CMOS

Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

 What is CMOS?
• is an on-board, battery powered semiconductor
chip inside computers that stores the BIOS
settings. Some of these BIOS settings include
system time, date and system hardware
settings for your computer.

• is sometimes referred as Real-Time Clock

(RTC), Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM), Non-
Volatile BIOS memory
 What is CMOS?
• CMOS is also a chip but a RAM chip, which
means it would normally lose the settings it
stored when the computer is shut down that
is why it used a battery to provide constant
power.
 How BIOS and CMOS Work
Together
• The BIOS is a ROM chip on the motherboard -
it's purpose is to communicate between the
processor and other hardware components like
the hard drive, USB ports, sound card, video
card, and more.

• A computer without a BIOS would not understand

how these pieces of the computer work together.
 How BIOS and CMOS Work
Together
• CMOS is a special type of RAM, which excels at
using very little power.
• The database is necessary for the startup
programs, as a list of the hardware which has to
be checked.
• The CMOS storage holds something like 256
bytes. Without the battery, all the information
would disappear from the CMOS.
 REMEMBER
• The BIOS is a small program that controls
the computer from the time it powers on
until the time the operating system takes over.
• The BIOS is firmware, and thus CANNOT
store variable data.

• CMOS is a chip that stores variable data for

startup
 REMEMBER
• The BIOS is the program that starts a
computer.

• The CMOS is the storage where the

BIOS pulls out the details it needs in
starting up the computer and saved
when you make changes to your BIOS
settings.
 The Setup
• The Setup program is used to change the
settings in the CMOS storage.

• **Please note that setting up the BIOS incorrectly

could cause system malfunction.
 The Setup Features
• Standard CMOS Features
- here you can change the date and time.
• Advanced BIOS Features –
- here you can set which device should be
used to boot from
• Advanced Chipset Features
- here you can setup the contents of the
chipset buffers
 The Setup Features
• Integrated Peripherals
• - This menu contains settings associated
with the ATA and Super I/O controllers.

• Power Management Setup

• - The power management allows you to
setup various power saving features, when
the PC is in standby or suspend mode.
 The Setup Features
• PnP/PCI Configurations
- This menu allows you to configure your PCI
slots
• PC Health Status
• - This menu displays the current CPU
temperature, the fan speeds, voltages etc.
• Set Password
• - To password protect your BIOS you can
specify a password
 Resetting the CMOS storage
• Load Fail-Safe Defaults
• Load Optimized Defaults
• Move the motherboard’s jumper, start the PC,
and the data is erased. You then enter new data
and move the jumper back again.
• Remove the motherboard battery.
 TASK
• Find a partner and perform BIOS
Configuration task as indicated at
the Operation Sheet.