My Computer has come to a complete stop

[Derek Broughton]

debian wrote:

> On Sat, 2008-06-21 at 09:49 +1000, James Takac wrote:
>> 
> reset the CMOS or reset the BIOS.
> 
> Note: The CMOS is just a battery which powers the portion of the BIOS
> that stores your system settings. With out it, you would manually have
> to enter them in every time you poweroff/poweron

Not really.  The CMOS is memory (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor). 
Attached to the CMOS is a battery, commonly called the CMOS battery, which
provides a tiny trickle of current to keep the CMOS memory refreshed. 
So, "the portion of the BIOS that stores your system settings" _is_ the
CMOS.
-- 
derek