CMOS Battery
Definition
A small lithium cell (typically CR2032) that keeps the real-time clock and a few firmware settings alive when the system is unplugged. Removing it is one of the classical resets for a forgotten BIOS password.
Related terms
- BIOS / UEFI
- Firmware on a flash chip on the motherboard that runs at power-on, initialises hardware, and hands control to a bootloader. UEFI is...
- Chipset (PCH)
- The motherboard logic that bridges CPU, RAM, PCIe lanes, SATA, USB and the firmware (UEFI/BIOS). On Intel boards the Platform Controller Hub;...
- NAND Flash Wear Leveling
- The SSD controller's policy of spreading writes across physical blocks so no single block wears out first. The side effect for forensics...
- Order of Volatility
- The sequence in which digital evidence should be collected, ranked from most to least transient. Defined in RFC 3227. CPU registers and...
- TRIM
- A command issued by the file system to the flash controller identifying blocks that are no longer in use, so the controller...
Explained in
- Computer Hardware Fundamentals for Forensic ExaminersA small lithium cell (typically CR2032) that keeps the real-time clock and a few firmware settings alive when the system is unplugged. Removing it is one of th...