Although many replace their systems in tandem with each MSFS release, some hang onto their systems for a long time. I recently experienced a symptom which reminded me of how important it is to document your CMOS (BIOS) settings. Just about other simmer has tweaked their BIOS in some way. Usually, it's that one odd tweak that gets everything "just right". But imagine losing that "one" tweak that made all the difference?A couple of days ago, I noticed my system clock had suddenly lost about twelve hours. Thought perhaps my daughter had adjusted it while she was playing games. But I made a note of it, and on my reboot the following morning, it had even lost more time.I immediately went into "backup" mode, and noted all the CMOS settings.On the way home from work, I grabbed a CR2032 battery, which is used as battery backup for most CMOS's. Sure enough, I arrived home and my CMOS was wiped clean. Swapped out the battery, and entered my CMOS settings written down in the AM, and I was back in business.But it served as a good warning sign of how careless I had been. The CMOS battery is used when the system's turned off. One unexpected business trip, and I would have been facing a world of frustration. I encourage my peers to thus write or print, if your system supports it, all of your BIOS settings. One old or bad battery may wipe away that one "tweak" which makes all the difference.-John

Hi John,a bloody good idea matey, I have been doing this for years, but never mentioned it because until you're post I had never seen it. and I didn't want people to think that I had gone somewhat too obsessive with all this "back-up" protection, but, as you're post states, yes, this could leave the un-prepared in a "world of hatred" if this happened and caught them off guard,nice post, and a great idea for All to be cautious of, and ready for should the worst happen.as a side note, these CMOS Batteries are supposed to last about five years, and that the average user will up-grade his/her mobo well before that, but they do not always last that long I can assure you.in fact. I change mine as soon as I get the mobo as you don't know how long its been in there discharging itself slowly even before you start to use it.maybe it would be good to have re-chargeable ones, this way it's being replenished as we use it, kind of like a car battery.cheers.

hi Steve,out of curiosity, what's your opinion on the Cat 5.1's versus the 4.12's with the X800? thanks in advance. happy flyin, fm

Hi FM, love the name by the way.I think they are better in a few ways, such as the way they handle the display rates etc, and I have noticed improvements in my Joint Operations game too with these new drivers.I suggest that you try them, but, I also cannot emphasise enough the need to un-install the old ones correctly,eg, run the add remove progs, select the control panel, DO NOT Re-Boot yet, then un-install the ATI drivers as well, DO NOT boot yet either, then run the ATI software remove tool in the add remove window as well,all this should be done AFTER you have downloaded the new CAT5's, then also get the ATI removal tools as well such as the CAT un-installer and Smart Gart tool as well.run both of these after you re-boot from the earlier steps above, then run the new CAT version install software, I personally un-check the theatre option as it's never going to be as good as my sound card right not.hope this helps, and that I haven't made it sound too complex,let me know how you go with all this,PS. don't be worried if any of the CAT/Smart Gart tools tell you that it found no ATI software to un-install, thats just the check procedure,it has done it's job, OK.

hi again Steve,thanks for the compliment on the name. sorry about the late reply been at work the last few days. the main reason i asked was after reading alot of the posts about the 5.1's at the "Rage 3d" forums, it looked like they weren't getting alot of "Rave" reviews. also, seems like alot of the folks reverted back to the 4.12's. since the 5.2's may be just around the corner i may wait and give them a try. thanks again for the info. happy flyin, fm

You can just take a digital picture of the critical CMOS setup screens to document the settings. Probably best to print out hard copies of the pictures instead of leaving them on the hard drive, in case you have serious startup problems due to a corrupt BIOS.