Unsure if BIOS settings have changed.

[Napalmhardcore]

Hi,

Yesterday my pc kind of froze, I mean kind of because I could move my mouse around and moving the mouse over icons would highlight them. When I tried to open chrome it would not do anything (did wait a while) so then I tried to open another programme just to check it wasn't just chrome and that wouldn't open. I went to the toilet and made something small to eat to see if it would do something in that time but still nothing. I then pressed ctrl alt del to bring up the task manager and still nothing. So I went to the start menu and selected shut down but still nothing so I was forced to hard shutdown.

When I rebooted the menu to either press F1 To enter the bios menu or F2 to boot using defaults was displayed. Not knowing what exactly was meant by defaults (would I lose networking etc?) I pressed F1. Then realising I wouldn't know if things were set up correctly (I am not very familiar with the bios settings) I exited and discarded changes (not that I made any). The computer seemed to function normally.

The next time I rebooted the pc the menu to enter the bios menu or boot using defaults appeared again. This time I selected the boot using defaults but was confused as to why the menu had been displayed in the first place. I cannot remember if I tried it again or if I did what comes after this full stop. I then remembered I had a rewritable dvd in the drive. So I tried booting without the disk in the drive and the computer booted normally. So I then tried booting again with the disk in the drive to see if this is why the message was displayed but again it booted up normally.

I am now confused as to why this message was displayed and worried my bios settings have changed and may not be configured correctly. Can anyone explain why this happened and if there is a way to check my bios is configured correctly?

 

[phil22]

The CMOS battery may need replacing. It's a little round coin-type battery that clips on to the motherboard and provides backup power for the BIOS settings. When this battery has gone flat, the BIOS "forgets" what the settings are and you have to keep "loading defaults" until a new CMOS battery is fitted.

 

[Napalmhardcore]

Thanks for the advice. It seems to be acting normally at the moment, I will keep an eye on it and if I have any more trouble that will be my first troubleshooting step.

 

[JDFan]

The reason that showed up was probably related to the hard shut down --- the system checks itself on boot up and if the system was shut down improperly (didn't save the info as it was shut down the last time) it assumes that there may be some sort of problem and offers that option so you can change some settings that might be causing it to not boot properly so you can get the system running again after a problem (ie. if overclocking too high to be stable it helps you recover)

The first time afterwards you exited without changing anything since you discarded changes so the system did not update itself too clear the error state since the changes were not completed so on the next startup it offered the same screen again (since it still showed no update) -- This time you selected to use defaults which reset the error flag so it was cleared and changed your settings to their default state -- so now the error state has been cleared and you will not get the error state option again at boot -- BUT your settings may be incorrect since they are now at the factory defaults that were llast saved to your BIOS -- these may be correct or may not be depending on what parts you have (ie. most DDR3 RAM modules default to 1333MHZ. @ 1.5V even if they are designed too run at higher speeds - since pretty much all modules can run at this speed and voltage) SO you will need to take a look at the system properties and see if everything is set correctly - (ie. is the CPU set to the proper speed and multiple (Many MOBOs will default to 100MHZ. bus speed instead of 200MHz. that most systems use thus the system will be running slower than it should) - are the RAM modules at their correct speed (as mentioned most system default to 1333 MHZ. at fairly high latencies and 1.5V so if you have faster RAM it will be running at a slower speed if using default settings. - etc.)

 

[Napalmhardcore]

Thanks, my computers getting on a bit now and only has 800mhz DDR2 RAM. I have just run CPU-Z and under memory it is showing as running a little under 400mhz. Now I can't remember, it being dual channel RAM do I double that figure or should that be higher? I have also had a blue screen in the meantime (I do not know if it is related to this or not). I ran the windows experience rating test and all is the same as it was (5.9 accross the board). If I were to list my specs do you know what settings I should be running at? I will await an answer before listing my specs.