I have had a continuous struggle, since about the time of the last postings on this thread with security in general on my Averatec C3500.

It was only just last night that I first saw this CMOS failure message. For some weeks I *had* been noticing that the boot password would disappear, and when I went into the SCU (F2 at startup) all the settings would have been changed.

I got brand new setup disks from Averatec in April of 2006, which included Windows XP Pro, and I would assume, the latest version of the BIOS.

Nevertheless, I have used all manner of different disk clearing products, flashed the BIOS, and re-installed the manufacturer's operating system.

I would invite anyone who is experiencing this CMOS failure issue to try to repave their system, choose NOT to have automatic updates, and then go directly to the MS update site to get updates manually. I will bet my grocery money that you will find, if you examine the security certificate for the ActiveX control for updates (which of course no one ever does...) that you will find an expired date on that security certificate.

Cheers, Sue