Maybe Ageek would like to answer this, I know he would explain it in a good short paragraph Just kidding man, I like your explainations, I just don't always have time to read them throroughly like I would like too.
Non-Volatile RAM. Non-volatile ram holds its state after the master device/circuit is powered off. PC's typically use CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) to implement NVRAM and incorporate a battery power source to retain system settings.
I have an option in my BIOS to clear my NVRAM, is it advisable to have this enabled or no?
That clears the current assignments of IRQs and such. Unless you have a hardware conflict, no
If you do set it to yes then it will clear it on next boot and change itself back to no.
I have an option in my BIOS to clear my NVRAM, is it advisable to have this enabled or no?
IN BIOS, it wipes it before saving major changes or after a fialover recovery on a dual-BIOS system setup . For minor changes, no, don't bother. If your BIOS has recovered or failedover in a dual BIOS system, then I would do the NVRAM clearing and let BIOS entirely rewrite the CMOS settings table. BIOS code will NOT get cleared this way.
It is in BIOS simply to give you a clean slate if things are acting weird but not quite so weird that you cannot get into BIOS immediately after a POST, which might have had a BIOS autorecover also occur. BIOS has settings from current BIOS session in RAM, if you tell it to wipe NVRAM, it does this and then writes what is in RAM as a settings reference table to NVRAM (CMOS is the circuitry kind used, NVRAM is like SRAM but electrically erasable, technically it is an EEEPROM variant subtype of NVRAM as far as RAM kind goes). NOTE, if you have AV protection in BIOS enabled, you may have to disable that for this to work right.
Just kidding man, I like your explainations, I just don't always have time to read them throroughly like I would like too.
Comments
(To answer your question, Hypermoods' explanation is correct)
That clears the current assignments of IRQs and such. Unless you have a hardware conflict, no
If you do set it to yes then it will clear it on next boot and change itself back to no.
Non-Volitile Ram, makes scence.
IN BIOS, it wipes it before saving major changes or after a fialover recovery on a dual-BIOS system setup . For minor changes, no, don't bother. If your BIOS has recovered or failedover in a dual BIOS system, then I would do the NVRAM clearing and let BIOS entirely rewrite the CMOS settings table. BIOS code will NOT get cleared this way.
It is in BIOS simply to give you a clean slate if things are acting weird but not quite so weird that you cannot get into BIOS immediately after a POST, which might have had a BIOS autorecover also occur. BIOS has settings from current BIOS session in RAM, if you tell it to wipe NVRAM, it does this and then writes what is in RAM as a settings reference table to NVRAM (CMOS is the circuitry kind used, NVRAM is like SRAM but electrically erasable, technically it is an EEEPROM variant subtype of NVRAM as far as RAM kind goes). NOTE, if you have AV protection in BIOS enabled, you may have to disable that for this to work right.
John D.