 |
|
Frequently Asked Questions Q: How is the BIOS Setup Utility used?A: The computer's basic input/output system (BIOS) has a built-in setup program that allows you to set several basic computer characteristics. The settings are stored in battery-backed random access memory (RAM) that retains the information when the power is off. To enter the BIOS Setup Utility, press the F1 key when the prompt to do so appears at the bottom of the screen during start-up. The Main Setup menu screen appears. Notice that there is a separate box on the right side of the screen. This is the Command screen, and it is displayed as part of every windows in the Setup utility. It contains several commands that help you move through the Setup functions. A detailed explanation of the Command screen appears below.
Backup command: press the ESCAPE key to back out of any field. Select command: Press ENTER to select sub-menus and options.
Previous Item command: Press the UP ARROW key to move to the previous menu item.
Setup Defaults command: Press the F5 key to set the Setup parameters to their default values. A submenu appears asking you to press either ENTER to load the defaults or ESCAPE to skip. Using the Main BIOS Setup Utility menu
Computer time and date
Floppy disk drive options Press ENTER on the floppy disk drive type to see the options menu for floppy disk drive type. You should only change the floppy disk drive type if you have installed another floppy disk drive shown on the list or if BIOS Setup Utility values are lost. Press ENTER on the Floppy Access field to view these menu choices. Select the Read/Write option to allow the computer to both read and write information to the floppy disk drive. Select the Read Only option to allow the computer to write protect all floppy disks. This option overrides the write protect tab on the disks; disks used with this option become read only.
Hard disk setup Select the first available drive type item, called Primary IDE Master, and press ENTER until. The Primary IDE Master information submenu appears. The IDE device configuration default is set to Auto Configured, which allows the computer to directly detect and set up the drive type every time the computer starts. With this setting, you can swap drives while the computer is off and the computer detects the new drive configuration when you power up. You can change the drive configuration to User Definable by pressing ENTER on the selected bar to view additional options. You may need to select the User Definable, mode if you are running Novell and have a 540-megabytes (MB) or larger size drive. Select User Definable and press ENTER. Now you can fill in the fields with your specific information. For example, set the drive to 1048 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. The size shows 516 MB. You can also change the hard disk type to Disabled. Select this setting if you are using SCSI hard disks instead of IDE drives. The IDE Translation Mode controls the way the computer interacts with the hard disk in terms of the drive size, capabilities, and the operating system that it uses. The default setting is Auto-Detected. This allows the BIOS to detect IDE drive support for Logical Block Addressing (LBA). Note: The IDE Translation Mode field is the same thing as Logical Block Addressing (LBA). This field must be set to Auto Detected if the hard disk in your computer is larger than 528 MB, or the computer won't use the hard disk's full capacity. You can change the drive configuration to User Definable by pressing the ENTER key on the selected bar to view additional options. You may need to select the User Definable, mode if you are running Novell version 3.12 or earlier and have a 540-MB or larger size drive and do not have the updated drive, IDE.DSK, from Novell. Select User Definable and press ENTER. Now you can fill in the fields with your specific information. For example, set the drive to 4960 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. The size shows 1549 MB. The hard disk type can also be changed to Disabled. Select this setting if you are using SCSI hard disks instead of IDE drives. The IDE Translation Mode controls the way the computer interacts with the hard disk in terms of the drive size, capabilities, and the operating system that it uses. The default setting is Auto-Detected. This allows the BIOS to detect IDE drive support for Logical Block Addressing (LBA). Press ENTER on the IDE Translation Mode field to see the other options: Standard CHS, Logical Block, or Extended CHS. Select Standard CHS if the computer is using a 528-MB or smaller hard disk. Select Logical Block or Extended CHS if the computer is using a hard disk larger than 528 MB. Check the hard disk manual to determine which of these modes the hard disk supports. Some operating systems do not support LBA an/or Extended CHS translation modes. In these cases, this parameter should be set to Standard CHS. The Multiple Sector Setting controls the number of sectors transferred by an IDE drive per interrupt generated. The default setting is Auto-Detected. Press ENTER on the Multiple Sector Setting field to see the other options: Disabled, 4 sectors/Block or 8 sectors/Block. Check the specifications for the hard disk found in its manual to determine which setting provides the optimum performance for the drive. Fast Programmed I/O Modes control the speed at which programmed I/O transfers occur on the PCI-IDE interface. The default setting is Auto-Detected, which causes transfers to occur at the maximum speed of the drive and/or controller, Mode 4. You can also select Disabled, which causes transfers to occur at an un-optimized speed. Select the second hard disk item, called Primary IDE Slave, and press ENTER. The Primary IDE Slave information submenu appears. All of the fields shown on this screen function the same as those listed on the Primary IDE Master screen.
Language
Boot Options The Boot Device fields, First through Fourth, allow you to select the order in which your computer's hard disk, floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, and so forther, are booted. You select the device you want for each field by pressing ENTER to view the menu choices. The default Boot Device order is as follows: CD-ROM, Floppy, Hard Disk, Network, and Disabled. Make sure any unused Boot Device fields are set to Disabled. The System Cache field controls the primary and secondary cache. It is recommended to leave it set to Enabled, since setting it to Disabled degrades computer performance. The Boot Speed field controls the computer speed. It is recommended to leave this setting to Turbo, since selecting Deturbo decreases computer performance. The Num Lock field controls whether the keyboard Num Lock function is turned on or off when the computer starts up. Since the AnyKey keyboard has separate numeric and cursor keys, it is recommended to set this to On. However, the factory default setting is Off. The Speaker field turns the onboard speaker control to On (Enabled) or Off (Disabled). The default setting is Enabled The Setup Prompt field controls whether or not the Press the F1 key to enter Setup message is displayed during the Power On Self Test (POST). The Typematic Rate Programming field controls whether or not the computer uses default or user configurable values for two sub-items: Typematic Rate Delay and Typematic Rate. Since the AnyKey keyboard has typematic functions built in, you can set this to Default. See the AnyKey Help in the Gateway group in Windows for information about programming the AnyKey keyboard. If you select Override, the following two sub items appear:
Video Mode
Mouse
Base Memory
Extended Memory
BIOS Version Using the Advanced BIOS Setup Utility menu
Like the Main menu, the Advanced menu also contains several items of information that tell you about the computer. You have the option to change some of the items; others are unchangeable and are provided solely for your information.
Processor Type
Processor Speed
Cache Size
Peripheral Configuration This submenu gives you the choice of having the computer set the onboard computer resources automatically. The Primary IDE Interface field allows you to enable or disable the primary IDE hard disk drive interface. You can select Auto (enabled) or Disabled. The default setting is Auto. The Secondary IDE Interface field allows you to enable or disable the primary IDE hard disk drive interface. You can select Auto (enabled) or Disabled. The default setting is Auto. The Floppy Interface field allows you to enable or disable the floppy disk drive interface. You can select Auto (enabled) or Disabled. The default setting is Auto. The Serial Port 1 Address field allows you to select the address of serial port 1. The default setting is Auto. If the Configuration Mode option under the Plug and Play Configuration submenu is set to Use Setup Utility, the Setup utility assigns the first free COM port, normally COM1, 3F8h, as the serial port 1 address, regardless of what is selected under the Serial Port 1 Address option in this submenu screen. The Serial Port 2 Address field allows you to select the address of serial port 2. There are several options. The default setting is Auto. If the Configuration Mode option under the Plug and Play Configuration submenu is set to Use Setup Utility, the Setup utility assigns the second free COM port, normally COM2, 2F8h, as the serial port 2 address, regardless of what is selected under the Serial Port 2 Address option in this submenu screen. The Parallel Port Address field allows you to select the address and IRQ of the parallel port. There are several options. The default setting is Auto. If the Configuration Mode option under the Plug and Play Configuration submenu is set to Use Setup Utility, the Setup utility assigns the LPT1, 378h, IRQ7 as the parallel address, regardless of what is selected under the Parallel Port Address option in this submenu screen. The Parallel Port Mode field allows you to select the mode for the parallel port. The setting you select depends on the type of peripheral device installed with your computer. There are several options. The default setting is Compatible, which is an AT specification, output only mode. Bi-directional is an input-output only mode; the parallel port operates in bi-directional PS/2-compatible mode, ECP is an Extended Capabilities Port mode (IEEE 1284), and EPP is an Enhanced Parallel Port mode, revision 1.7. Selecting either ECP or EPP means that the parallel port operates in both high speed and bi-directional modes. The Primary IDE Status field displays the current status of the primary IDE interface selected in the Primary PCI IDE Interface field. The Secondary IDE Status field displays the current status of the secondary IDE interface selected in the Secondary PCI IDE Interface field. The Floppy Status field displays the current status of the floppy disk drive as indicated in the Floppy Interface field. The Serial Port 1 Status field displays the current status of the serial port 1 address indicated in that field. The Serial Port 2 Status field displays the current status of the serial port 2 address indicated in that field. The Parallel Port Status field displays the current status of the parallel port mode indicated in that field.
Advanced Chipset Configuration This submenu allows you to change the characteristics of your computer's base memory size and ISA LFB size, among others. The Base Memory Size controls the mapping of addresses between 512 kilobytes (KB) and 640 KB. Unless you are using an ISA card that requires access to the address range of 80000h-9FFFFh, it is recommended to leave this option set to the default 640 KB. The ISA LFB Size allows you to create a hole in the computer memory map. Access made to addresses within this hole are directed to the ISA bus instead of to main memory. You should set this field to Disabled unless you are using an ISA card with 64 KB or greater of memory that needs to be accessed by the computer, and you are not using Plug and Play run-time utilities (CM and ICU). The Video Palette Snoop, when set to Enabled, allows an ISA video card to share a common palette with a PCI graphics card. If your computer is configured with only a PCI graphics card, you should leave this item set to its default setting of Disabled. The Latency Time (PCI Clocks) field controls the length of time an agent on the PCI bus can hold the bus after another agent has requested the bus. The default is 66 and should not be changed. The Bank 0 DIMM Detected and Bank 1 DIMM Detected fields automatically detect and display installed memory DIMM types.
Power Management Configuration Note: In order for Power Management to work properly in MS-DOS, Power.exe must be loaded onto the computer's Config.sys file. Windows 95 has its own power management module. This submenu allows you to enable or disable several power saving features, including several settings for video. The Advanced Power Management (APM) field allows you to globally enable or disable advanced power management support in the computer. If you select Enable, the computer works with APM-aware operating systems and software to manage the power consumed by the CPU, IDE drives, and graphics cards. If you select Disabled, then none of the other fields in the Power Management Configuration submenu are displayed. The IDE Drive Power Down field controls whether or not a spin down command is issued to the IDE drives when the computer goes into low power mode. Select Enabled or Disabled. The Vesa Video Power Down field controls the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) power management command issued to the graphics card when the computer goes into low power mode. Several settings are provided. The proper setting is dependent upon the VESA mode(s) supported by the graphics card. The Inactivity Timer field controls the number of minutes that the computer detects no customer activity before switching to low power mode. The default setting is 20 minutes. The Hot Key field is used to define a key sequence that, when entered, causes the APM BIOS to ask an APM-aware operating system to go into immediate power managed mode. This key sequence is CTRL+ALT and whatever key you select to complete the sequence. After selecting a key, you must press the ENTER key to activate the Hot Key. Note: It may take the computer approximately one minute to go into power managed mode after you have pressed the Hot Key combination. When the computer goes into the power down mode, it emits a single beep to let you know that power management mode is imminent. If you have set a User Password, however, you must enter that password before the computer comes out of power management mode.
Plug and Play Configuration Note: The Plug and Play Configuration screen is a dynamic screen--the available IRQs change according to the peripheral devices you have installed and the IRQs they use. This submenu allows you to alter such items as the Plug and Play configuration manager's source of information, the ISA shared memory size, and several IRQs, which can be made directly available to, or used by, an ISA card. The Configuration Mode field allows you to select the method in which information about legacy ISA cards, that is, ISA cards that do not have Plug and Play capabilities, is conveyed to the BIOS, allowing the BIOS to set up PCI and ISA Plug and Play cards without conflicting with the legacy ISA cards. If you select Use Setup Utility, the BIOS depends upon information provided by you in the fields on the VESA Video Power Down settings options screen to prevent conflicts between Plug and Play cards and legacy ISA cards. If this option is chosen, you should not install and use run-time plug and play software, such as Configuration Manager and ICU. If you select Use ICU or PnP OS, then the BIOS uses the information provided by the run-time Plug and Play software, such as Configuration Manger and ICU, to ensure that there are no conflicts with legacy ISA cards. You should only select this mode if your computer is configured with these utilities and they are used. When you select Use ICU or PnP OS , that allows you to select the plug and play operating system. Press ENTER to see the menu choices. If you have Windows 95 loaded onto your computer, you should select Windows 95. Returning to the Use Setup Utility window, the ISA Shared Memory Size field is used to specify a range of memory addresses that are directed to the ISA bus rather than onboard memory. This field should be set to a memory size, 16 KB, 32 KB, and so forth, only when a non-Plug and Play ISA card, that is, a legacy card, is used which has its own non-ROM memory space. Local Area Network (LAN) cards that have onboard memory buffers are one example of this. Video capture cards that have video buffer memory are another. The default is for all upper memory to be shadowed, the Disabled setting, unless a block is set to unshadowed by selecting one of the other memory options; Disabled, 16 KB, 32 KB, 48 KB, 64 KB, 80 KB, 96 KB. Note: Shadowing is a technique that copies a block of memory from read-only memory (ROM) to a corresponding address in computer memory to allow faster access to the code and achieve higher performance. Note that if you select an option other than Disabled, a second field appears called the ISA Shared Memory Base Address field. This field displays a corresponding address for the memory size you selected as an unshadowed block. You have the option to change the base address for all unshadowed memory options except 96 KB because this option takes up the entire memory block. The IRQ 3 - IRQ 15 fields are used to indicate whether individual interrupts are used by ISA legacy cards. If not used, then they should be set to Available. If they are used, they should be set to Used by ISA Card. It is important to remember that all but one can be set to Used by ISA Card. At least one IRQ must remain available for PCI cards that use interrupts to function. Note: IRQ 3, IRQ 4, IRQ 7, and IRQ 15 will not be visible if they are consumed by onboard resources: IRQ 4 - Serial Port 1, IRQ 3 - Serial Port 2, IRQ 7 - Parallel Port, IRQ 15 - Both interfaces used. Using the Security BIOS Setup Utility menu
In this menu, you can set two types of passwords for your BIOS Setup Utility. The two types of passwords are User Passwords and Administrative Passwords. The Set User Password allows you to set a password to control access to the BIOS Setup Utility, the keyboard initial boot, and the keyboard when used along with the Security Hot Key. The Administrative Password allows you to set a password to control access to the BIOS Setup Utility only. The following table describes the interaction between these passwords:
*If the Administrative Password is ineffective and you enter Setup with the User Password, you can only change the System Date, System Time, User Password, and Security Hot Key fields. When you press ENTER on the selected Set User Password field, the Set User Password screen appears showing the ENTER Password window. Enter the password in the Enter New Password block. Then, retype it in the Confirm New Password block. The password is now set. You can tell if a password has been set in either of the two fields by looking at the top of the Security menu screen. If either the User Password is or Administrative Password is field says Enabled, then a password is in place for that field. If you are entering a new password in either field to replace an older one, the pop-up window will look about the same, except the words Enter Current Password appear at the top. If you have set a password in either of the two password fields, a third field, Unattended Start, appears. This field controls the point at which you must enter your password. If you select Enable, you must give the password after the computer has completed automatic start-up activity and before you can use the keyboard, as the keyboard is locked and the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock lights are flashing. If you select Disable, you must give the password before the computer starts automatic start-up. Another field you see if you have entered a User or Administrative password is the Security Hot Key (CTRL-ALT-) field. Use this field to define a key that, typed in sequence with CTRL+ALT, places the computer into secure mode by locking out the keyboard. When you type in the Security Hot Key, the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock lights on the keyboard flash on and off in sequence, indicating that the computer is now secure. Using the Exit BIOS Setup Utility menu
Use the RIGHT ARROW key to toggle over to the next main menu screen, the Exit BIOS Setup Utility menu. This menu allows you to select whether or not to keep any changes in the BIOS Setup Utility that you may have made before exiting. You can also select to load any Setup defaults you may want. If you press ENTER on the Exit Saving Changes field, the Exit Setup menu screen appears showing the Saving Changes options window. The Exit Saving Changes field allows you to exit the BIOS Setup Utility and save the current entries for all parameters. If you press ENTER, the computer exits Setup with all parameters set to their current values. If you press ESCAPE, you return to the Exit menu without saving any changes. The Exit Discarding Changes field allows you to exit the BIOS Setup Utility and discard any changes you may have made to the Setup parameters. If you press ENTER, the computer exits Setup and throws out any changes you made to the parameters. If you press ESCAPE, you return to the Exit menu with no change. The Load Setup Defaults field allows you to load default values into all Setup parameters, except for passwords. If you press ENTER, the defaults are loaded into all Setup parameters, except for passwords. If you press ESCAPE, you return to the Exit menu with no change. The Discard Changes field allows you to undo any changes you made to the Setup parameters during this Setup session. If you press ENTER, any changes you made to the Setup parameters are discarded. If you press ESCAPE, you return to the Exit menu with no changes. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
United States
(change country or region)