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CMOS, BIOS and other Mysteries that fly by on the boot up….

CMOS, BIOS and other Mysteries that fly by on the boot up…. Systems/Hardware, CEd 581 Winter, 2006 – John M. Sklar, Instructor. Boot up…. When you turn on your computer a lot happens.

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CMOS, BIOS and other Mysteries that fly by on the boot up….

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  1. CMOS, BIOS and other Mysteries that fly by on the boot up…. Systems/Hardware, CEd 581 Winter, 2006 – John M. Sklar, Instructor

  2. Boot up… • When you turn on your computer a lot happens. • The computer tries to tell you with a bunch of text screens that fly by, sometimes too fast for you to read them. • If you can read them it is usually gibberish or geek-code that none of us understands. • Usually we don’t even care. We just wait or get a cup of coffee or a Coke.

  3. Bios and You… • One of the things that fly by is a direction. It might say hit F1 for setup or something like that. • This message flys by so fast that we may miss it completely. • Without a need we may never see this message.

  4. Make A Serious Change…. • Add some memory • Swap out your old CD drive for a new DVD writer • Add a hard drive… • And you will find yourself in serious need of help with the bios • So, what’s BIOS?

  5. BIOS • BIOS is an acronym for Basic Input/Output System. It is the boot program that is permanently or semi-permanently etch on a chip on the motherboard of your PC • BIOS controls the computer from the time you start it up until the operating system takes over. • BIOS conducts the POST and if all is ok, it loads the operating system into your computer.

  6. BIOS • The BIOS manages data flow between the computer's operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk, video card, keyboard, mouse, printer etc. • The BIOS stores the date, the time, and your system configuration information in a battery-powered, non-volatile memory chip, called a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) after its manufacturing process.

  7. BIOS • BIOS is standardized and should rarely require updating. • Older BIOS chips may not recognize new hardware devices. Early, pre-90’s had to be actually replaced. • Today most BIOS resides on memory EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) chips, so that you can update the BIOS yourself if necessary.

  8. We still sometimes call this ROM? • ROM is an acronym for Read-Only Memory. The opposite of RAM, ROM is non-volatile; even after you turn off your computer, the contents of ROM will remain. • Almost every computer comes with a small amount of ROM containing the boot firmware. That tell the computer what to do when it starts up. On a PC, the boot firmware is called the BIOS. • We can change the ROM or Firmware by “flashing”

  9. So, What’s RAM • RAM stands for Random Access Memory. RAM provides space for your computer to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU (central processing unit). When people refer to memory, they usually mean RAM. • Computers usually come with at least 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM installed, and can be upgraded to a gigabyte or more. • In a newer computer, you reduce the number of times your CPU must read data from a hard disk by adding more memory. This makes your computer work faster, as RAM is many times faster than any hard disk.

  10. So, What’s RAM • RAM is volatile, that is it depends on a constant power source. So data stored in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. As soon as you turn the computer off, the data stored in RAM disappears.

  11. Ok, so what’s cache? • Cache RAM is made up of very high-speed RAM chips which sit between the CPU and main RAM, storing memory accesses by the CPU. Its like a scratch pad for locations in memory. Avoids time wasting lookups. Cache tries to alleviate the gap between CPU speed and RAM speed. It reduces how often the CPU must wait for data from main memory. • Cache can’t usually be upgraded or changed. The more the better so shop carefully.

  12. Computers Have Memory (RAM) • They Have a certain amount of RAM • During POST it might appear as part of a memory check. Some BIOS skips this step, assuming its ok. • You can see what you have in Windows by selecting the properties of My Computer

  13. And Storage (Hard Disk?) • Double click on My Computer and right click on a drive icon, usually C: • Select properties and you will see the capacity of that drive. • I have two Hard drives, C: and D:

  14. Other Devices… This icon represents a portable, USB backup drive. Great for backing up valuable files. I use it every day. My Scanner also appears here. As would a camera, pen drive or any other device that could store data.

  15. Great Source • I got most of this information from: • http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahtz.html

  16. Knowledge Into Action • How much memory and storage does your computer have? • How much should you have? • Is it worth it to add more of either?

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