Question Motherboard defaulted BIOS on its own?

[punkncat]

What condition could cause a motherboard to go back to 'default' settings outside a bad CMOS battery?

I have a Taichi X370, 2700X, 4X 8GB DDR4 GSkill running at 3000 (18xx default), MSI Gaming X GTX1080, Corsair RM750X...various drives etc.

I was sitting here using the machine last night. I utilize a custom fan tune such that for idle and normal surfing activity it is very quiet. It ramps fans on load/demand. Of note, I have programs installed to control the LED on the RAM and the GPU.

So, as I was saying, sitting here last night just playing a simple game (Vampire Survivors) and plugged in a small bike light to charge like many times before. A few moments later the RAM LEDs default and the fans in the system ramp up. Still running, no apparent issue otherwise. I figured there was some scan or something going, so waited a moment and then when it didn't quiet did a restart. It came back on, system LEDs went back to proper operation but the fans are still ramped up. Opted to go into BIOS to check fan curves and realize that all the fans reverted to Standard curve, the water pump header defaulted back to Opt, rather than Pump, and that the RAM was running at it's default non XMP setting.
When I tried to select "Customize" to use the 'fan tuning' setting there was no profile there.

Long story short, I was able to run the fan tuning and (re) save the fan curves, set the XMP back and a couple of other small changes, save and exit, restarted a few times, turned off and waited a few minutes, back on and everything seems to be holding/saving setting. This is only the second time in my experience I have seen a mobo do this and this was apparently outside an actual restart.

How could it have changed/defaulted BIOS while in operation?

 

[Lutfij]

I've had an instance where a crib with bad grounding on it(like horrible wiring) caused the CMOS battery to drain and eventually die and caused the BIOS on the motherboard to reset. There might be a short of some sort in your build if it was triggered with the bike light being connected to the system. A corrupt BIOS(chip/file) could also be cause for the settings going awry. Perhaps try and reflash the BIOS? Also, worth noting, any other anomalies?

 

[drea.drechsler]

What condition could cause a motherboard to go back to 'default' settings outside a bad CMOS battery?

I have a Taichi X370, 2700X, 4X 8GB DDR4 GSkill running at 3000 (18xx default), MSI Gaming X GTX1080, Corsair RM750X...various drives etc.

I was sitting here using the machine last night. I utilize a custom fan tune such that for idle and normal surfing activity it is very quiet. It ramps fans on load/demand. Of note, I have programs installed to control the LED on the RAM and the GPU.

So, as I was saying, sitting here last night just playing a simple game (Vampire Survivors) and plugged in a small bike light to charge like many times before. A few moments later the RAM LEDs default and the fans in the system ramp up. Still running, no apparent issue otherwise. I figured there was some scan or something going, so waited a moment and then when it didn't quiet did a restart. It came back on, system LEDs went back to proper operation but the fans are still ramped up. Opted to go into BIOS to check fan curves and realize that all the fans reverted to Standard curve, the water pump header defaulted back to Opt, rather than Pump, and that the RAM was running at it's default non XMP setting.
When I tried to select "Customize" to use the 'fan tuning' setting there was no profile there.

Long story short, I was able to run the fan tuning and (re) save the fan curves, set the XMP back and a couple of other small changes, save and exit, restarted a few times, turned off and waited a few minutes, back on and everything seems to be holding/saving setting. This is only the second time in my experience I have seen a mobo do this and this was apparently outside an actual restart.

How could it have changed/defaulted BIOS while in operation?

Some BIOS' have a feature to detect a failed POST or startup and on the next startup will reset BIOS to default settings. It's a fail-safe for times when people make a bad setting that prevents a good startup but it can also activate if you stop the machine by pressing the power button again or a power failure during the startup process.

 

[punkncat]

I have a small "hub" that is connected to the PC and have various cables connected to it for charging items like bike light, Garmin, wireless headphones and such. The headphones are currently charging, no notable issue there. The light charged and has many many times before. I have not noticed any other issue.

If there was a corrupted BIOS wouldn't that cause a permanent issue that wouldn't resolve just by going in a resetting everything?

This system is on a large UPS along with the other office PC. Its checks indicate all good, no power issue, no charge issue. I have had no issue with any other appliances or devices in the house aside from that other office PC, which at one point did something similar when it changed it's boot device order. That was shortly after build, I went in and set things again and it has never done so again.

 

[punkncat]

Some BIOS' have a feature to detect a failed POST or startup and on the next startup will reset BIOS to default settings. It's a fail-safe for times when people make a bad setting that prevents a good startup but it can also activate if you stop the machine by pressing the power button again or a power failure during the startup process.

This seemingly happened while the PC was in use. Never seen anything like it.

I will keep an eye on it (lol, obviously) as it is my main work/play machine. Using to surf here now.

 

[punkncat]

Did just find another issue. System time was off exactly one hour but all settings are automatic. This is getting strange.
Other small things like font change and size. All the settings for screen view were defaulted (zoom).

 

[drea.drechsler]

Did just find another issue. System time was off exactly one hour but all settings are automatic. This is getting strange.
...

That wouldn't be so strange if the RTC battery was dead...or making bad contact in the holder.

 

[punkncat]

That wouldn't be so strange if the RTC battery was dead...or making bad contact in the holder.

The CMOS batt? Flat CR type?
The reason I mentioned aside from the batt was because that was the first thing I checked w/ meter.

 

[drea.drechsler]

The CMOS batt? Flat CR type?
The reason I mentioned aside from the batt was because that was the first thing I checked w/ meter.

The CMOS battery is also the RTC (Real Time Clock) battery. Windows will reset the time with an internet time server but the RTC keeps time when power is off for the next power-on.

I'd replace the battery even if it checked OK with a meter since it's not expensive.