zirblazer
commented
7 months ago While I do believe than this could be useful, in the case of the MSIs it is harder to use than FlashBIOS because to clear CMOS you need to dissamble the computer, as you need access to either the battery or the Clear CMOS / JBAT1 Jumper. For example, I have two Video Cards with cooling that makes them 2.5 slots wide, the battery itself is to the left of the first PCIe 16x slot so innacessible if there is a card installed, and the JBAT1 Jumper is top-left of the second PCIe 16x slot and I can't get my hand there without uninstalling at minimum the second card. I don't even need to open the case to use FlashBIOS, and I have an USB flash drive ready to go. The only case I can think about where Clear CMOS would be preferable to FlashBIOS is if you did something involving enrolling custom keys to Secure Boot and you don't want to lose them by reflashing, or if you already have the computer in an open test bed. Actually, depending on how this would get implemented, it could even be counterproductive because if I use FlashBIOS but Dasharo checks the RTC SRAM to see if XMP was enabled, I would be absolutely forced to dissamble so that I can clear CMOS since FlashBIOS wouldn't reset it.
MSI higher end boards do have a dedicated Clear CMOS Button on the back of the board where this would actually be really useful: MPG Z790 CARBON MAX WIFI / MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI / MPG Z790 EDGE TI MAX WIFI
Modern boards usually recover themselves via some OC watchdog, which was added to Dasharo at an earlier version but removed because it conflicted with the Reset Button (No joke). It may have to be revisited to see if it can be workarounded by reverting to JEDEC after some time with no successful POST.
SergiiDmytruk
renehoj
The problem you're addressing (if any)
Some individual settings or combination of settings might result in an unbootable (bricked) system.
Describe the solution you'd like
Zeroing of CMOS should have the effect of resetting all settings to their default values.
Where is the value to a user, and who might that user be?
Anyone who's experiencing a problem with booting after changing a setting should appreciate an ability to boot by resetting CMOS. That's what users are already trying to do.
Describe alternatives you've considered
No response
Additional context
This is particularly useful for things like XMP, which are known to sometimes render systems unbootable as whether applying a profile will work depends on the combination of hardware and even how it was assembled (which DIMMs are populated).