PC Wont Boot Unless I Clear the CMOS

Hi All,

Funny things started happening about 1 month ago.

When i shut my PC down it would turn off, then immediately the power would flick on and off every second. Had to hit the PSU power off to stop it.
If i left it for a while it i could then turn the PSU back on and it wouldnt flicker anymore.
Would boot fine after that. Upon shutdown it would repeat the above.

This happened every time for the past month.

On Friday, my PC froze while gaming and when i went to restart it wouldn't post.

- GPU RGB wouldn't light up and no display on my monitor
- All case fans (including AIO fans) would spin up, except the rear case fan.
- No case speaker so couldn't tell if there was any post codes

What i have done thus far
- Replaced the PSU - Wont post
- Removed the GFX and tried the iGPU - Wont post
- Removed all the RAM modules and inserted them one by one - Wont post
- Unplugged all but the essentials (1 stick of RAM, 1 SSD, no GPU) - Wont post

The only thing that worked is clearing the CMOS by removing the battery, setting the clear CMOS pins, removing the power cable from the PSU, and holding the power button to drain the mobo of power.

It will then boot again and run fine, with no issues (All fans working, GPU working, etc)
The problem happens again if i shut down and restart it.

I have a feeling it is the Motherboard, but i am not 100% sure.

Anyone had a similar issue? I want to avoid a complete upgrade unless i really need to.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Specs
CPU: i5 4670k
Motherboard: Asrock Z87M Extreme4
RAM: 16gb SAMSUNG DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Model MV-3V4G3D
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1080 Waterforce (AIO)
PSU: EVGA Supernova G3 650w
Monitor: Acer X34

 

Just went through the same experience myself, with a rig a bit older than yours. Currently awaiting the arrival of another mobo/CPU so that I can get the rig running again.

 

try a new button battery, have seen dying ones do some funny things to computers over the years

 

Was hoping it wasnt the Mobo. Let me know if that fixes it for you.
My rig is running on the 1150 platform so its a complete Mobo, CPU and Ram upgrade

 

Or, of course, a much less expensive replacement with a comparable secondhand mobo or mobo bundle. For Sale section here often presents some quite good deals, and why spend lots of money when your rig is good enough anyways?

 

Gonna replace the CMOS battery too, just to make sure its not something simple

Yeah, i might look out for a second hand mobo.
I was going to upgrade at the end of the year anyways, was just hoping to see what the 9th gen intel stuff has to offer first

 

any luck?

 

Nope.

Ended up kicking the bucket the other night.
No signal from the GPU or iGPU.

Bought an 8600K, Trident Z 16gb and a Asus Maximus X hero.

Works a treat now!

So it was the motherboard in the end i suspect.
Just got too old.