Time for a new motherboard?

[MPTech]

I built a new PC for my parents about 2 years ago and it has worked well for them, they don't game or do any video editing, so the
MSI K9MM-V Motherboard CPU Bundle - AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor 2.20GHz OEM
was a good fit.

I installed:
2g of ram
Sata CD/ DVD burner
AGP Video card
2 IDE Hard-drives

it was working well.

A couple months ago, the system quit recognizing the video card (AGP). I tried uninstalling and re-installing a couple times, but no luck. I also tried a different card but it didn't work either. I was able to get the on-board video to work and since they didn't require heavy graphics, I didn't worry about it.
A couple weeks ago, they informed me that it quit booting up.
I've attempted it a few times, when it doesn't boot, I receive this message:

Reboot and select proper Boot device
or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

when I went into the BIOS, I found that the boot sequence had all of the USB devices listed first, then the 2 hard-drives. I moved the HDDs to the top of the sequence and it booted up ok, but when I viewed My Computer, I only found 1 Hard Drive. Everything seemed to work ok. I rebooted and got the “proper boot device” error message again, this time, when I went into the Bios, it did not recognize either hard-drive. I tried rebooting several times and returning to the Bios, but it is still not finding the HDDs.

Does this sound like a Motherboard issue? (first the video card, then the HDDs??)

If it is a mobo, any inexpensive suggestions for replacing it? I see that Tiger-Direct doesn’t carry this one anymore. They don’t need an upgrade and I’d be looking for one that supports:
Socket AM2
AGP
IDE
SATA
DDR2

(I know, old technology, I’m open to suggestions, as it looks like I’ll be tearing it completely apart anyway to replace the mobo).

Thanks!

[MPTech]

Yikes!

Newegg has also discontinued them and googling them, PriceGrabber says "There are currently no sellers for this product"!

nuts!

an upgrade will probably mean new video, Ram, and HDDs!! double nuts!

[Shinma]

Rather than trying to locate a AM2 mobo with a AGP expansion slot,
Just use one with onboard video.

[jdc2000]

Things to try:

Check/replace CMOS battery and restore BIOS settings to factory defaults, then reset them properly.

Check motherboard for leaking or bulging capacitors.

If the motherboard is bad, you may have trouble locating another one that can use your old components. To use a current motherboard you would have to replace the CPU, RAM, video card (or use onboard), and hard drive(s) (most boards only have 2 IDE device capability).

[MPTech]

Surprisingly, IT WORKS! (so far)

I picked up a new battery on my way home from work, replaced it, and reset the CMOS, and it booted right up!!! I rebooted it several times and each time it worked just fine. (still can't get the video card to work (and did find out when I removed it that it's actually a PCI-E card (I believe).
But the PC seems to be booting just fine now.

Can anyone explain what might have been the issue? I would have never diagnosed the battery, in fact, when I first had problems a couple days ago (before I replaced the battery), I checked the system date/time against the atomic clock and it was only off 1 second!

I haven't looked for leaking / bulging capcitors yet, but I'll check tonite.

Thanks guys, you saved me the hassle, time, and cost of replacing the motherboard!