On Thu, 4/9/2026 11:18 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:

I bought an MSI Raptor Lake mobo, as I got a CPU for free.
I only used it for a few weeks over 2 years and it wouldn't
boot. Remove graphics card, RAM and disk drive, still
nothing. Put power supply on tester it is fine.
Then find the CMOS battery has only 0,3 volts!
Piss weak it goes flat in that time.
I have older PCs (Kaby Lake) still going without skipping a beat

For new-old stock, the CMOS battery in a motherboard can
be running that whole time and draining. For example, on
my 4930K system, the motherboard was the last one in town
and the battery had two years of wear on it. The calculated
lifetime of a CR2032 is a little bit shy of three years,
which means not a lot of life is left.

<=======> 2.9 years at 10ua # Motherboard ships, with CR2032 in its socket.

<=======> 2.9 years at 10ua # You store the PC in a closet, no mains power

<============================> # Ten years is the shelf life of a CR2032 (in its plastic package)

<============================> # A PC in soft-off state, with +5VSB present, consumes no CR2032

The lifetime then, depends on the situation. And new-old stock
is a thing. My motherboard for example, was pretty obscure,
not a lot shipped, the stock in town ? Came from the first 40 foot
container sent to North America. and that's how you end up with
two years burned off the unpowered-lifetime of the motherboard battery.

You should be able to find the EverReady CR2032 datasheet, take the mAh
rating of the battery, divide by 10uA, and from that, get the more
precise figure on the "less than 3 year" value. What is pretty amazing,
is the number of CR2032 products that all behave the same. There can be
more variation between alkaline batteries than that. For all of its
faults, the CR2032 is still a relatively amazing product, for the
amount of chemicals inside it.

Apple solved this problem, by having a "giant" cell in their desktop
machine. You hardly ever have to worry about it (the retired machine
is flat). But when you price a spare cell to take its place, it's
quite expensive, and relatively speaking you are no further ahead.

We started with Dallas Semi chips for time keeping, where the cell
was buried in dark epoxy plastic. And the only way to do a battery
swap on those, was to Dremel your way inside them. Be thankful
the replacement of the CR2032 is almost convenient now.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 10/04/2026 04:18, Nomen Nescio wrote:

I bought an MSI Raptor Lake mobo, as I got a CPU for free.
I only used it for a few weeks over 2 years and it wouldn't
boot. Remove graphics card, RAM and disk drive, still
nothing. Put power supply on tester it is fine.
Then find the CMOS battery has only 0,3 volts!
Piss weak it goes flat in that time.
I have older PCs (Kaby Lake) still going without skipping a beat

Report back when the new battery fails. Then we will know if it is an
actual motherboard fault.


--
Regards
wasbit

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 4/10/2026 11:18 AM, Nomen Nescio wrote:

I bought an MSI Raptor Lake mobo, as I got a CPU for free.
I only used it for a few weeks over 2 years and it wouldn't
boot. Remove graphics card, RAM and disk drive, still
nothing. Put power supply on tester it is fine.
Then find the CMOS battery has only 0,3 volts!
Piss weak it goes flat in that time.
I have older PCs (Kaby Lake) still going without skipping a beat

You sure that you started with a 100% new CR2032 battery?

The motherboard might have been in the shelf for over a year. Or the motherboard might actually a 2nd-hand item resold as a new one.

All the motherboards I bought are NOT sealed in plastic. There was
absolutely no guarantee that they were new.


--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 4/10/2026 4:21 PM, wasbit wrote:

Report back when the new battery fails. Then we will know if it is an
actual motherboard fault.

A bugged motherboard (e.g. eavedropping devices) can cause CMOS battery
to "bleed".... :)

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 4/10/2026 12:28 PM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 4/10/2026 11:18 AM, Nomen Nescio wrote:

I bought an MSI Raptor Lake mobo, as I got a CPU for free.
I only used it for a few weeks over 2 years and it wouldn't
boot. Remove graphics card, RAM and disk drive, still
nothing. Put power supply on tester it is fine.
Then find the CMOS battery has only 0,3 volts!
Piss weak it goes flat in that time.
I have older PCs (Kaby Lake) still going without skipping a beat

You sure that you started with a 100% new CR2032 battery?

The motherboard might have been in the shelf for over a year. Or the motherboard might actually a 2nd-hand item resold as a new one.

All the motherboards I bought are NOT sealed in plastic. There was absolutely no guarantee that they were new.

The MSI have a black tape (not electrical tape), the Asus didn't
have anything this time. They used to have tamper-tape of various sorts.

The MSI ESD bags use the filament pattern inside the bag, while
the Asus have the plain finish ESD bags.

Paul



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 4/11/2026 1:33 AM, Paul wrote:

The MSI have a black tape (not electrical tape), the Asus didn't
have anything this time. They used to have tamper-tape of various sorts.

The MSI ESD bags use the filament pattern inside the bag, while
the Asus have the plain finish ESD bags.

But is it possible to remove a tamper tape and re-apply it again? By
heat for example? :)

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 4/12/2026 7:30 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 4/11/2026 1:33 AM, Paul wrote:

The MSI have a black tape (not electrical tape), the Asus didn't
have anything this time. They used to have tamper-tape of various sorts.

The MSI ESD bags use the filament pattern inside the bag, while
the Asus have the plain finish ESD bags.

But is it possible to remove a tamper tape and re-apply it again? By heat for example? :)

Tamper-designs are meant to make tampering to be visible.
That's why the tapes rip, the pigment comes off, and
all sorts of other stuff.

They put decals over screws sometimes, to mark when an item
has been opened.

Companies that are not nice, they glue the pieces of the shell
of the electronics together, so you have to use a hot knive, a
Dremel, to get at the inside of the item. My crappy HDMI screen
recorder is like that (an item that is already broken).
You cannot buy anything and hope it is fit for purpose.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 4/12/2026 8:37 PM, Paul wrote:

Tamper-designs are meant to make tampering to be visible.
That's why the tapes rip, the pigment comes off, and
all sorts of other stuff.

They put decals over screws sometimes, to mark when an item
has been opened.

Companies that are not nice, they glue the pieces of the shell
of the electronics together, so you have to use a hot knive, a
Dremel, to get at the inside of the item. My crappy HDMI screen
recorder is like that (an item that is already broken).
You cannot buy anything and hope it is fit for purpose.

The question about pizza glue, it could have been answered factually.
As there are food grade substances that are sticky. The AI should
have been open-minded enough to "take the high road".

There are 20 million organic chemicals now, to give some idea
how big the palette of possibilities is. A few of them, are edible,
and a few of them, are made from food.

Thanks.

--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)