CMOS question

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 9:57 pm

My girlfriend is taking a course online and the lesson for tonight deals with CMOS. The teacher is asking her to boot the computer and then press F2 to enter the setup. This brings up the BIOS window. Is it possible to get to a CMOS window? I thought CMOS had something to do with the mobo and was not something that could be seen or changed. I know that it does keep settings like the clock etc. Can someone help me try to explain what she is to do?

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to supply us with.

IRS · Post by **IRS** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:02 pm

yes you can change a lot of things there clock is just one of them, the teach shuld know whats going on (i hope) do you have a 2nd comp to get online with if something was to hapen to the one shes on???

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:05 pm

Yes ... I have this computer. I pressed F2 with her and it takes you to the BIOS setup. On his paper to her he says she should see a CMOS screen. I do not see that. I do know that we can change settings in the BIOS ... just am confused that he is stating this as the CMOS. I am by no means a wizard with this ... but just do not understand what he is saying.

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:09 pm

I am reading this paper a little moere and he "Be very careful when working with CMOS settings, as you can easily render your computer unbootable". I have always known this to be the BIOS settings. Are they one in the same? Or is it actually CMOS that you are setting not BIOS?

IRS · Post by **IRS** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:10 pm

it is not all ways f2 on all computers, on some it may be the delete key or f7 so on and so on.....
when the computer boots up in the first 2 or 3 seconds you should see a message that says "press xx to enter bios" xx being whatever your computer tells you to press.

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:12 pm

So I see that you also mentioned BIOS ... not CMOS. That is what I was confused about. We did get to the BIOS setup by pressing F2 on her Dell. I guess this must be what he is speaking of. I just always thought that you were changing the BIOS settings ... not the CMOS settings. I have to assume that what you are changing is the CMOS ... not the BIOS.

IRS · Post by **IRS** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:16 pm

this is giving me the urge to reboot to see what it says

i may be off base here and I hope someone jumps in that knows which way is up but i think the cmos is a series of settings in the bios.

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:20 pm

I have looked through the entire BIOS and see absolutely nothing that say CMOS ... no where in there. That is what has me confused. I thought maybe he might have been using the wrong terminology. He may be the teacher ... but so far in her 1st 4 lessons we have caught him in 7 mistakes. She answered questions that he marked wrong and we researched them and returned proof and he said that she was correct on them. I am not saying he does not know his stuff ... but since we have had this many problems with him this early in the course ... we just have to kinda question him from time to time.

64bit · Post by **64bit** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:24 pm

CMOS is memory where settings you change are stored. thats all it is is a IC ROM chip. Your bios reads these settings when its booting the computer. So yes when you push F2 or DEL or whatever you are entering the CMOS setup. When you save the changes you made they are saved to the CMOS IC.

IRS · Post by **IRS** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:24 pm

that is the nice thing with the internet..... great base of knowledge if you know where to look.
very wise checking his answers

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:31 pm

Originally posted by 64bit
CMOS is memory where settings you change are stored. thats all it is is a IC ROM chip. Your bios reads these settings when its booting the computer. So yes when you push F2 or DEL or whatever you are entering the CMOS setup. When you save the changes you made they are saved to the CMOS IC.

Thank you for that explanation. So if I read your post correctly ... we did indeed enter the CMOS setup even though it says BIOS at the top. We make changes in the BIOS that are saved in the CMOS. Is that pretty close to being correct?

I have always heard people say that you go to the BIOS to change settings. Never have heard anyone say to go to the CMOS to do this. I knew that the CMOS had something to do with holding settings for things like the clock and I knew you could clear out passwords by resetting it ... just got confused reading his letter saying to go into the CMOS setup.

Thank you for explaining this to me. I will try to remember this.

64bit · Post by **64bit** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:37 pm

Originally posted by mwkirchner
Thank you for that explanation. So if I read your post correctly ... we did indeed enter the CMOS setup even though it says BIOS at the top. We make changes in the BIOS that are saved in the CMOS. Is that pretty close to being correct?

Yep.

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 10:53 pm

Originally posted by 64bit
Yep.

GRASSY ASS

(and they said that Spanish was hard to learn)

Docsta · Post by **Docsta** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 11:26 pm

cmos = bios

mwkirchner · Post by **mwkirchner** » Tue Sep 24, 2002 11:31 pm

Originally posted by Docsta
cmos = bios

Thank you for the imput. I just got confused when the teacher said to go to CMOS setup. I have always heard it referred to as BIOS. Got it straight now.

Thank you all for the help.

ColdFusion · Post by **ColdFusion** » Wed Sep 25, 2002 12:04 am

Originally posted by Docsta
cmos = bios

bios reads from cmos hehe

RoundEye · Post by **RoundEye** » Wed Sep 25, 2002 2:29 am

CMOS is short for complementary metal oxide semiconductor, BIOS is short for basic input/output system.

The CMOS is a chip that is either soldered into the mobo or placed into a socket. The BIOS is the software that is programed into that chip from the manufacturer of the mobo.

BIOS programers use different keys to access it. The most common are the Delete, F1, F2 and F10 keys.

The BIOS is the very core of what is needed to get your pc to boot. Once the pc is booted it looks at the BIOS program in the CMOS chip to see what hardware, and how that hardware is configured, that you have in the pc.

CMOS chips use very little power, and that power is supplied by the onboard battery when the pc is either off or unplugged. Because of thier low power usage is the reason a mobo battery will last for years.

Hope this helps some.