Member Avatar for geegoo!

hay,
im starting to learn about computer hardware/software lately.. but there a few questions that i have on mind...

1.where do I cahnge the BIOS settings on my computer? and when would I need to do that?
2. i have a CD-RW DvD , and hard disk.. what is the best confiuration for them in the primary and secondary drives?
3- Ive read about CMOS a bit.. but dont really get what it is .. can anybody explain to me, in simple vocab, what it is ?
4-I would be grateful.. if someone told me where i can find good (free) programming tutorials on the net for ( VC++, Java , HTML).

Note: i dont know if thats helpful to answer my questions .. but my processor is Pentium 4 Intel, and i have 128MB for RAM and my OS is Win XP..
Thanx

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Brief, practical follow‑up addressing the points raised by and expanding on and without repeating their exact wording.

Entering and changing the BIOS: the setup utility is reached during the POST splash screen by pressing the key shown there (common keys include Del, F1, F2, Esc or F10—the exact key varies by motherboard). Typical reasons for entering setup are to set boot device order, enable/disable onboard controllers, set system time, choose IDE/AHCI modes, or enable features like virtualization. Always note current settings before changing anything. If a change prevents normal boot, most BIOSes offer a "Load Defaults" option; if that fails the CMOS can be cleared with the motherboard's CLEAR/CLRTC jumper or by temporarily removing the coin cell (follow the motherboard manual).

Drive wiring and jumpers (IDE/PATA era): for older PATA ribbon cables the hard disk is usually best placed as Primary Master with optical drives on the Secondary cable. Jumpers on each drive control Master/Slave or Cable-Select (CS); connector position on the cable usually decides master (end) vs slave (middle) when using CS. Two devices sharing one cable can conflict if jumpers are wrong; moving the HDD alone to the primary cable or setting correct jumpers usually fixes it. Newer systems use SATA or NVMe, which have one cable/per‑drive and no master/slave settings.

What CMOS actually is and battery symptoms: CMOS is a small, battery‑backed memory area that stores BIOS configuration (the coin cell keeps it alive when power is off). Beyond clock errors, a failing battery often causes POST messages such as "CMOS checksum error", "Date/time not set" or repeated prompts to press a key; BIOS settings reverting to defaults after shutdown is another sign. Most motherboards use a CR2032 coin cell—replace it with the same type after disconnecting mains power and grounding to avoid static, and record important BIOS settings first.

PDF <-> DOC and learning resources: changing an extension does not convert formats. Conversion requires software (office suites that can import/export PDFs or dedicated converters), and scanned PDFs need OCR to become editable. For learning: official vendor docs and established free sites are recommended—examples include Microsoft Learn/MSDN for Visual C++, Oracle/Java tutorials for Java, and MDN Web Docs or freeCodeCamp for HTML/CSS basics. For sensitive documents, prefer local tools over online converters.

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Member Avatar for p3-450

1)
Usually to access the BIOS you have to press a key or a combination, this usually could be the DEL, F1, F2 keys. When you boot up your pc, on the very first screen that is displayed it should tell you what key to press. You should really only need to access the BIOS if you want to change you boot device order, or overclocking.

2)
What i would have is the Hard drive as the Primary master, the CD-RW as the Seconday Master and the DVD as the Secondary Slave

3)
CMOS is the the battery that hold the data for the BIOS.

4)
).A Google search found these results.


Hope this help:)

Member Avatar for geegoo!

Thanks alot..
I have another question it's not related to the HW but hope i get some answer
..
how can i change a file type? for example, if i have a PDF file how can i convert it to a DOC file? or the opposite?
do i just change its extension..?
thanks

Member Avatar for DMR

CMOSis the the battery that hold the data for the BIOS.

Not quite.

CMOS itself is a special memory chip on your motherboard (it is not part of your RAM) which stores certain system configuration information used by the BIOS. CMOS stands for Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, which is the name of the particular type of transistor circuitry that the CMOS chip is constructed of.

When people refer to the CMOS battery, they're talking about a battery on the motherboard which supplies a very small trickle charge to the CMOS memory chip so that the information in the memory gets retained even when the computer is unplugged for prolonged periods of time.

CMOS batteries have a pretty long lifetime (years), but they do eventually need to be replaced. The classic sign that your CMOS battery has died is that the computer suddenly stops keeping the correct date/time through reboots or extended periods of being powered off.

Member Avatar for geegoo!

CMOS batteries have a pretty long lifetime (years), but they do eventually need to be replaced. The classic sign that your CMOS battery has died is that the computer suddenly stops keeping the correct date/time through reboots or extended periods of being powered off.

Other than the time/date being uncorrect, is there any other way.. like for example error messages that would indicate that the CMOS battery is dying?
Thanks,

Member Avatar for DMR

You wont get any messages from Windows, and you may or may not see any messages from the BIOS at bootup.

If the computer is an older model, refuses to keep the date/time settings, and you know the battery has never been changed, you should probably just replace it. The batteries are cheap, and it's usually pretty easy to change them out.

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