[SOLVED] Accidentally hit clear CMOS button

[KingKazma]

Hello all,

First of all my system specs:

Mobo: Asus Z170 Deluxe
CPU: i7 6700K
Bootloader: Clover
PSU: Corsair RM750
OS: Separate SSD dual-boot MacOS Sierra & Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit)
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB(MacOS) & 256GB (Win7)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport PC4-21300 (4x8GB)
GFX: 1080 Ti
Cooling: liquid, custom loop

As you perhaps can tell by my specs, this is a hackintosh system (custom built MacOS system). But I figured since the issue I've ran into isn't exclusive to hackintoshes, I may be able to get some assistance here in my state of distress.

I accidentally hit the clear CMOS button when trying to hit the reset button on my motherboard after a hangup. A hangup like this happens rarely, but a quick reset usually fixes it. Said hangup occurred this morning during boot up. So, as per usual, I go to press the reset button on my motherboard. It just so happens that the clear CMOS button is right next to it, and I accidentally pressed it instead. The system power cycled and started up. The screen displayed the Asus splash screen, then one failed attempt to enter BIOS later, the screen displays the American Megatrends logo at the top left. No additional text is on the screen at this time. The boot device led is lit on the motherboard and q-code reads 99

I try to restart the computer and try to enter BIOS a second, and then a third time. No luck, I get the same results. Now I start to enter panic mode. I tried removing the CMOS battery for a while then reinserting, same thing occurs. I'm trying to avoid having to drain my liquid cooling loop, as it's a hassle, but I'm willing to if I need to. I'm kinda freaking out and fearing the worst. So here I am seeking your help.

Thanks for any help offered!

 

[punkncat]

I am not so much help in this as just curious....so clearing the CMOS is basically just restoring the BIOS to it's default setting, so how it could cause the computer not to POST is a little beyond my pay grade. With that said, I also am not aware of what manner of "tricks" you have to pull to get Mac OS to boot on a PC.

With that said, do you happen to have, or have the ability to make a bootable USB? I might suggest loading Windows on one and see if it will hit the "startup" process there. You may have just corrupted your boot loader?

 

[KingKazma]

I am not so much help in this as just curious....so clearing the CMOS is basically just restoring the BIOS to it's default setting, so how it could cause the computer not to POST is a little beyond my pay grade. With that said, I also am not aware of what manner of "tricks" you have to pull to get Mac OS to boot on a PC.

With that said, do you happen to have, or have the ability to make a bootable USB? I might suggest loading Windows on one and see if it will hit the "startup" process there. You may have just corrupted your boot loader?

Thanks for your reply. Well to be frank, there are a few things that need to happen in order to get MacOS running on an otherwise pc build. None of which are too terribly complex. The biggest thing is BIOS settings which I know were reset when I made the mistake of reseting CMOS. The biggest problem right now is that I'm not able to boot into BIOS so that I can change the settings back. When I boot it up, I see the asus splash screen and the prompts to enter into BIOS, but either my keyboard inputs are not being recognized or BIOS is screwed up somehow. This mobo does have BIOS flashback though. I just can't imagine why BIOS would've gotten bricked from a simple CMOS reset.

And to answer your question, yes I do have access to usb bootable media for both windows and MacOS, but if I can't get into BIOS, booting into installable media will prove problematic.

 

[KingKazma]

So, I was able to get it working. What I did was unplug everything from my I/O panel save for my keyboard with the computer powered off, then I turned the computer back on. Once it got past the ASUS splash screen, I was relieved to see a normal American Megatrends readout on my screen. I hit F1 to continue and it brought me to BIOS, where I was able to reconfigure the settings to get my bootloader to post. What a sigh of relief.