What are the risks of "killing" my CMOS?

gregrocker · 01 Oct 2010

Can backing up BIOS or flashing it to repair it be done from CD or stick?

What about replacing BIOS chip. How easy it it to do that?

alphanumeric · 01 Oct 2010

gregrocker said:

Can backing up BIOS or flashing it to repair it be done from CD or stick?

What about replacing BIOS chip. How easy it it to do that?

The thing is if the BIOS is corrupt, you turn the PC on and nothing happens except a blank screen or flashing cursor, how do you boot from a floppy, CD-ROM, or USB device?. Thats a BIOS function, thats why people caution you against flashing your BIOS if you are not sure about what you are doing. If you screw it up you usually don't get a second chance. Except for as you mention, replacing the BIOS chip. It's not that hard if you are careful. A Buddy of mine ended up in that situation and said it cost almost as much for a new chip as it would to just go and buy a new motherboard, so thats what he did. That was years ago mind you I don't know what it would cost these days so I'm careful not to have to find out.

gregrocker · 01 Oct 2010

I have not heard of bricking the mobo since BIOS flash began being done from Windows. You?

Of course I doubt they could do anything about a power failure...

alphanumeric · 01 Oct 2010

I personally haven't heard of a bad flash in a long while. A power failure or bump is the only thing I worry about when I do flash. I don't have a UPS "yet". Obviously you wouldn't want to try it in the middle of a thunderstorm. If you use common sense and print out the instructions (for those that need them) before you start, it shouldn't be a big deal. I think I personally have done it maybe three times total. I usually only do it to fix a known problem or add support for hardware like newer processors.

kisazeky · 01 Oct 2010

gregrocker said:

Enable a boot log in msconfig>boot to see what driver might be hanging during bootup.

What registry cleaner are you using? Be aware that almost all Registry Cleaners besides the industry's state-of-the-art genius app CCleaner are sales operation scams. I would System Restore to before you installed any other Reg Cleaner, or if necessary run a Repair Install to reinstall the registry.

Open a CMD line to run as Admin sfc /scannow to check for system file damage.

Google any repeat errors in Event Viewer>Admin View to find how others have resolved them. Check also the Performance log which logs app/driver hangs, located on Advanced Tools page accessed by clicking WEI score link at Computer/Properties. Look for cued issues on Tools page, then Generate A System Health Report.

The only tweaking Win7 needs is cleaning and ordering the HD perfectly using CCleaner and Auslogics Disk and Registry defraggers monthly.

I've done boot logging, and here are the drivers that it reported that didn't load:

Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\serial.sys,
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\vga.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
\SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\srv.sys

For registry cleaner, I do indeed use CCleaner. <3

Thanks for your other advice, I will try them, as well as defragging my registry with auslogics. Will report if anything helped.

Edit: Le gasp! My boot has been reduced to...1:57 minutes according to Soluto. It reported this drastic speed improvement when my pc was rebooting in order to do the registry defrag (my registry was 93% fragmented, ouch)

All the reported seconds have been, literally, cut in half. My operating system was said to take 36 seconds to boot, now it only takes 13. Even my firewall, which once took 21 seconds, now only takes 10.

I want to thank you, gregrocker, for subtly suggesting this small maintenance tip. No one has ever asked me to do this.

gregrocker · 02 Oct 2010

The NDProxy network driver is having a hard time loading. Wonder if there is some kind of conflict with HP factory Network manager. I always disable it and use the built-in Win7 network connection in system tray - which usually cuts boot time by 30 seconds and other problems caused by the factory network mgr.

What do you have starting up in msconfig now?

Did you change from AVG to MSE? I would. It solves a lot of problems here.

Make sure you have the latest display driver for your card/chip. Check optional Updates for newer drivers.

mjf · 03 Oct 2010

gregrocker said:

Can backing up BIOS or flashing it to repair it be done from CD or stick?

What about replacing BIOS chip. How easy it it to do that?

You can use a DOS bootable USB flash drive plus a DOS flash exe for the BIOS. I've never had to use it but have one made up. I really don't like fiddling at this level.

My AMI bios is a substantial surface mount chip. So not replaceable. I guess you throw the Mother board out.

kisazeky · 03 Oct 2010

gregrocker said:

The NDProxy network driver is having a hard time loading. Wonder if there is some kind of conflict with HP factory Network manager. I always disable it and use the built-in Win7 network connection in system tray - which usually cuts boot time by 30 seconds and other problems caused by the factory network mgr.

What do you have starting up in msconfig now?

Did you change from AVG to MSE? I would. It solves a lot of problems here.

Make sure you have the latest display driver for your card/chip. Check optional Updates for newer drivers.

Can you give me information on how to disable whatever runs NDproxy? But now my boot is taking 59 seconds (!) from start up to getting everything out. I think that's pretty incredible for as much stuff as I've got starting up and it being Windows.

Start up programs from msconfig:

Synaptics Pointing Device
Saitek SD6 Software (needed for my game controller, not an issue since it takes less than 1 second to load)
COMODO Internet Security
IDT PC Audio
Configuration Software (goes with my game controller, takes less than 1 second to load)
Smart Shutdown Classic (use this a lot, takes 0.1th of a second)
HP Wireless Assistant (not sure if I actually need this, but it takes half a second)
avast! Antivirus

I never said I used AVG, you got me confused with the other poster. :P Nonetheless, 4 seconds is all right for an AV.

I'm all up to date with my drivers. :) I checked a few days ago.

gregrocker · 03 Oct 2010

Not sure what COMODO is for except wasting money. Use the Win7 firewall with MSE or Avast for no-impact.

I was referring to the HP WIreless assistant which is unnecessary factory bloatware, since Win7 has a better built-in Network manager in System Tray. Go into All Programs to turn it off, uncheck it is msconfig to see if that will stick, or set a restore point then uninstall it in Programs.

Now connect to wireless Network in System Tray. This normally gains back 30 seconds in startup time and causes less drag on CPU/RAM.

Be sure to make your HP Recovery Disks as you can extract any needed programs from them if/when you decide to do a clean install to get fully beyond the HP bloatware corruption.