ASUS Crosshair X670E Hero CMOS clear button not working

[gupsterg]

Hi fellow owners 🙂 .

I only moved to AM5 end of Dec 24. I bought two boards the TUF Gaming X670E-Plus WiFi and the Crosshair X670E Hero. I have been using the TUF until recently. So as I'd got to grips with the platform on TUF there was no need for me to use CMOS clear on Hero until today.

Before using the board I flashed UEFI 2804 as that was latest and never knew what UEFI the board had out of box.

I was doing some FCLK clock tests. I knew the 9800X3D I was using could do FCLK 2233MHz, I thought try 2267MHz, perhaps it's a super unicorn. The board got stuck at Q-Code: 07.

I held down power button assuming board would go safe mode when POST, it didn't.

I turned off power to PSU, pressed the CMOS clear button, held button for ~10 seconds. Turned on power, board got stuck at Q-Code: 07 🤔.

I again turned off power to board, pressed the CMOS clear button, held for ~30 seconds. Turned on power, board got stuck at Q-Code: 07 🤔.

I thought no the CMOS button doesn't work 😞 .

To test if CMOS clear button worked, I left standby power to board, ie system not running, polymo display doing it's lighting and Start button/Flex key had white lighting on. I pushed the CMOS clear button and polymo display froze and Start button/Flex key lighting turned off. So now I knew the CMOS clear button was working.

I did a quick google and only information I could find was for when users CMOS switch wasn't working. I didn't find information matching my issue.

So I flashed an older UEFI supporting 9800X3D, I went back to 2403 using flashback. The reasoning was I wanted to see if it was a FW issue.

An older UEFI will have older EC FW/AURA FW, etc and those will update on board POST. The updates occurred, here are photos, but again CMOS clear would not function.

So using flashback I went to UEFI 2804 again, I got the EC FW/AURA FW update messages. Again the CMOS clear button was not functioning.

I contacted @Shamino, he told me to try a new CMOS battery or reseat CPU.

As the CPU had been OC'ing well for FCLK/MEMCLK/PBO CO and no other issues I opted to change the CMOS battery.

Now the CMOS clear button works! 😎

I am stoked I didn't have to RMA board and grateful Shamino give tips that have resolved my issue.