Question How do I fix this CLR CMOS issue?

Deshong

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May 11, 2013
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When I turn the computer on the monitor will not display anything. I get a 4F code from the Dr. Debug. I have an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 motherboard.

I tried clearing the CMOS using the jumper and it does work but when I restart or shutdown the same issue occurs. I also tried going into the settings and flashing the BIOS and that worked temporarily but again with the CLR CMOS/4F error.

I don't know what else to do, any help or insight would be appreciated.
 
This is my first gaming desktop I built myself back in 2013 I think.

NZXT Phantom 240 ATX Mid-Tower
Win 7 Home 64-Bit
Seagate Constellation ES 1 TB HDD
Super Writemaster DVD multi-recorder
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
G. Skill Ripjaws 2x4 GB (8 GB RAM) DDR3 1600 MHz
Intel Core i7 3770K @ 3.5 GHz
EVGA NVidia GTX 660
EVGA 600 B 80 Plus Bronze power supply

I have a wired Dell keyboard, a wireless Polaroid mouse, 2 Seagate external HDD one 3 TB and the other 8 TB. I'm using an ASUS VP228 monitor and using Sound Intone BT08 Bluetooth Wireless Headphone (wired).

Additionally, something I thought about is when did I start having issues with this. At first the monitor would take a prolonged time to display and it started happening more frequently until the monitor would display nothing at all. Besides the 4F code, a red light was on coming from the back of the motherboard where it says CLR CMOS. I'm not sure when I've been having this issue initially but it seems not too long ago so I've been wondering could it have something to do with what DirecTV did.

I remembered overhearing the technician on the phone mentioning something about the Verizon router and he drilled into the floor to get to the basement to connect something to the router. While there is nothing from DirecTV directly connected to my computer, I am using the ethernet cable of that Verizon router. I don't know if that could somehow interfere with something or not but out of curiosity I disconnected that USB and other ethernet cable to see if that is necessary for the cable to work. And I found out, so far, that the cable still works in all rooms so I'm confused why was that even set up like that in the first place.

Then I decided to just start the computer just to see if that problem continues or not and it did just start up normally without me clearing the CMOS first to see if there were any issues. No issues...so far for the first attempt. But I will try to restart and if that successful then I will shut down and then reboot again to see if there's any change. However, I have no idea if the DirecTV connections are the culprit or not. Could this be just a coincidence or related?
 
Disconnecting the USB may be fixing your problem. Keep in mind your motherboard has two USB 3.0 controllers. The Z77 chipset + an add-on ASMedia controller chip. Have you ever updated the driver for the ASMedia chip? You can also look in "Control Panel > Device Manager" to look for any yellow warning signs.
 
I rebooted and it did start up normally. However, when I shut down and reboot I get the 4F code repeating while lingering 3x before booting up into the OS. It seems this issue will resurface sooner or later again.

No, I don't recall ever updating the driver for the ASMedia chip. I don't see any yellow warning signs when checking everything there and it says "This device is working properly." or "No drivers are installed for this device." I also see under the Resources tab > Conflicting device list: "No conflicts." for anything as of yet.
 
It says:

The hard disk status is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found and there are no spin up or data transfer errors.

No actions needed.

It has 100% for both performance and health with a temperature of 38 celsius.

Power on time: 1647 days, 1 hour
Estimated remaining lifetime: more than 177 days
Total start/stop count: 1,775
 
Seems like you're stumbling around in the dark a bit here. Standard approach to troubleshooting low level POST or BIOS issues like this is to remove everything non-essential. That means all drives, all but one stick of RAM, all add-in cards and every USB device except the keyboard. Given you have an onboard GPU, you should remove your GTX 660 and switch over to your onboard graphics.

With everything but the essentials removed, can you reliably boot, access the BIOS and reboot? If so, it's one of the things you disconnected. So start adding them back one at a time until the problem re-occurs -> you've isolated the issue.
If it still doesn't boot reliably with only the essentials, swap out the single RAM stick for the other and check again. Failing that, you've got a low level issue with the CPU, BIOS or RAM compatibility.
 
@ElectrO_90
No, I have not tried changing the CMOS battery or removing it and putting it back because the status for it says okay and so I've read one of the most common telltale signs if dying is when the computer clock is inaccurate and that is not the case or if it died the computer wouldn't turn on at all. Though that could also signify a dead PSU.

@rhysiam
My computer worked fine all the way from 2013 when I built it until this recent issue, except for the issue with the OS having to be reinstalled because it would frequently get stuck at the welcome screen. Not sure if that was one of the issues with a Windows Update getting corrupted or something else. I haven't changed anything concerning the memory, CPU, GPU, HDD, DVD/CD drive, etc. Only external stuff like keyboards, headphones, external HDD's. I don't recall changing anything else. I know it's not the external HDD's because I still get the 4F code without them plugged it. I could try going back to my previous keyboard with a built-in touchpad and disconnect the wireless USB mouse and don't use the headphones to see if there is any difference.
 
@rhysiam
My computer worked fine all the way from 2013 when I built it until this recent issue, except for the issue with the OS having to be reinstalled because it would frequently get stuck at the welcome screen. Not sure if that was one of the issues with a Windows Update getting corrupted or something else. I haven't changed anything concerning the memory, CPU, GPU, HDD, DVD/CD drive, etc. Only external stuff like keyboards, headphones, external HDD's. I don't recall changing anything else. I know it's not the external HDD's because I still get the 4F code without them plugged it. I could try going back to my previous keyboard with a built-in touchpad and disconnect the wireless USB mouse and don't use the headphones to see if there is any difference.
I don't mean disconnecting just your external devices. Do that too, but for a low level error that's preventing you even getting into the BIOS, a USB device is an unlikely culprit.

The goal here is to identify the offending component with as few steps as possible. There are suggestions above such as USB controller, CMOS battery, Hard Drive, etc. Any of those might be the culprit, but we don't know right now.

My suggestion remains that you strip the PC back to the absolute minimum you need to get into the BIOS. With a screwdriver and two minutes you can remove your graphics card (connect the monitor to your onboard graphics), unplug every disk drive, all USB devices except the keyboard, remove any other add in cards and pull out a stick of RAM.
Either the problem persists or it doesn't. Either way, with 2 minutes work you've drastically narrowed the range of potential culprits and you're well on the way to isolating the issue.

It's just a suggestion. You approach this however you like. But I'll restate it here because IMHO it is the best way forward.
 
@ElectrO_90 It's usually the CR2032 battery? I'll have to check my motherboard to be sure.

@rhysiam I'm not sure what you mean by a low level error that's preventing me from getting into the BIOS. I can get into the UEFI Setup Utility successfully every time during the POST so far. I'm just not familiar with it to really know what I'm doing even though I did load UEFI defaults and when that didn't solve the issue, I tried instant flash but I already was up-to-date with the latest. Though, that seemed to help for a bit but still the same 4F error code which is "DXE IPL is started" according to the motherboard's manual. And I have no idea what that means or how to fix it.

Despite my computer not being 100% reliable to not display anything on the monitor, if I clear CMOS using the jumper it always boots up normally and allows me to either go into the UEFI Setup Utility using F2 or continue on to the OS. Usually, if I go into the UEFI Setup and then save changes and exit or just exit it will go back to a black screen on the monitor with the 4F code on display.
 
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I bought a Fluke 101 Multimeter to test the CMOS battery and it read 3.155 volts which if it's good should read just over 3 volts from what I looked up. Though I have no idea about testing that with a load. I did also test the CMOS battery with a LED light which did turn on. I still bought some CR2032 batteries but not sure if that will be helpful or not yet.

Even though hesitant to take out one stick of memory, GTX 660 and use the onboard graphics, I did and only had the keyboard and monitor plugged in. I still get the 4F code, switched the memory sticks, still got 4F code.
 
In case anyone comes across this, this might be useful. The computer technician told me that I only had one out of four RAM slots working and that is why the computer would only POST properly when installed on the third slot. So the motherboard is not anymore good in this case and would need to be replaced. Of course, I would have had them replace it but because my motherboard is old, they don't carry it anymore so they couldn't do it. But I have seen some online should I want to save up for it and do it myself.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help. I appreciate it.