dpkg logs is apparently a known bug but disappeared with the removal of the modem manager.

[Grumpus]

Figured, though this is a four year old thread it might help with some idea on battery life for cmos systems using cr2032 batteries.
Battery died last week so the bios had to be reset on this system but the good news is with the system shutting down daily and a 3 year life expectancy
the battery lasted more than four years. New battery in March of 2016, replacement battery July 12, 2020.
If interested CMOS Battery Life

[LIMPET235]

Hi Grumps,
It's really not a good idea to bump these very old threads.
Best to start a new one....eh wot?.....& refer/link back to them, if needed.
Thanks mate.
Stay safe out there.
Locking due to very old age.

ps. I "normally" get around 5 or 6 years out of my CR2032 battery.
But, I always check the "Use by date" or the date of manufacture.