Asked By
MeC11
10 points
N/A
Posted on - 08/23/2011
My primary Windows system partition has just been recovered after a Trojan gutted it. I have been unsuccessful in restoring a system restore point, because system protection has been disabled and all other system administration functions are also not working. A friend advised me to clear my CMOS and reinstall the operating system.
As I understand it, clearing the CMOS involves moving a tiny pin on the motherboard. I have clumsy hands and would rather not do this if it isn't necessary.
What does the CMOS do exactly, and should I clear it before reinstalling Windows?
Answered By
DankM
0 points
N/A
#117054
Questions on resetting and clearing CMOS
Trojan is a very destructive virus and it might have destruct your entire configuration and other settings. As per your information, it seems that it has damaged severely you computer
CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) which is fixed in the Motherboard. It consumes a very little of power. It is stores all the information like installed memory capacity, number of disk drives and their configurations. Even the machine gets turn off this memory will  remain. It is mostly unlikely to ham the Read Only Memory.
However, If you want to completely erase this memory, you have to remove the CMOS and keep it outside without fixing. This will discharge the power of capacitors even. But this removing should be done very carefuly by an experienced technical without damaging to the Motherboard.
Cheers
Lewis
Answered By
Othello
0 points
N/A
#117055
Questions on resetting and clearing CMOS
CMOS, Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, is the main authority in controlling your whole computer. It handles your computer's clock, the speed of the microprocessor, the RAM memory, the fan's speed, etc. All the chips that are connected
in your motherboard. It sets the configuration for the devices that are installed, like the mouse, keyboard, internal/external modem, network card, USB ports, printer port, video display port, and others.
If your computer was infected by just a simple annoying Trojan, then you don't have to reset the CMOS. Your friend's suggestion of formatting the computer and reinstalling the previous windows platform you are using is the best solution for those
computers that got infected by any other virus. This will really clear your whole computer of any trace of that malicious threat. But clearing CMOS is not a good suggestion. You might loose some configuration. There is no virus that can infect or
even affect any CMOS. When a virus is launched, it can use part of CMOS' memory, but not write and be stored in it. When a virus is launched, like for example in Windows XP, the virus code must first be stored in DOS memory to be executed. And
when you shutdown your computer, DOS memory is cleared out, so there's no way of infecting even the RAM. The main goal of every virus is to spread in every hard drive they could find, but not in CMOS.
I suggest, you format your hard drive, install the Windows platform and install a powerful antivirus. And forget about clearing the CMOS.
Answered By
lee hung
75 points
N/A
#117056
Questions on resetting and clearing CMOS
Trojan is one of the dangerous virus for a computer. It can damage your PC mostly. So you have to remove this from your computer. It attack mostly into the motherboard and it is very harmful for a PC. You have to need to clean that, if you remove this from your computer. Your important file can be make corrupted. So it is mostly needed for you to reformat your computer, then you can get the good and safe computer.
