It would also help if people who only read books but have no hands on experience of the A330 would also post economically otherwise their usually respected posts may be discredited but also send people in the wrong direction.
Hopefully this extract from the a330 MM will make things even clearer.
The first extract is from the CMS chapter (Central Maintenance System)
(2)
Links between CMCs and System BITEs
Two operating modes characterize the CMS (BITE + CMC): the normal mode and the menu mode.
(a)
The normal mode
This mode is based on permanent real-time memorization of fault data.
The next is from the CMS chapter on fault reporting via acars
General rules for CMC and systems data transmission -
-
automatic transmission from the internal logics
The automatic transmission:
. of the warnings and faults in real time
yes some minor systems report faults only when asked. The systems reported as faulty on AF447 were reported in real time. Any other scenario would have ensured that acars sent other real time collected messages.
Therefore the time of transmission is irrelevant as the faults are time stamped in real time and sent in real time. If there are any communications issues the time stamp remains time when fault occured.