Trying to open the BIOS menu just crashes my computer

submitted by [deleted] from self.whatever

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

His computer was crashing in that example because his cmos battery wasn't seated right, and when it wasn't it'd crash when accessing BIOS. He had other issues but that was part of it. I suspect when you're trying to get into your bios settings it's involving the battery for some reason, and with it dead that operation is failing but such a low level failure stops everything. When you boot normally not sure the battery matters since it's just reading flashed memory.

It's just a watch battery iirc, you might have a spare laying around and it's an easy thing to test.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

It works temporarily if I run a BIOS update, but the update keeps getting reverted. Safe to say it ain't the battery — but thanks!

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

That's exactly what the cmos battery being dead can do, the settings revert back to their eeprom default.

"The EEPROM is not the copy of the BIOS used to boot the OS or effect settings. THe EEPROM defaults get copied into CMOS memory (hence why it is called the CMOS battery). It is the CMOS memory copy that gets used. When you make changes to the BIOS settings, you are changing those in the CMOS memory copy. Some boards allow users to copy back the changes in CMOS into the EEPROM to make those the defaults or provide a user-config table to load by selection instead of having to make all the selections again; however, most copy from EEPROM into CMOS and it is the CMOS copy that you edit and that gets settings used from there."

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

But I find it really weird that if I leave Windows on too long it reverts, but if I restart immediately: I can do whatever I want — except boot Linux, apparently, that won't work no matter what I do.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You remember having toys with dying batteries as a child? Shit sometimes does weird stuff. Especially Furby's on low batteries act absolutely demonic.

The virus idea is possible. Viruses in your boot sector are no joke. Might as well wipe at that point cause you don't know what might be reinserting it. BUT.... Do the easy stuff first. Check that battery.

Pretty sure I have a spare 2035 and 2032 watch battery if you need one. At this point I just want to see it tried.

Because the alternative to a simple battery being dead is a whole world of pain.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Okay then, I'll get around to checking it eventually.