Re: [tlug] BIOS Settings

[jep200404@example.com]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:51:27 +0900, Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com> wrote:

> I think maybe the BIOS maintainer battery (what's the
> proper term for that anyway?) died and they lost their BIOS?  Is that
> how that works?  (No BIOS, no computer.)  Do very old laptops all die
> that way?  Are more modern laptops like that as well, or is the BIOS
> stored in flash memory now that doesn't need power to live?

The BIOS per se is stored in some sort of non-volatile memory, 
such as mask ROM, EPROM, or these days, flash. The BIOS per se 
is not affected by the battery. Traditionally, the settings for 
the BIOS were saved in the clock chip which had a small amount 
of RAM in addtion to the clock function. This clock chip is what 
needed a battery. With normal BIOSs, when the battery died, the 
settings for the BIOS were lost or garbled, and one just went about 
re-setting the BIOS settings. There were (are?) a few terribly 
written BIOSs for which if the settings are garbled for whatever 
reason (such as but limited to a dead battery), the BIOS could 
not run, even to allow the settings to be reset or corrected.