Question about CMOS

[datdamkid]

You invoke the (CMOS) setup program at startup and enter your user password. You then find that you are unable to record any changes within the program.
Why is that?

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: datdamkid
You invoke the (CMOS) setup program at startup and enter your user password. You then find that you are unable to record any changes within the program.
Why is that?

do you mean your bios?

mb you have the wrong password?

 

[datdamkid]

yes?

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: datdamkid
yes?

i could be wrong but as i understand it, the cmos is the chip that your bios is on and the bios is the software.

if someone knows better i'd appreciate being corrected cause that's how i've always taught it.

 

[alzan]

I always thought that CMOS referred to the chip (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and BIOS (Basic Input Output System) referred to the drivers and commands needed for the system to boot; and when you go into BIOS, you may change the parameters of the BIOS to reflect the devices in your system.

As to datdamkid's question about saving changes to BIOS; there may be a jumper on your motherboard that keeps the BIOS from being changed, or their could be a BIOS password that until typed in and/or disabled that is locking out changes. Also a small possibility that the CMOS battery is weak/bad.

alzan

 

[Lord Evermore]

CMOS is the battery-backed memory that stores configuration settings. Those settings determine how the BIOS operates, and the BIOS is the non-writable (except if you specifically run a flash program) chip that contains the instructions for how the system starts. In other words, the BIOS has the entire book of instructions, the CMOS stores the references to which pages should be read. A BIOS can work with fifty types of hard drives, the CMOS tells it which one it should be looking for, et cetera.

The BIOS change jumper on some boards prevents the BIOS chip from being overwritten. The BIOS may be overwritten by a flash program in order to update it, or rarely by certain viruses/worms. Most systems now have the flash-prevention setting in the CMOS settings rather than a jumper, if they have the setting at all.

The CMOS battery maintains the volatile memory settings. If the battery runs low or is removed, the settings are lost. The same happens if the jumper on most mainboards for clearing the CMOS is set. If the settings are always going to the default, and changes don't get saved, then any of those things may be happening. The fact that the password is still present indicates that the settings are not being lost though, since the password is also stored in CMOS and on most boards is not a separate function (some HP machines I've seen have a switch on the board to wipe the password but not the CMOS).

Resetting the CMOS using the jumper may be able to resolve the problem with the settings not being changed. I've never seen any setting or jumper that prevents CMOS settings from being changed and saved, since that's the function of password protection.