I bought a mainboard and cooler master case to operate standalone and realized too late that an RTC battery isn’t included in recent boards.
At first I had trouble accessing the BIOS to the system in standalone (multiple threads detailing this problem for AMD boards - alternating blue/red lights, difficulty getting the board to output to hdmi) and finally just transplanted the board into my laptop chassis.
After editing the bios, installing Windows, and transplanting back to the standalone case, the blue/red light problem is gone – the board now outputs solid red/blue/green lights on the side that is plugged in, but will not POST. Power button brings the fans online for a second or two before stopping.
While troubleshooting the new lights, THAT is when I learned the board didn’t ship with an RTC battery (d’oh), so I assume my BIOS has reset itself after disconnecting the main battery from my 13. But if that were the case, shouldn’t I be back to square one with alternating red/blue? I can’t work out why the light output has changed.
Obviously the next troubleshooting step is buy an RTC battery but I’ll be overseas and outside of a Framework delivery region for months, so in the meantime I’d like to try to diagnose what is happening while I figure out how to get an RTC battery brought to me.
What does solid red/white/green lights mean when plugged in standalone, and the laptop will not post?
Is an RTC battery strictly necessary to post in standalone? I understand what has been written here but I wanted to understand if that means it’s necessary to keep the system running as normal, or if it’s more narrowly necessary to get the system to post at all.
I don’t know myself. But just for clarity on what you’re asking, you’re suggesting setting up your system initially with a main battery connected, then removing it once it’s fully booted? And also reconnecting the battery for any reboots.
If you don’t get an answer after a while, you can try contacting FW support. It’s possible that no one who sees your post has tried this.
But just for clarity on what you’re asking, you’re suggesting setting up your system initially with a main battery connected, then removing it once it’s fully booted? And also reconnecting the battery for any reboots.
I am not suggesting that. The goal is to have a normal functioning standalone computer with no need for a main battery at all. So I think I’ll ultimately need an RTC battery.
But since I can’t get one for the time being, I’m trying to understand how useable this device will be for me without one in the short term. I fear the bios standalone setting will be erased every time the board is powered down. And since I’m having difficulty getting the system to post at all without a main battery… i fear it’s mostly a brick until I figure out how to ship an RTC battery to myself.
One of the questions that I have during this period of waiting is what does a Solid red, blue, green LED mean on the side of the board that is plugged in?
I think at minimum, BIOS settings will be lost if AC power is removed.
I’d suggest experimenting a little. Connect the main battery and AC, set standalone mode, then remove the main battery. I suspect it will be fine once started. Then try a reboot with AC still connected, and no main battery connected. If it boots fine, then try after leaving it off for a few hours, again with just AC connected. Far from ideal, but if it’s otherwise unusable, you might as well try while waiting for an RTC battery.
Since you’re currently traveling outside of Framework’s shipping areas, you could contact https://frame-parts.myshopify.com/ about sourcing an original FW RTC battery.
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For AMD laptops:
When used standalone, i.e. without a laptop battery, you do need the RTC battery.
Otherwise, whenever you unplug the PSU, the BIOS settings are lost.
The laptop battery can also power the RTC, so that is why the RTC battery is not needed if you have a laptop battery.
@James3 Thanks for your reply. Interestingly, I’ve been experimenting a lot and while I haven’t been able to boot at all, I did manage to bring up the BIOS once – and despite neither an RTC battery nor main battery connected (and many hours unplugged e.g. definitely no power in the board for a long time), the BIOS has preserved the standalone setting.
I don’t know how that’s possible – I’m not a BIOS expert, but maybe there’s some non-volatile memory somewhere that plays a role, but someone has assessed it is unreliable so they strongly recommend RTC batteries for reliability – or maybe I blindly switched it to standalone myself using a keystroke at power-on. I have been trying all sorts of things while experimenting and may have done so.
On that note, @MJ1 thank you for the link. I’ll check this out.
Edit: It looks like the re-seller doesn’t have the RTC battery (very limited stock it seems) and furthermore despite saying they offer worldwide shipping, the dropdown list at checkout only supports countries in Europe. I do appreciate you sharing the link though! It might come in handy in the future. And perhaps there are other shippers out there doing something similar that might be of more help. I will keep looking.
I’d suggest contacting them. They do say on the front page that they can order something if what you need isn’t listed. For shipping, it’s possible for some regions they might have to do things manually, get a shipping estimate & create an special order.