How do I Access the CMOS utility?

okay, so I have decided to put my infected HDD on the back burner list. Doing so, I would like to replace the infected HDD with my other HDD since the computer itself is a few years newer than my other pc. Although the HDD from my older pc is older, both pc's came with its own oem WindowsXP OS, same amount and type of ram (512MB DDR). After putting the old HDD in, and thought I could just boot the computer, I got a BSOD error. I cannot recall the exact stop error, but it did start off with 0x0000007b. Responses to this error have mentioned probable clause due to exchanging HDD's w/o re-configuring the HDD Controller. If I understand correctly, configuring the HDD Controller would mean I need to access the pc's CMOS. However, after several hours trying all sorts of different key possibilities, I found out that the f2 key gets me into the bios, but did not have success with other common keys, such as f1,f3 f10, del, esc. So, I'm wondering if anyone knows how to access a sony vaio pcv-rs620g CMOS utility?

Hi superbob007,

How do I get into CMOS?

Canned definitions:

Often the BIOS and CMOS can be confused because instructions may either indicate to enter the BIOS Setup or the CMOS Setup. Although the setup for BIOS / CMOS is the same, the BIOS and CMOS on the motherboard are not.

BIOS and CMOS are two different components on the motherboard. The BIOS on the motherboard contains the instructions on how the computer boots and is only modified or updated with BIOS updates, the CMOS is powered by a CMOS battery and contains your system settings and is modified and changed by entering the CMOS Setup.

A HDD with an operating system on it is not going to be "plug and play" in any (other) computer unless the hardware is the same.
The XP operating system won't recognize the different PC as the hardware will be different and the drivers required will be different too.

You can't just pop in the old HD and expect it to work, you will just get the blue screen.
Setting "auto detect" Hard Drive in the CMOS settings may or may not help, but probably won't.

Why not re-connect the original HD and go to our Malware section and disinfect it of Malware first?


Cheers,
Lee

there is no such thing as a cmos only utility as far as i'm aware, it's usually part of the bios setup. there are usually 2 ways to clear your cmos memory settings, disconnect the pc from any power, then the first is by swapping a jumper on the motherboard or if your lucky it'll have a button for you to push and hold on the motherboard instead of a jumper wire. the second is to remove the watch type battery on the motherboard then hold in the power switch for about 30 seconds before replacing the battery. you won't be able to just use the hard drive from one pc and install it in another and have it working anyway, even tho they might of had the same operating system, type/amount of memory etc, there are just to many other things that are different that would cause problems. eg :- cpu/chipset/video/sound drivers etc.

Hi Terry,

Although the setup for BIOS / CMOS is the same, the BIOS and CMOS on the motherboard are not.

you won't be able to just use the hard drive from one pc and install it in another and have it working anyway,
even tho they might of had the same operating system, type/amount of memory etc, there are just to many other things that are different that would cause problems. eg :- cpu/chipset/video/sound drivers etc.

It can be done with a reasonable chance of success, but not 100% though.
Firstly the XP OS has to be "prepared" on the original computer it came from. All the non-generic XP drivers must be removed
as will any Active-X and possibly a lot of the software programs etc.
I have the complete instructions (somewhere), but it's no easy task, so I didn't search them out and put them up in this thread.

Clearing the cmos will be of no use in using that different hard drive (as is).

Cheers,
Lee

PS Edit: CMOS is the info. you see when you "enter the bios". It's not actually the bios that is edited, but the cmos. The bios cannot be "edited", only upgraded. It's the cmos setting that can be changed. Well I'm sure that's how it is :-)

yes i know lee. thanks for the clarification tho.

Hi Lee, thanks for clarifying that. As for trying to fix the infected HDD, I have already tried cleaning it with the help in the malware sub-forum. Basically I was told that the infected HDD is toasted. The malware infection had infected most of my files and I was told to try to carefully backup my personal data and format the HDD. However, even if my doc files are not infected, the folder of where my doc files are located is infected. I have been suggested that I do a thourough AV scan by downloading Web Dr CD rescue, which will do a boot scan. However, the problem with that is I am unable to access my CD burner on my older pc. For some reason, most of the time it does not detect that I have a blank writable cd-r disk inserted. Other times it burns the files, but to only find out that the files are currupted when I try to access them. O well, I guess that burns that idea. Any other ideas that are not too difficult or complex?

Any other ideas that are not too difficult or complex?

On the PC with the working optical drive, you should have a rescue CD that came with the computer when new. Why can't you do a system rescue back to factory XP settings on the infected HDD you removed?

Apart from that, there is a possible way to Prep. the old HDD you have installed, but it involves using Puppy Linux which only installs into your ram and then using that to prep. the HDD (removing all the non-microsoft drivers etc., but it's all a bit complicated as Puppy does not work like a Microsoft OS. Still, I'm only theorizing as I have never actually done it that way

How about buying an XP disk and doing a fresh install ? I'm sure the price now must be cheap in the US (?).
Alternatively, a much better option would be to buy a W7 disk as support for XP is going to run out soon.

Cheers,
Lee

For information and for the benefit of technicians or other members who may be reading this topic here are the links to superbob007's other recent topics:
http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?sh…18063&st=60

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?sh…mp;#entry730884

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?sh…mp;#entry731047
Regards
paws

then the first is by swapping a jumper on the motherboard or if your lucky it'll have a button for you to push and hold on the motherboard instead of a jumper wire.
the second is to remove the watch type battery on the motherboard then hold in the power switch for about 30 seconds before replacing the battery.

I sure wish I knew where this 30 second power button rumor came from (I've seen suggestions of up to 4 minutes!). It is a persistent rumor that is just not true. That is not how CMOS circuits (or the front panel power button) works. It is important to remember that electrical engineers, those who dream up and design circuits have many types of memory devices to choose from, depending on the task at hand. They chose CMOS devices to store customizations users make to the BIOS on motherboards because they needed it to be easy to reset (undo what the user messed up) the BIOS, not hard.

CMOS is a semi-conductor memory device, an IC jammed full of transistors like any memory module, and BY NO MEANS unique to personal computers. They are used in many consumer and commercial electronics and have been around since the late 1960s - much longer than PCs. It is just that most consumers never heard of them until they had to deal with the one in their computer.

CMOS memory devices have unique physical and electrical properties no other memory devices have and it is because of those properties they were chosen to store user changes to the BIOS menu on computer motherboards. For this discussion, the most important property of a CMOS device is that it is highly "volatile" - which means it MUST have power ("holding voltage") applied to it at all times to retain its data. Like a gate that needs power to stay open; remove the power and the gate closes.

Open = high = 1
Closed = low = 0

That's how the transistors in CMOS devices work. Remove the power, and any open gates "flip" one last time to return to their "quiescent state" - thus "resetting" the BIOS Menu back to the defaults.

The system battery provides the holding voltage. It is often called the CMOS battery, but it keeps other circuits alive too - system clock, for example.

Moving the jumper instantly shorts to ground the circuit "holding" the CMOS alive and the device instantly forgets its data - the transistors have no power, all open gates close. It's instant. You can move the jumper right back. Same with a reset button, it simply shorts the same circuit as the two pins - there's no need to hold it because any capacitor in the circuit that may be holding a charge is instantly discharged too! That's how it was designed to work, and it works.

Pulling the battery for about 30 seconds is all that is needed to ensure all voltages have decayed and/or been bleed off. Some motherboard manuals say 1 minute, but the reality is, 15 seconds is probably overkill. Again, the designers want you to be able to reset the BIOS easily. If they wanted less volatile memory, they had, and have plenty of memory types to choose from. They did not have to use CMOS memory modules. They could have used EEPROMs or Flash memory or something else besides a CMOS module.

I am glad we are finally seeing reset buttons in rear I/O panel areas of some newer motherboards.

***

The front panel power switch really has nothing to do with the BIOS or CMOS circuits. All the front panel power switch does is short two pins on the power supply, signaling it to power on. Also, it is part of a "momentary circuit" - which means the switch is ignored after that until it is pressed again - so continually holding it down does nothing but make your finger tired.

The proper way to reset the BIOS, whether you press a reset button, move a jumper, or remove the battery is to unplug the computer from the wall first. Bleeder resistors in the PSU will ensure the power supply capacitors discharge quickly, and the voltages on the motherboard are so low to start, they decay rapidly as well. Unplugging from the wall (or setting the PSU's rear master power switch to off - if so equipped) is the only way to remove the +5Vsb standby voltages from the motherboard - keeping various "Wake on" circuits alive - including the front panel power switch. It is also the only way to safely reach inside. And if necessary to reach inside, discharge static in your body first by touching bare metal of the case. This puts you and the computer at the same "potential", and therefore there can be no arc.

Finally, if replacing the battery, take the old battery with you. Most battery/watch/camera counters recycle.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming (sorry for sidetracking).