CMOS for Not Yet Techies

"Computer Careers: Working With This Special BIOS Chip"

by Richard Stooker, President Info Ring Press and author of Secrets of Changing to a Computer Career

CMOS stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor and is a special kind of BIOS chip. It controls hardware which is common and necessary but which can and does get change, such as RAM and hard drives. It is a special RAM chip. CMOS chips hold their settings when the computer is turned off but they can be modified.

CMOS chips store data that is read by BIOS to complete the programs needed. They also track the time and date. They can store up to 64k of data but don't usually need that much memory. All hardware data stored on these chips must be up to date, or it won't work.

Therefore, CMOS has a setup program

You can access that when your computer is booting up. Depending on the kind, you do it by pressing the Delete key or by pressing Control-Alt-Delete. There are also utility programs to enable you to edit it.

Nearly all computers have extra settings to control memory management, password options, booting options, error handling and power management.

Losing information on your CMOS chip is a common problem and a common reason for bootup problems. It does require a constant trickle of power even when the computer is turned off.

Next: CMS

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