Question BIOS corrupts AiTweaker settings and PC becomes unstable

[demurius]

I have Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 paired with i5-3570K. The PC became unstable with many BSODs even under medium load. I looked into BIOS and found some wrong values on AiTweaker page. Resetting to defaults fixed wrong values, but when I changed the date I got exactly the same wrong values again in AiTweaker. I also tried clearing cmos (battery+jumper). The very first restart was ok, but changing anything unrelated to AiTweaker brings corrupted AiTweaker settings back. This happens all the time and wrong values are always the same. I thought it was the faulty bios chip and replaced it with a brand new chip flashed with the latest version of bios. But the problem is still there, so it's not the chip's fault.

Here is AiTweaker page after resetting to default setting:


This is what happens when I change anything (even just the date) and restart:


As you can see the target turbo boost and dram values are wrong, tuner is set to Manual, and pretty much all other settings are messed up (like "42" for "By All Cores" options).
Is this the hardware or software issue?

 

[Koekieezz]

I have Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 paired with i5-3570K. The PC became unstable with many BSODs even under medium load. I looked into BIOS and found some wrong values on AiTweaker page. Resetting to defaults fixed wrong values, but when I changed the date I got exactly the same wrong values again in AiTweaker. I also tried clearing cmos (battery+jumper). The very first restart was ok, but changing anything unrelated to AiTweaker brings corrupted AiTweaker settings back. This happens all the time and wrong values are always the same. I thought it was the faulty bios chip and replaced it with a brand new chip flashed with the latest version of bios. But the problem is still there, so it's not the chip's fault.

Here is AiTweaker page after resetting to default setting:


This is what happens when I change anything (even just the date) and restart:


As you can see the target turbo boost and dram values are wrong, tuner is set to Manual, and pretty much all other settings are messed up (like "42" for "By All Cores" options).
Is this the hardware or software issue?

Try to update to the latest bios. By flashing the latest bios, it will overwrite the eeprom chip, and try to set the clock again.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Resetting to defaults fixed wrong values, but when I changed the date I got exactly the same wrong values again in AiTweaker. I also tried clearing cmos (battery+jumper). The very first restart was ok, but changing anything unrelated to AiTweaker brings corrupted AiTweaker settings back. This happens all the time and wrong values are always the same. I thought it was the faulty bios chip and replaced it with a brand new chip flashed with the latest version of bios. But the problem is still there, so it's not the chip's fault.

Is this the hardware or software issue?

I suspect it may be a dead or dying CMOS battery.
Replace the battery CR2032.

 

[demurius]

Try to update to the latest bios. By flashing the latest bios, it will overwrite the eeprom chip, and try to set the clock again.

Thanks for your reply! I updated to the previous version 3703 first, just to be sure the problems persists, then updated back to 3802. Still the same (even the wrong numbers from my screenshot are the same).

I suspect it may be a dead or dying CMOS battery.
Replace the battery CR2032.

Replacing cmos battery was the first thing I tried. No luck. Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[demurius]

I just noticed that the bios reports voltages as 3.28v and 4.96v (see the attached pic). If I remember correctly those values are normally slightly above 3.3v and 5v. Can such low values cause the issue? Any ideas?