I finally gave up on my old way of fixing boot loops after a rough Tuesday in Tacoma.

A client brought in a gaming PC stuck in a boot loop, and I spent two hours swapping parts before my coworker suggested clearing the CMOS with the power cable unplugged, which fixed it instantly. I had always assumed a hardware fault first, but that simple step saved the day. How often do you guys find that a full power drain resolves weird boot issues?

3 comments

3 Comments

caseythompson10d ago

Had a custom build that refused to post after a power outage. Pulled the CMOS battery for a minute and it was like nothing ever happened.

drew_jones3111d ago

Yeah that "full power drain" trick is a lifesaver. My buddy had a similar thing with his media server, it just would not post no matter what. He was ready to buy a new motherboard after a weekend of testing. I told him to pull the power cord and hold the power button for like 30 seconds to clear any leftover charge. He did it as a joke, plugged it back in, and it fired right up. It's crazy how often the fix is just letting the system forget its own bad state.

kimfisher11d ago

Man, that reminds me of a weird one from last year. A guy brought in a laptop that would only turn on if the battery was out and the charger was unplugged first. We tried everything, even reflowed the board. Turns out the tiny internal battery for the clock was completely dead and holding the system in a weird state. A five dollar part and it booted fine. Sometimes the fix is just the dumbest, simplest thing you overlook.