[SOLVED] Battery replacement in MSI Z590 Ace

[Penniless Film Maker]

Some months ago I completed a build using the MSI Z590 Ace motherboard. Just today I realized that to replace the battery I must remove the GPU and a cover over the audio section of the board. The cover has the words "Audio Boost 5 HD" in gold. The manual seems to be silent on the matter and I have found no YouTube videos showing this operation. I look at photos and find no screws on that cover similar to the SSD heat spreaders next to it. I did a video of my assembly process. I have a shot I made while placing the heat spreader over the second and third SSD where I can see the battery under this cover. How does one remove this cover?

It is my hope that I do not need to replace this battery prior to a major upgrade operation several years from now. But I feel it is safest to purchase a spare and keep it on hand in case I am forced to do this early. I would really like to leave the system on its table and would not want to take to computer down stairs to the kitchen table on which it was assembled.

I am concerned because I have been turning off the power bus nightly so that my WiFi is not active.

 

[lvt]

1. Never trust a button battery, most of them would last for many years, but some won't.

2. It's a bad idea to use your PC as Wi-Fi hot-spot, you should use a dedicated Wi-Fi router, it costs much less than the motherboard.

3. It's also a bad idea to switch off the PSU daily, PSU are designed to stay on 24/7. You can leave them under power for years without problem. Switching a PSU on and off twice a day would force some components to work harder, for example the capacitors have to charge and discharge repeatedly.

 

[Penniless Film Maker]

I really appreciate the responses available from these forums. I would like to know how to remove the cover. I am sorry that I did not notice this while building or I would have determined how to do this at that time. It is under my graphics card so I will wait until time of need.

If turning the power on once per day, allowing it to run for 17 hours then off until the next day is a poor practice, perhaps be quiet! should add this to their PSU manual. I do not use the motherboard as a hot spot. The router and cable modem share a surge protector with the computer.

Michael