Will PC power up if BIOS battery is dead?

[NRGeti]

The topic asks my question. My other PC will not power up. The CPU fan starts to spin then quits and nothing else happens.

I think both the power supply and motherboard are fried.

 

[maxthedork]

Yes it will, it just won't remember BIOS settings.

You're probably correct in your second assumption. If you have a spare motherboard, I'd test that with the current Power supply first. If that boots, you know it's the motherboard. If not, it's the power supply.

 

[ski]

A dead CMOS battery will cause CMOS error messages to appear on the screen, but it will normally not shut down the computer.

If your system was previously working, then make sure all connections are secure, and all cards and RAM are firmly seated.
If those are ok, then do a barebones by installing just the PS, MB, CPU, RAM, video card, monitor, and KB. If it starts and gives a display without shutting down, then connect all drives and other cards one at a time until the problem resurfaces. The last component installed is the culprit.

If the problem still happens with the above barebones setup, then it may be caused by a bad PS, MB, or CPU.
Check the MB for any bulging, leaking, or ruptured capacitors.
If there are none, then either swap out those items, or have them shop tested.

 

[zbnet]

It depends on the age of the PC. Modern PCs can autosense the primary hard disk and then boot it, but in really old PCs you had to manually select the HD parameters for the BIOS to be able to boot from it. If those settings are then lost, the PC is unbootable until you tell the BIOS what the HD is.

 

[edfair]

This is the symptom of an overcurrent condition. Time to pull all the power from drives and try again.
Can be a power supply problem but more likely a drive or the M/B have started to draw excess current. It is also possible that the fan sensing has gone out and the machine is shutting down for self protection.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.