Location of onboard CMOS battery for ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI

[Braegnok]

Does anyone know the location of the onboard CMOS battery for STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI motherboard.

The reason I'm asking is the system worked fine on the bench with Intel Pentium G7400 Gold CPU with the included OEM Intel Cooler, RTX A2000 12GB card in PCIe X16 slot. Everything worked fine, I loaded Windows 11 Pro, and all drivers, updated BIOS.



System Specs:


OK,.. after updating system I pulled the Pentium chip and installed Intel Core i7-12700K CPU, and installed motherboard in LIAN LI A4-H20-X4 chassis, than custom water cooling single loop on CPU.



After completing the build in chassis, leak-testing, filling loop the system will not post, I have no DP out from graphics card, thus no monitor. The fans all spin-up, and pump starts, all DRGB lighting,.. but no display on monitor.



The GPU is mounted on the back side of chassis with a 4.0 riser cable.



Now is whare things get frustrating,.. I figured the riser cable could be the issue, so I re-set both motherboard, GPU connections and no luck.

Than I replaced riser cable with known working right angle 4.0 riser cable,.. just coming out the front with card laying on bench as all I wanted was to see if cable was faulty, but still the same issue no display.

Than decided to go with IGPU, pulled riser cable and tried onboard graphics both type-C ports and HDMI ports and no display.

I have powered off, pulled power cord, pushed clear CMOS button on rear IO several times and no display, no post with IGPU,.. which should default to on-board graphics when no card is installed as BIOS setting was in AUTO when I tested system on bench.

So I decided perhaps pulling CMOS battery, and pushing clear CMOS might solve issue. As it seems swapping CPU to i7-12700K must be the issue, as system was fine on bench before swapping CPU.

I have not started system after swapping CPU, I just pulled Pentium chip installed i7-12700K and built system in chassis.

Any thoughts, advice before I start tearing apart this system looking for CMOS battery,.. I know it's not under M.2 drives, or on back-side of board. I'm thinking the battery is located under rear IO shroud which means I will need to drain system, and pull CPU block to remove IO shroud.

Thanks in advance for any advice,.. hopefully someone has a fix for this issue that does not require pulling CPU block,..

[Braegnok]

Well,.. I ended up pulling the motherboard.

Removed the water block, reinstalled the Pentium chip & cooler.



Than set up everything as it was on the bench when system was good to go, planned on booting into BIOS and confirming default settings, and than pull Pentium, reinstall i7-12700K with air cooler to boot back into BIOS.

Unfortunately still no DP signal to monitor with Pentium chip. And no IGPU onboard graphics,.. CPU fan spins up, GPU fan spins up everything seems good, but no signal to monitor.

I found the onboard CMOS battery, it's located under the 50mm fan, inside rear heat shroud,.. and behind rear IO cover.

The battery & holder is wrapped in heat shrink, glued to the side of the rear USB sockets,.. to pull battery you need to follow wires over to a two-pin plug.



I pulled the two-pin connector for CMOS, and pushed the clear CMOS button on rear IO. Put everything back together, and still no DP signal to monitor.

The BIOS flash-back on rear IO does not work to reflash BIOS, I think system needs to be started in default settings than powered off to use the Flash-Back on rear IO.

I'm done with testing for tonight,.. going to pull the CPU in the morning and inspect socket for bent pins.

It's possible that CPU socket was damaged when I swapped out chip the first time, or the socket was damaged from the get-go,.. and I just got lucky with the system working fine on the bench the first time.

I've built and loaded dozens of systems with Pentium chip & cooler in the past, than loaded Default Settings in BIOS, shut down system and swapped out CPU, and have never had any issues like this. Generally with current BIOS loaded, Windows installed and all system drivers, updates installed,.. after swapping out CPU the system automatically boots into BIOS on F1 error, new hardware exception,..

Edit:
The CPU socket is fine, no bent pins or damage.

[Braegnok]

Sent into Asus RMA, waiting on results.

[Braegnok]

Asus Support RMA has denied my warranty.

Reporting CID, false accusations about solder on backside of motherboard.





Vary upset at this point with Asus voiding my warranty, claiming I soldered something on the backside of motherboard.

I guess now I have a vary Expensive paperweight for my desk.

[ahfoo]

Asus Support RMA has denied my warranty.

Reporting CID, false accusations about solder on backside of motherboard.





Vary upset at this point with Asus voiding my warranty, claiming I soldered something on the backside of motherboard.

I guess now I have a vary Expensive paperweight for my desk.

Just return back to the retail shop and ask for similar board and check if there is same thing happened and took the image of it to clear yourself. That is how I RMA my ROG Rampage MOBO many years ago. That my opinion. Sorry if I am wrong. But from the image you provide, it was indeed a bad soldering.

[Braegnok]

@ ahfoo,.. it's a long shot, but at this point is indeed my only option.

I contacted the retail shop I bought the motherboard from and I explained the RMA report, voided warranty,.. they agreed to make an exception to the 30-day return policy,.. they are going to give me a full refund.

That's vary strange about the solder on backside of motherboard, I agree the photo does look like a funky solder job. I never checked the back of the motherboard after receiving it, but was a new item in a sealed retail box.

Thanks

[xeromist]

I believe one of the Youtube tech outlets (LTT?) did a video on modern CMOS replacements and the implication was that removing the battery is the same as a reset/clear from the interface (or a jumper for boards that have them). Apparently most of the important stuff is stored in non-volatile storage these days so battery loss is merely treated as a signal to execute a reset.

I know this is all academic now and you would have had to dismantle the loop anyway but it's something I've filed away for future troubleshooting. It will make me think twice before going to extra effort to mess with the battery.

[Braegnok]

I believe one of the Youtube tech outlets (LTT?) did a video on modern CMOS replacements and the implication was that removing the battery is the same as a reset/clear from the interface (or a jumper for boards that have them). Apparently most of the important stuff is stored in non-volatile storage these days so battery loss is merely treated as a signal to execute a reset.

I know this is all academic now and you would have had to dismantle the loop anyway but it's something I've filed away for future troubleshooting. It will make me think twice before going to extra effort to mess with the battery.

Yes,.. I was trying to send signal to execute a reset.

Pushing the clear CMOS button located on rear IO was not working.

In ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI owners manual the steps for clearing CMOS,.. shows if steps above do not help, than remove the onboard button cell battery to clear CMOS RTC data,.. finding the button cell battery was a task.



Clearing CMOS still did not resolve start-up issue in my case, as it should have.

The system was fully stable on the bench, and after swapping out CPU the system would not post, or boot into BIOS.

[MasterC@ROG]

Try booting without the riser cable, getting that to work with PCIe 4.0 can be finicky.

BTW, here is the battery - CR2032

[MasterC@ROG]

If you have questions about service-related issues, you can go here:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?295

For now, I think it's a little early for that.