I thought my experiences this morning might cheer some of you up, so here goes:
For about six months HPInfo64 has been telling me that my CMOS battery is running at about 2.2v rather than the official 3v. Not to worry, I thought, let's see how far it gets. Anyway last week it was 1.9v and things booting up fine. Clock fine, all devices working. There was an ominous grunt or two at start up, which didn't sound like a BIOS beep, but no problem. Anyway, yesterday it went down to 1.3v and I cracked. This morning new battery time. I carefully disconnect all peripherals, telling myself I can remember which of the several others from previous experiments (e.g. an HDMI cable) will not be needed when I reconnect. I carry the PC into a nearby room with a table, so I don't damage my back by bending over the PC. Vacuum clean the floor under the normal PC location to remove a few bits of shredded paper and dust.
Unfortunately, my CMOS battery lives happily right underneath the rather large Nvidia 2800 gpu. So that has to come out. My case, lovely in many respects, is a bit small for that graphics card, and a lot of cajoling is required to remove it. I disconnect the PCIe connectors and the USB 3 case connector. A case fan connector, which I didn't notice at first comes out on its own.
The toolless thingies that hold the gpu in place come up easily enough, but flop back down when not held up. I wriggle the gpu manfully, and lo and behold it comes out. Just a moment, what's that bit of plastic which is in the bottom of the case. Yes it's the little lever which holds the gpu in place. Amazingly it isn't broken, and can be refitted (Well done Gigabyte). The CMOS battery is swiftly replaced, once I realise that the little red sticker of a baby on the underside of the battery (telling me the battery tastes horrible) IS in fact a sticker and not just part of the battery, so should be removed.
Now for the herculean task of replacing the graphics card. Amazingly, this goes just fine. I put the two PCIe power connectors back, and the USB3 connector, and the little case fan connector. Ha! You thought I was going to forget something, didn't you?
So, back to the office carrying the rather heavy PC, plug everything in. Switch on. No beep. Fans spin up. Nothing on screen. Then after a worrying couple of minutes, I get a message on screen which says 'connect PCIe power connectors to GPU. BUT I DID!!!!
So here we go again. Feeling rather irritated, I turn off. Unplug everything. Knock over the shredder which lives next to the PC scattering bits of paper on the floor. Pick up 274 bits of shredded paper. Open up PC again. Examine PCIe connectors. Discover that one of them is an 8pin and the other a 6pin, and not both 6pins as I had assumed before. Reconnect both. Replace cover. Plug everything back in. Switch on. Everything works apart from mouse. Turns out the mouse cable is a bit short, and had retired behind a cupboard next to PC. Have another USB connected, which doesn't appear to do anything. Replace mystery USB with mouse connector and all is well. Reinstall UEFI profile, and here I am telling you.
TLDR A 5 minute job can take 2 hours and involve unexpected additional tasks.
If anybody knows what that other USB connector is for, please send me a postcard.
For about six months HPInfo64 has been telling me that my CMOS battery is running at about 2.2v rather than the official 3v. Not to worry, I thought, let's see how far it gets. Anyway last week it was 1.9v and things booting up fine. Clock fine, all devices working. There was an ominous grunt or two at start up, which didn't sound like a BIOS beep, but no problem. Anyway, yesterday it went down to 1.3v and I cracked. This morning new battery time. I carefully disconnect all peripherals, telling myself I can remember which of the several others from previous experiments (e.g. an HDMI cable) will not be needed when I reconnect. I carry the PC into a nearby room with a table, so I don't damage my back by bending over the PC. Vacuum clean the floor under the normal PC location to remove a few bits of shredded paper and dust.
Unfortunately, my CMOS battery lives happily right underneath the rather large Nvidia 2800 gpu. So that has to come out. My case, lovely in many respects, is a bit small for that graphics card, and a lot of cajoling is required to remove it. I disconnect the PCIe connectors and the USB 3 case connector. A case fan connector, which I didn't notice at first comes out on its own.
The toolless thingies that hold the gpu in place come up easily enough, but flop back down when not held up. I wriggle the gpu manfully, and lo and behold it comes out. Just a moment, what's that bit of plastic which is in the bottom of the case. Yes it's the little lever which holds the gpu in place. Amazingly it isn't broken, and can be refitted (Well done Gigabyte). The CMOS battery is swiftly replaced, once I realise that the little red sticker of a baby on the underside of the battery (telling me the battery tastes horrible) IS in fact a sticker and not just part of the battery, so should be removed.
Now for the herculean task of replacing the graphics card. Amazingly, this goes just fine. I put the two PCIe power connectors back, and the USB3 connector, and the little case fan connector. Ha! You thought I was going to forget something, didn't you?
So, back to the office carrying the rather heavy PC, plug everything in. Switch on. No beep. Fans spin up. Nothing on screen. Then after a worrying couple of minutes, I get a message on screen which says 'connect PCIe power connectors to GPU. BUT I DID!!!!
So here we go again. Feeling rather irritated, I turn off. Unplug everything. Knock over the shredder which lives next to the PC scattering bits of paper on the floor. Pick up 274 bits of shredded paper. Open up PC again. Examine PCIe connectors. Discover that one of them is an 8pin and the other a 6pin, and not both 6pins as I had assumed before. Reconnect both. Replace cover. Plug everything back in. Switch on. Everything works apart from mouse. Turns out the mouse cable is a bit short, and had retired behind a cupboard next to PC. Have another USB connected, which doesn't appear to do anything. Replace mystery USB with mouse connector and all is well. Reinstall UEFI profile, and here I am telling you.
TLDR A 5 minute job can take 2 hours and involve unexpected additional tasks.
If anybody knows what that other USB connector is for, please send me a postcard.
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Home built
- CPU
- Ryzen 3900x
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte Aorus Master x570 rel 1.0
- Memory
- 32GB (2x16) @ 3600 MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX
- Graphics Card(s)
- Gigabyte Windforce RTX 2080
- Sound Card
- No separate sound card.
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Dell U2718Q
- Screen Resolution
- 3840x2160
- Hard Drives
- 1TB WD-Black SN850; 1TB Samsung Sata 850 Evo; 4 TB WD Blue Sata SA510 2.5''; 4TB Samsung Sata SSD 870 EVO 2.5".
- PSU
- Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 11 750W
- Case
- Lian Li PC-8FIB
- Cooling
- CPU: Noctua NH-U12A; Case: BeQuiet + Lian Li fans.
- Keyboard
- Steelseries Apex 7 brown keys.
- Mouse
- Logitech (wired) G403
- Internet Speed
- 940 Mb/s down; 105 Mb/s up
- Browser
- Edge (Chromium)
- Antivirus
- Eset Internet Security
- Other Info
- Pioneer blu-ray optical drive.
-
- Operating System
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell Inspiron 7373 2-in-1
- CPU
- Intel Core i7 8th Generation
- Motherboard
- Dell 0HG1FH (U3E1)
- Memory
- 8GB DDR4
- Graphics card(s)
- Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Dell)
- Sound Card
- Realtek Audio (on motherboard)
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Touch screen generic monitor
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080
- Hard Drives
- 256GB Micron SATA SSD.
- Browser
- Edge Chromium
- Antivirus
- Eset Internet Security
- Other Info
- Dell says this system is not Windows 11 capable, but Microsoft seems happy with it.
