X050401B: Tracking Blocco Setup Resets

This is the log of incidents where I ended up having to restore my preferred, secure settings when the firmware reset to its default condition for reasons that I have not identified. The idea is that this log may lead to some insight into the phenomenon. I need to start writing start-up and other experiences in my notebook so that I have more context any time the setup resets again.

*Action*	Date	Description

manually redid setup configuration	2005-04-16	I noticed that the system came right up to Windows XP this morning, so I powered down and powered up again. Sure enough, there was the light-blue Averatec OEM screen. I had my finger hovering over F2 and I pressed it quickly enough to get into setup before Windows was booted. It took me right into the setup screen without any password required. I then went through the drill of restoring the setting that have the configuration that I want. 2005-04-15: I was at the ACM/CFP 2005 conference and I made one failed attempt to get on the WiFi at the hotel. I also powered off once where I was then surprised to see that my machine was in standby, not shutdown. I can't be sure that the firmware was reset, but I think it was. I should put in the practice of noticing every startup I do with the machine. 2005-04-14: I was up late doing backups between Blocco and Compagno (mostly all in the toCompagno mode). At one point I had been in administrator to set some directory-sharing permisions while a transfer was underway. When I logged out ofadministrator, the Windows XP logon screen never made it. There was a blank screen and a cursor blinking in the upper left corner. So I waited until the transfer to Compagno ended, then I shut down and restarted Blocco. I remember being relieved when I was asked for my boot password. At the end of the night I switched batteries in the machine. This was so the spare would be charged and the last primary would be in the bag as a fully-charged spare.
manually redid setup configuration	2005-04-04	I got a data exception in MS Explorer in Windows XP SP2, and the Windows Safety officer restarted Explorer. I did a restart just to get a clean system. I saw the Averatec OEM boot screen and I knew there was trouble. So I powered down all of the way and redid the manual setup configuration. I had another Windows data exception (reading from location 0x000000). When I powered down, I left it down and this is when I noticed that the LAN adapter was still powered and shown as operable by my residential hub and router. The next day, when I powered up, my setup was still in effect.
reverted to an earlier restore point	2005-03-26	I have no recollection what I was doing, but I was logging on as admin and the admin desktop was lost. Windows created a fake one and gave me a raw admin setup. I reverted to the previous restore point and it failed. So I did the next one earlier 2005-03-25-10:52, and it worked. Oh, I was downloading and installing the JDK 5.0 from Sun. That directory disappeared, of course, so I did it again. I mention this only to indicate what startling events may have been happening. I was also having trouble with Microsoft Encarta and getting updates to work. It could be any of that which derailed the system.
manually redid setup configuration	2005-03-12	I noticed that Blocco powered up the original rapid way, so I rebooted again and went into setup. Sure enough, the setup seems to be restored to its default. I don't have any record of an incident. However, on 2005-03-09 Norton Antivirus was having a cat with 3 trojans in rapid succession from some weird site I had ended up at in Internet Explorer. They were all backed up and deleted and I didn't think any more about it. Now all I can think is root-kit, root-kit, but what does this hardware have that software could monkey with the BIOS configuration.
uninstalled and reverted to an earlier restore point	2005-02-17	Laplink Gold 12 installation fails miserably on Blocco and takes the system down hard with lots of hardware error indications. After uninstall, machine was still screwed up and I had to use a restore point to set things right. I'm not going to mess with LapLink. I can use XCOPY as a cross-machine synchronization.
first change of setup	2005-02-12	This is the first time that I configure the setup, turning off Splash Boot Logo, Fast Boot, and setting passwords on the setup acccess and on local startup.
	2005-02-08	This is the day Blocco arrived. I actually managed not to fool with it much until the weekend and beginning to be concerned about having it ready to go when I sit with my sister while she goes through the first hours after a day surgery she's planning to have.