On Monday 14 Jan 2008, Lennart Sorensen wrote: > On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 08:58:25AM +1100, Dean Hamstead wrote: > > after a circuit breaker caused a power outage, which reset the > > bios. debian is now freezing (solid) at 'Loading kernel module eeprom'. > > Power loss should never reset the BIOS. A power surge perhaps, or a > defective motherboard could.
If the lithium battery on the motherboard is defective, then CMOS settings can be lost with a power failure. However, modern motherboards will be able to determine that the CMOS memory has become corrupt and will automatically adopt "working" (though probably sub-optimal) settings if this happens. Note that a duff motherboard battery sometimes fails to manifests itself, because most people leave their PC plugged into the wall all the time. As long as the PC is plugged into the mains, the switch on the wall socket is on and the electricity meter is in credit, the PSU will supply standby power to the motherboard and the lithium battery will not be used. Most PCs are plugged into extension leads which do not have separate switches for each socket; which are then plugged into inconveniently-located wall sockets whose switches stay ON all the time. -- AJS delta echo bravo six four at earthshod dot co dot uk -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]