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Originally Posted by Modki So I've been studying for the A+ and I just found this out myself... We don't overclock using the BIOS! No one does (unless your on a gimped board with a custom BIOS to enable overclocking options in the CMOS setup) When you start your computer and hit Del, F1, F2, F10 (Or god forbid you're on an older machine hitting Ctrl-Alt-Ins) you aren't going into the BIOS. You're in your CMOS Setup. The BIOS is an EEPROM (maybe ROM if it's old enough) chip on your motherboard that controls how your computer communicates with some of the basic hardware components in your system. The CMOS Setup is what you are changing when you set things like the Date/Time, boot sequence, or all your precious OCing stuff the CMOS is a chip on the board that stores those settings in CMOS RAM. This CMOS RAM is volatile, hence the need for a battery. Wrap your head around that

Most of us know this......well i do anyway....well i should considering the job i do

 

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Originally Posted by Modki So I've been studying for the A+ and I just found this out myself... We don't overclock using the BIOS! No one does (unless your on a gimped board with a custom BIOS to enable overclocking options in the CMOS setup) When you start your computer and hit Del, F1, F2, F10 (Or god forbid you're on an older machine hitting Ctrl-Alt-Ins) you aren't going into the BIOS. You're in your CMOS Setup. The BIOS is an EEPROM (maybe ROM if it's old enough) chip on your motherboard that controls how your computer communicates with some of the basic hardware components in your system. The CMOS Setup is what you are changing when you set things like the Date/Time, boot sequence, or all your precious OCing stuff the CMOS is a chip on the board that stores those settings in CMOS RAM. This CMOS RAM is volatile, hence the need for a battery. Wrap your head around that

Hai guys, im new here. from what you said, can i overclunk my ViDeO CaRd in the bioez to?

 

Yes actually you can edit your video card's bios and overclock. In fact it's what I did with my old 6600 when vista had no love for ATI Tool/Rivatuner.

 

Nice one dude...the true clockers do know this...hopefully

 

Well done Modki, you deserve a cookie

And I really hope the real OC'ers knew about this... my dad is still correcting me, but I personally think it sounds right to say "via your BIOS"

 

I just remember seeing a lot of "Lol you need 2 go into your BIOS and change X setting" and was like "Well I'll be damned!" when I was reading about the whole CMOS/BIOS relationship.

 

So how do we "actually" access the bios? I know absolutely nothing of this...I suspeced, since the cmos can be flashed, updated, downgraded, the BIOS itself is not affected. but how do we access teh bios?

 

No, you can upgrade and flash the BIOS. The CMOS Setup is what you go into at POST to change options though. Usually a blue screen reminiscent of the old dosshell.

 

you'll occasionally see me say "You need to reset the CMOS", but bios is the slang that everyone recognizes. Think of the word "radical". We use it to mean someone who really goes overboard, though the true definition of radical is "root" (like saying apple pie is radical to american culture).

 

Yes so we enter the CMOS settings even though when we are in the program its called 'BIOS', so what is BIOS then? a magical thing?

I far too confused.

 

Regardless if you are a "true" overclocker or not, it is still great info to have on a forum such as this. Isn't it the reason people come to OCN in the first place?...to learn???

 

Think of it like this.

The BIOS is like the operator with a giant switch board. Now the CMOS is a piece of paper she uses to know what calls go where. You can change what's on the paper pretty easy to make calls go where you want them to. If she's messing up though it's time to replace her.

 

ok but when your overclocking why is the program your in called BIOS?

 

The CMOS Setup may display the BIOS version or ASUS is a bunch of tards. Your call.

 

CMOS is the actual chip storing the data that the BIOS accesses, *checking for custom settings. When you change your BIOS settings, your are changing the data stored in the CMOS.
So, you can change your BIOS, but you clear your CMOS.

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Originally Posted by www.mcsx.co.uk/articles/glossary.htm CMOS is a type of memory. CMOS stands for "complementary metal-oxide semiconductor", describing the physical arrangement of cells within the memory device. On a standard PC motherboard, CMOS is used to hold data that is accessed by BIOS Setup. The CMOS memory is maintained when the system is off by a battery backup.

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Originally Posted by www.mcsx.co.uk/articles/glossary.htm BIOS Setup A utility provided by BIOS in POST. This is where users change parameters that affect the BIOS & system configuration. Also known as CMOS Setup, since the data is stored in CMOS memory.

 

i knew that, however because everyone talks about OC'ing using BIOS
i must admit call CMOS BIOS too whenever people ask "where should i look/change these settings" or something like that...... and over time this slipped my mind

"go into your CMOS settings" just sounds arkward IMO, but its what you actually doing, bios initializes the system/hardware, (to put it simple) before you can do anything with it....but still good clearing that up though.....

 

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Originally Posted by NullWolf CMOS is the actual chip storing the data that the BIOS accesses. When you change your BIOS settings, your are changing the data stored in the CMOS. So, you can change your BIOS, but you clear your CMOS.

The BIOS is ROM. Be it ROM PROM or EEPROM. The BIOS reads custom settings from the CMOS. When you're overclocking and in the CMOS Setup you aren't saving things to your BIOS. You're saving them to the CMOS RAM.

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When you turn on your computer, the BIOS does several things. This is its usual sequence: 1. Check the CMOS Setup for custom settings 2. Load the interrupt handlers and device drivers 3. Initialize registers and power management 4. Perform the power-on self-test (POST) 5. Display system settings 6. Determine which devices are bootable 7. Initiate the bootstrap sequence

 

Well, since by entering this "CMOS setup" thing you gain access to data stored in the BIOS, that should technically be the same as accessing the BIOS itself. I know, my logic is infallible

.

 

So then basically, you can view and change the bios settings through the cmos,
Its kinda like viewing and altering your files through windows, when someone is trying to explain something they dont say go into windows, theyd say go into drive c or whatever (although windows is on the hard drive, and cmos isnt on the bios but you get my drift)

Am i correct?

 

CMOS is basically the bios memory, so yeah, we are changing the CMOS to tell the bios what to do

 

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Originally Posted by Melcar Well, since by entering this "CMOS setup" thing you gain access to data stored in the BIOS, that should technically be the same as accessing the BIOS itself. I know, my logic is infallible .

It does nothing to the BIOS. The BIOS loads the settings off the CMOS RAM. The BIOS is READ ONLY.

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Originally Posted by ratty2k4 So then basically, you can view and change the bios settings through the cmos, Its kinda like viewing and altering your files through windows, when someone is trying to explain something they dont say go into windows, theyd say go into drive c or whatever (although windows is on the hard drive, and cmos isnt on the bios but you get my drift) Am i correct?

No it'd be like writing a batch file to start C:\\Lollookimaexecutablefle.exe, again ROM = Read Only Memory. The settings you can change are store on the CMOS.

 

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Originally Posted by Kriegen CMOS is basically the bios memory, so yeah, we are changing the CMOS to tell the bios what to do

So we are still telling the BIOS what to do them? That's a relief. Sometimes that turd of a chip can get ****y, so you have to yell at it an sometimes beat it to submission, or sometimes even flash it (preferably with a sharp object) so it knows who's boss.

 

Think of it like this, CMOS is a floppy disk (or your choice of media). You run a program that has the ability to have customized settings, but the program is encoded into ROM - Read-Only Memory. So for the program to get its custom settings, it checks the floppy disk, which is rewritable.

Technically, BIOS is encoded into EEPROMs (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory). The CMOS is essentially a tiny RAM (Random Access Memory) chip, used to store the custom settings for the BIOS EEPROM.

On a side note:
When you Flash your BIOS, you are electronically erasing the EEPROM and reprogramming it. (On older boards with EPROMs, you actually have to remove the EPROM, remove a sticker, hit it with UV, then reprogram it with an EPROM programmer.)

 

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Originally Posted by NullWolf On a side note: When you Flash your BIOS, you are electronically erasing the EEPROM and reprogramming it. (On older boards with EPROMs, you actually have to remove the EPROM, remove a sticker, hit it with UV, then reprogram it with an EPROM programmer.)

That actually sounds more fun than simply hitting a key.

 

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Originally Posted by Melcar That actually sounds more fun than simply hitting a key.

Unfortunately, my EPROM programmer is broken