Program to save CMOS settings

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Scout Lady

I want to change the battery in my pc and I read you need to back up the
cmos settings. Since I have no idea what the cmos is can anyone suggest a
program that will do this?
 
"Scout Lady" <[email protected]> wrote:
Click to expand...
I want to change the battery in my pc and I read you need to back up the
cmos settings. Since I have no idea what the cmos is can anyone suggest a
program that will do this?
Click to expand...


Here is a pretty nice tutorial on changing the battery:

http://www.liverepair.com/encyclopedia/articles/cmosreplace.asp

This looks like a nice, small utility for Win 9x-ME:

http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000001637

If you're running something other than Win 9x-ME you might google for
a CMOS backup/restore utility for NT, XP, or whatever you have. I'm
not certain that there is a difference, but it wouldn't hurt to look
at some of the newer programs. There are loads of older utilities.
 
Only trouble is, the file is no longer available at the home page
cited or at Winsite. Do you have another download link? I looked but
couldn't find one.
Click to expand...

John,

I too got a page not found error the first time I went there & tried to
download the file. A subsequent attempt allowed it :)
Possibly the file was in an archive & took a few seconds to retrieve it into
their online active database; I dunno.
here is the link it gave me http://dl.winsite.com/bin/downl?500000001637

ozzy
 
I want to change the battery in my pc and I read you need to back up the
cmos settings. Since I have no idea what the cmos is can anyone suggest a
program that will do this?
Click to expand...


You can always mark down the settings. When the computer boots up,
depending on the bios, hit <del> or <f1> key and this will bring you
into the screen where all the settings are. It's not that hard to page
through the screens and mark the settings. It's easier if you download
the manual for your motherboard and mark the settings

Most likely you wont have to do anything, the bios will have a default
setting on powerup. Most modern bios have a "switch" that can be set
at safe or agressive, that controlls the setting of all other switches

In any event, poke around the bios and get familiar with the settings
before you change the battery
 
Scout Lady([email protected]) whispers:
I want to change the battery in my pc and I read you need to back up the
cmos settings. Since I have no idea what the cmos is can anyone suggest a
program that will do this?
Click to expand...

I don't know any free program, but this isn't hard to do:

Enter the BIOS setup (press the appropriate key before the OS loads.
On Award/AMI BIOS'es it's usually DEL,
on Compaq/HP computers it may be F1/F2/F10.)

You'll end in a screen like this (this is just a example, items vary depending
on BIOS model/revision/manufacturer):


BIOS SETUP PROGRAM



CPU CONFIGURATION POWER SAVING CONFIGURATION
PNP/PCI CONFIGURATION
CHIPSET CONFIGURATION
IDE CONFIGURATION



Up, Down, Left, Right: select item , ENTER confirms,


Select the first item on the list (in this example, CPU configuration), Take
notes of the names/values of items.
Don't change anything.
When you're finished press 'ESC' to return to the main menu.
Do the same for the other items... you get the idea.

Exit the BIOS setup with the appropriate key (quit without saving), in Award
BIOS it's ESC then confirm with Y.
System will reboot.


--
Chaos Master®, posting from Brazil. REPLY TO GROUP!
"People told me I can't dress like a fairy.
I say, I'm in a rock band and I can do what the hell I want!"
-- Amy Lee


Outgoing messages are certified virus-free.
They're plain text, anyway.

NP on foobar2k: Evanescence - [Origin #02] Whisper [3:56]
 
george12pds said:
You can always mark down the settings. When the computer boots up,
depending on the bios, hit <del> or <f1> key and this will bring you
into the screen where all the settings are. It's not that hard to page
through the screens and mark the settings. It's easier if you download
the manual for your motherboard and mark the settings

Most likely you wont have to do anything, the bios will have a default
setting on powerup. Most modern bios have a "switch" that can be set
at safe or agressive, that controlls the setting of all other switches

In any event, poke around the bios and get familiar with the settings
before you change the battery
Click to expand...

A trick that works on a lot of PCs is to boot a DOS diskette (which loads a
basic print driver into memory). Then SOFT boot the PC (ctrl-alt-del)
without powering down and as it re-boots enter the bios. The print-screen
function will usually work so you can print each BIOS screen.
 
Scout said:
I want to change the battery in my pc and I read you need to back up
the cmos settings. Since I have no idea what the cmos is can anyone
suggest a program that will do this?
Click to expand...

You could try:-

Bios 1.35.1
=============

1) What it does:

- Saving and restoring the BIOS settings
- Validating actual settings to saved settings
- Deleting the BIOS settings (there are some strange cases...)
- Displaying information about the BIOS, BIOS Extensions and BIOS beepcodes
- Finding BIOS passwords for Award, Ami, Phoenix and AST BIOS
- Finding BIOS universal passwords for Award BIOS
- Dumping the whole BIOS segment to disk
- Switching the 1st and 2nd level caches on/off
- Turning the PC into Standby or Suspend mode (requires APM 1.1+)
- Turning off the PC (requires APM 1.2+)
- Rebooting the PC (cold/warm/int19)
- Returning DOSERROR codes for batch processing

2) Installation:

This program doesn't need to be installed.

3) Status:

This program is Freeware.

4) Distribution status:

If you want to give this program to other people, you may
do so if you give them the original archive as you got it.

5) How to contact the author:

If you want a newer version of my software look at:
www.geocities.com/mbockelkamp

Jennie
 
Thanks. I'll give 'er a try again!
Click to expand...

I missed this one. Sorry about the Winsite link. I thought the site
was better than that. After watching all of the ad links roll by and
then difficulty in getting the file, I don't think I'll recommend
Winsite links anymore :(
 
REM said:
I missed this one. Sorry about the Winsite link. I thought the site
was better than that. After watching all of the ad links roll by and
then difficulty in getting the file, I don't think I'll recommend
Winsite links anymore :(
Click to expand...

Ehhhh, the link ozzy gave worked okay. No reason to give up on them.
 
Hello,

I just tried the CMOS 1.4 program from Simtel and it works fine for
me. My question is if I save my BIOS settings will I be able to use
them after a new BIOS has been flashed to the chip? Will the old
settings work for the newly flashed BIOS? Any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks
 
Hi,

honestly, I don't know.

All I know is tahat it saves those bytes which contain all BIOS
settings which can be changed by user (128 bytes).

the ReadMe says:

"CMOSSAVE.COM simply copies the 128 byte contents of the CMOS
bytes to a file".

My guess is that if you do restore those settings to an
upgraded/flashed BIOS, you get the old (pre-flashed) settings back,
which is not much use??? (And might even in some cases cause
problems).

I suggest you do, after flashing your BIOS and configuring it to your
likings, do a new BIOS settings backup with a name different from the
previous backup.

Manuel
 
P.S. Dan,

I found a much more recent version of CMOSSAVE (I had lost track of
the authors web site, but found it again)

It's at http://mindprod.com/products.html#CMOSSV (version 38)

The version at simtel.net is only 14. They both work fine, by the way,
but version 38 is the newest.

(It says 'shareware' on the autors site, but inside the ReadMe it
says:

"Roedy Green of Canadian Mind Products wrote this suite. CMOSSAVE,
CMOSREST and CMOSCHK are copyrighted but may be freely used for any
purpose except military with the exception of U.N. Sanctioned
Peacekeeping Missions. If you pass the files on, PLEASE PASS ON THIS
DOCUMENTATION TOO.")

Greetings, Manuel
 
My question is if I save my BIOS settings will I be able to use
them after a new BIOS has been flashed to the chip? Will the old
settings work for the newly flashed BIOS?
Click to expand...

It might work, but you can't be sure. All motherboard manufacturers say,
after flashing the bios you need to load the default settings from
within the bios setup. This is due to the fact, that memory locations
within the CMOS might have changed their meaning between different
versions of the bios.

Anyway, you can try it. If it fails and your computer refuses to work
you still have the possibility to clear the CMOS (usually by setting a
jumper internally or by removing the battery).

Best regards
Uli
 
"Copyright 1991-2004 Canadian Mind Products

$10 US shareware."
Click to expand...

It also says, somewhere in the file cmos.txt:

"CMOSSAVE,
CMOSREST and CMOSCHK are copyrighted but may be freely used for any
purpose except military with the exception of U.N. Sanctioned
Peacekeeping Missions"

Then somewhere else in that file it says:

"CMOSSAVE CMOSREST and CMOSCHK are shareware. To register your copy
please mail $10 US or Canadian cheque payable to Canadian Mind
Products, money order payable to Canadian Mind Products"

Then yet again somewhere else in the file it saus:

"If you don't register, and continue to use CMOSSAVE, I will not do
anything mean to you. It pleases me to think that I may be
safeguarding thousands upon thousands of computers with my little
program. I would far, far sooner that you use my progam without
paying for it, than have it lie wasted."

Agree that that is a bit confusing? The least not very, very clear
text? I readed it again after your post, took some more time to read,
and I agree: it is shareware, but at first I didn't realize, I only
wanted to help somebody who asked for a program to save his bios
settings.

Okay?

Have a nice day = ;-))
Manuel
 
Thanks!

It might work, but you can't be sure. All motherboard manufacturers say,
after flashing the bios you need to load the default settings from
within the bios setup. This is due to the fact, that memory locations
within the CMOS might have changed their meaning between different
versions of the bios.

Anyway, you can try it. If it fails and your computer refuses to work
you still have the possibility to clear the CMOS (usually by setting a
jumper internally or by removing the battery).

Best regards
Uli
Click to expand...
 
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