Why does my bios reset itself?

[Jhill]

Over the last couple months my bios setting reset itself.
I noticed my fsb/memory speed goes down to 100/100 instead of 133/133. Also the clock on my tasks bar resets itself. what could be causing this?

My motherboard is only 5 months old.

Thanks for any help.

 

[sohcrates]

could be a bad battery, i've seen it happen before in newer mobos

 

[Cuular]

Are you overclocking? Without giving anymore information than you did, it is awful hard to come up with possible causes...

 

[JustinLerner]

Don't know if the clock is related to the issue where the BIOS doesn't retain settings, but here's what is likely:

Many newer boards have BIOS protection methods on the motherboard. To change the BIOS you need to temporarily remove or change the jumper so that the board BIOS gets changed, then set the jumper back after the BIOS change to protect the BIOS. This is also true of many boards when flashing BIOS.

--

What brand, model of board do you have?

 

[JustinLerner]

If the board has BIOS protection (not virus protection), after you exit the BIOS and reboot, re-enter the BIOS. The BIOS settings should already be back to their previous settings. It's like having two BIOS, one in primary (protected) and refreshes the other.

On one of my boards, this protection is called 'Boot Block' protection. Here's text from my board manual:
"The boot block acts as a backup in case your BIOS fails to boot the system. If the jumper is set to the ON postiiton, this would allow sthe Boot Block to refresh it BIOS code at the same time you flash a new BIOS.
Note: if the Boot Block is 'unlock' (jumper ON) and if failure occurs during a new BIOS Flash [power failure or anything that prevents completing the flash successfully], you run the risk of rendering ayour entire system un-bootable. The "backup" protection of the Boot Block will be lost." -- So always hook up a UPS to your PC when flashing BIOS's.

Other boards by different manufacturers have different names and implementations of BIOS protection [not virus protection] or backup. Check you motherboard manual.