Is it true all you need to do to flash a BIOS is to take the battery (cell) out?
I had a report from an engineer that a mobo I had was f**ked. However he couldn’t say why and seemed a bit crap.
Is there any way you can test a mobo without connecting every peripheral and component with it?
And what is their longevity. Can they just “short out” as the engineer suggested or is that a rare event?
:crash:
No. All taking out the battery does is restore a working, but mis-configured BIOS to it’s default configuration. If the BIOS is borked (usually resulting from a bad BIOS flash or flashing an incompatible BIOS, or power failure during the flash), this does nothing. Provided the BIOS chip is removeable, you’d need to order a new chip. If not, then you’ll have to see if the motherboard manufacturer can do anything for you on that end.
While you don’t need the entire list of parts to test a motherboard, what you do need are the CPU and cooling fan, 1 stick of RAM, a video card (unless you have working on-board video), and a power supply. You don’t even need a case.
As for shorts happening, it is possible. Not frequent, but, yes most certainly possible. If there is a short, then the motherboard may not even power up or attempt to power up, especially if the BIOS isn’t in a working state.