the company is very demandingof you to prove your proper ownership
of a laptop, a hard drive, or an individual locked file, they’re probably
legitimate; if they’re very casual about the whole matter, be concerned.
One software solution that seems to work is a freeware program called
KILLCMOS which, when loaded from a bootable floppy disk, resets the
contents of the BIOS to the default configuration. Of course, if your
machine doesn’t have a floppy disk, you have to figure a way to get the
program onto a bootable CD and get your laptop to boot from the CD,
which it may not do unless you’ve enabled this in the BIOS in the first
place. Find KILLCMOS by searching on the Internet. Be sure to run your
antivirus scanning program after you use this or any other freeware.Customizing alarms............................................................................
Current versions of the PhoenixBIOS has an Others screen that allows you to
enable or disable an audible alarm when battery power is low — a good thing
in most cases. Another alarm can be set to beep anytime the LCD cover is
closed while the system is running, which may or may not be of value to you.
Finally, you can turn on or off the System Beep, which announces that the
computer’s diagnostics have been successfully completed before the operating
system is loaded. If you suspect that your motherboard or other components
are not functioning properly, enable this beep. Its absence can help you diag-
nose a blank screen — all you’ll know is that the motherboard and memory
seem to be working properly. You won’t know whether there’s a problem with
the Windows installation or the LCD without further testing.
For many users, the most important set of options on a BIOS screen for trou-
bleshooting purposes is the Boot or Boot Order option. Be default, most
machines are set to attempt to load the operating system from the internal
hard drive. If that drive fails, or if the system tracks on that drive are some-
how damaged, find some other way to bring the computer to life and either
repair the hard drive by reinstalling the system tracks or extract the data
files to another machine or removable media.
Depending on your machine’s configuration, you may be able to select the
hard drive, the CD-ROM/DVD drive, a floppy disk drive (if present — many
new machines no longer off a built-in floppy), other removable devices attached
to the USB port, or by booting over the network from a remote computer.
Flashing for fun and profit .................................................................
If that headline grabbed your attention too directly, you may have other things
on your mind. Flashingis the process of erasing the contents of an existing
Chapter 6: Brain Matters: Memory, Microprocessors, and BIOS 107