phoenix bios

[martinf]

Until 2 weeks ago I had not heard of phoenix bios. Now every time I start up
my computer it is there. I always exit it without saving changes, but I don't
know what I am doing.

What is it and why is it there every time?
--
martinf

 

[Mike M]

The BIOS is the "glue" between your hardware and the software . BIOS
meaning Basic Input Output System. See
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/BIOS.html for more details. The BIOS is a
set of instructions stored in a chip on your motherboard and also contains
some volatile information such as details of your hard drive and other
hardware together with the date and time. The fixed data is stored in ROM
however a small amount of volatile data is stored in CMOS RAM and requires
a small battery to power this.

Without knowing the message you are seeing it is difficult to know what is
happening but one possibility is that the battery has come to the end of
its life and needs replacing. When this happens the BIOS loses all of its
volatile settings and sets itself back to default. Perhaps that is what
is happening here. For example are you having to reset the time and date
after switching on your PC?
--
Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com


martinf <martinf@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Until 2 weeks ago I had not heard of phoenix bios. Now every time I
> start up my computer it is there. I always exit it without saving
> changes, but I don't know what I am doing.
>
> What is it and why is it there every time?

 

[Shane]

Here's my guess, Mike. It was set to 'Silent' and it no longer is, so he
never used to see the bios at all. Obviously that is something the 'dying
battery' could cause. It almost seems too much of a coincidence, that the
*only* setting lost would be that one - but that would be to misunderstand
the nature of probabiility, wouldn't it? Or some 'knowledgeable friend'
changed it (the sort of thing I do, actually, but only for the duration of
the work - unless I forget to change it back, that is!). But one would
suppose the OP would have mentioned a friend having recently worked on it,
at least someone with the good sense to change nothing and ask what's going
on.

As with almost everything else (I seem to have let a virtually charmed life
<g>) I have never experienced a failing CMOS battery. All these hardware
issues (failing HDD, bad RAM et al) are going to hit me eventually, I just
know it! Probably all at once.

Shane




Mike M wrote:
> The BIOS is the "glue" between your hardware and the software . BIOS
> meaning Basic Input Output System. See
> http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/BIOS.html for more details. The BIOS
> is a set of instructions stored in a chip on your motherboard and
> also contains some volatile information such as details of your hard
> drive and other hardware together with the date and time. The fixed
> data is stored in ROM however a small amount of volatile data is
> stored in CMOS RAM and requires a small battery to power this.
>
> Without knowing the message you are seeing it is difficult to know
> what is happening but one possibility is that the battery has come to
> the end of its life and needs replacing. When this happens the BIOS
> loses all of its volatile settings and sets itself back to default.
> Perhaps that is what is happening here. For example are you having
> to reset the time and date after switching on your PC?
>
>> Until 2 weeks ago I had not heard of phoenix bios. Now every time I
>> start up my computer it is there. I always exit it without saving
>> changes, but I don't know what I am doing.
>>
>> What is it and why is it there every time?

 

[Mike M]

>It was set to 'Silent' and it no longer is

Not a setting that exists on any boxes here so I always see some output
from the bios when booting but something that I think is present on most
of the family's laptops. What I do see occasionally is a message that
bios settings have changed and to ether press F1 (?) to continue or to
access the bios and check. This most often happens not because of any
problems with the battery but because I have opened the case and made some
hardware adjustment.

As for HDD problems, these are probably proportionate to the number of HDs
one has and currently having 15 HDs across 3 main desktop PCs (7 & 2x4)
it's perhaps not surprising that I have HD problems more often than most
although recently the problem on the oldest of those three boxes was a
failed SATA controller (motherboard roughly five years old) rather than
with the two disks attached to the controller. I've also had the odd fan
problem losing both a chipset and 12cm case fan on the oldest box in the
last six months.

As for battery problems - what battery problems? These I agree are rare
but remembering that Win Me is now seven years old and I would expect PCs
bought at that time to start having all manner of problems including
failing batteries.
--
Mike


Shane <shanebeatson@gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's my guess, Mike. It was set to 'Silent' and it no longer is, so
> he never used to see the bios at all. Obviously that is something the
> 'dying battery' could cause. It almost seems too much of a
> coincidence, that the *only* setting lost would be that one - but
> that would be to misunderstand the nature of probabiility, wouldn't
> it? Or some 'knowledgeable friend' changed it (the sort of thing I
> do, actually, but only for the duration of the work - unless I forget
> to change it back, that is!). But one would suppose the OP would have
> mentioned a friend having recently worked on it, at least someone
> with the good sense to change nothing and ask what's going on.
>
> As with almost everything else (I seem to have let a virtually
> charmed life <g>) I have never experienced a failing CMOS battery.
> All these hardware issues (failing HDD, bad RAM et al) are going to
> hit me eventually, I just know it! Probably all at once.

 

[N. Miller]

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:26:00 -0700, martinf wrote:

> Until 2 weeks ago I had not heard of phoenix bios. Now every time I start up
> my computer it is there. I always exit it without saving changes, but I don't
> know what I am doing.
>
> What is it and why is it there every time?

Phoenix has been providing the BIOS chips for Hewlett Packard since HP began
selling their Vectra line of computers in the early 1980s.

Something has changed, though. I don't recall ever having the BIOS screen
come up. At least not since I gave up the Vectras as boat anchors.

--
Norman
~Shine, bright morning light,
~now in the air the spring is coming.
~Sweet, blowing wind,
~singing down the hills and valleys.

 

[Shane]

Mike M wrote:
>> It was set to 'Silent' and it no longer is
>
> Not a setting that exists on any boxes here so I always see some
> output from the bios when booting but something that I think is
> present on most of the family's laptops. What I do see occasionally
> is a message that bios settings have changed and to ether press F1
> (?) to continue or to access the bios and check. This most often
> happens not because of any problems with the battery but because I
> have opened the case and made some hardware adjustment.
>

No, I used to be unfamiliar with that setting.The last machine didn't have
it. Neither does this one, only this one does not give a bios read out at
boot up - apart from about 4 lines that you miss if you so much as think of
blinking. I'd turn it on if I could! But meanwhile, I have - between
purchasing the two machines - got so used to this setting that even though
neither has it, I think of it as the norm!

Anyway, its just a suggestion. Please don't imagine for a moment I'm
disagreeing with your own appraisal!

> As for HDD problems, these are probably proportionate to the number
> of HDs one has and currently having 15 HDs across 3 main desktop PCs
> (7 & 2x4) it's perhaps not surprising that I have HD problems more
> often than most although recently the problem on the oldest of those
> three boxes was a failed SATA controller (motherboard roughly five
> years old) rather than with the two disks attached to the controller.

Yes, welll, there are four HDs in here atm. There'd probably be more only
I'd have to start fitting controller cards. As it is I've got 2 optical
drives but only one plugged in, having run out of power leads. Its in there
as a spare nonetheless, or if I need two at once, in which case I can take
the side off and unplug one of the HDs temporarily. I guess it is logical
that failures are more likely with more drives - but equally that expecting
the worse increases too, so even if they don't fail it's almost as bad. Now
I can worry about a controller going too!

> I've also had the odd fan problem losing both a chipset and 12cm case
> fan on the oldest box in the last six months.

Yes. Fans. Incredibly cheap yet at times so hard to find replacements for! I
kept one going for years by taking it off and oiling it (WD40) every few
months. It did work, though. Until I just said enough is enough and binned
it.

>
> As for battery problems - what battery problems? These I agree are
> rare but remembering that Win Me is now seven years old and I would
> expect PCs bought at that time to start having all manner of problems
> including failing batteries.

I've seen plenty of *other* people's computers batterys going - just never
mine. In fact, I still have the case and a couple of parts of the old
machine and the CMOS battery is still there, still fine - and about 7 years
old! Perhaps I should take it out and keep it. Frame it. I feel it has given
me first rate service! I feel a little guilty discarding it.


Shane

>
>> Here's my guess, Mike. It was set to 'Silent' and it no longer is, so
>> he never used to see the bios at all. Obviously that is something the
>> 'dying battery' could cause. It almost seems too much of a
>> coincidence, that the *only* setting lost would be that one - but
>> that would be to misunderstand the nature of probabiility, wouldn't
>> it? Or some 'knowledgeable friend' changed it (the sort of thing I
>> do, actually, but only for the duration of the work - unless I forget
>> to change it back, that is!). But one would suppose the OP would have
>> mentioned a friend having recently worked on it, at least someone
>> with the good sense to change nothing and ask what's going on.
>>
>> As with almost everything else (I seem to have let a virtually
>> charmed life <g>) I have never experienced a failing CMOS battery.
>> All these hardware issues (failing HDD, bad RAM et al) are going to
>> hit me eventually, I just know it! Probably all at once.