Setting Up the BIOS Options

So you’ve picked out the parts you want, and put the computer together… so now we need to power it on and start setting
things up. Sure, you could drop your install cd in the drive, but you’ll have better luck if you check a few BIOS settings and
run some tests first, both of which we’ll cover here.

When the computer first powers on, you’ll be prompted to hit a key to enter setup (usually the Delete key). The settings
you’ll find in here will be different for each motherboard and BIOS version, so I’ll try to be somewhat general in explaining
the available options. When in doubt, open up your manual or ask on our forum.

Some people might be quick to point out that you can likely install an operating system with the BIOS defaults, but I think
it’s best to understand the important options and set them correctly before you do anything else. (Note: If you flash your
BIOS to a newer version, the settings will often be wiped and you’ll have to redo them)

The first screen usually lets you set your clock to the correct time, as well as disable the floppy drive (note Legacy Diskette
A is disabled below).

The System Information screen will show you the current BIOS version (more on that later), and you can verify that the
CPU and memory are detected correctly. If you don’t see the correct numbers here, you need to verify that you installed
the memory correctly. (check the manual if necessary)
The SATA Configuration screen has an option that is critically important: Do you want SATA to function as IDE or AHCI?

Here’s what you need to know:

 AHCI mode allows the computer to use the more advanced SATA functions, and will give you better performance.

 Windows XP does not natively support SATA mode. You must either create a slip-streamed install disc or use IDE
mode here in order to install.

 Windows Vista or current versions of Linux will function perfectly in AHCI mode.

 Note: If you install in IDE mode and then want to switch to ACHI mode, you should follow these instructions.
You should also check to make sure your hard drive and CD/DVD drives are detected correctly. This screen will be different
depending on your BIOS… in mine it was under AHCI Settings. If the drives aren’t detected correctly, verify that you
installed them correctly.

The USB Configuration screen will let you disable/enable USB… the important setting here is that USB mode should be set
to use HiSpeed (480Mbps), which is usually the default setting anyway.

There is usually also a screen that will allow you to do a couple of important things… for instance disabling the serial ports
or the regular IDE controller. I recommend disabling the ports that you aren’t using, to keep Windows from loading
unnecessary drivers for hardware you aren’t using.
The Power Management screen will let you choose the power management options. If you are running Windows Vista,
you’ll want to make sure ACPI 2.0 is enabled.

And in the APM Configuration screen you can set a couple more important options:
Here’s what you need to know:

 If you want to be able to wake the computer from sleep mode using the USB mouse or keyboard, you should
enable that option.

 If you want the computer to restart automatically after a power outage, set the “Restore on AC Power Loss”
option.

 If your BIOS has a “Wake on LAN” function, you should decide whether to enable or disable it… sometimes
enabling it will cause the computer to wake up when you aren’t expecting it.

Your motherboard likely has a Hardware Monitor screen, where you can see detailed information about temperatures,
voltages, and even the speed of the fan.
The Boot section is also very important: You want to make sure to set the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device so you can
easily boot off the installation disc. You could also choose Removable Device here if you want to boot off a USB flash drive.
Note: After you are completely finished installing, you can set the hard drive as the first boot device to speed up boot
time.

You can also choose whether you want a quick boot, and whether numlock is on by default. If you are building a computer
that won’t have a keyboard attached (like a server), you might want to disable the “Wait For F1 If Error” option, which will
allow the computer to boot even if there’s a keyboard error.

Most motherboards will have a System Performance and advanced chipset configuration screens, where you can configure
various overclocking scenarios, which we might cover in a future article, but for now you should probably leave everything
set to Auto and not really touch those settings.

Finally, there’s usually a section under Security or Boot that will allow you to set a supervisor or user password.
Usually you can set one password to prevent access to the BIOS, and another to prevent booting the system without the
password. It’s very important to make sure that if you do use this, you don’t forget the password, because it’s typically a
royal pain to reset it.

Note: If there are any other BIOS settings that you feel are important, feel free to mention them in the comments.

Updating Your BIOS

Depending on the hardware you’ve installed in your computer, you might need to upgrade the BIOS on the motherboard
before things will work correctly. (For instance, the computer I built last year didn’t properly support the new Core 2 Duo
processor until after I flashed it with the latest BIOS version)

In general, it’s best to be running the latest BIOS version, especially if you are buying a motherboard that has been sitting
on a shelf for a while. You should check the manufacturer’s website for a new BIOS version (remember where we noticed
the version earlier). Make sure to get the right version for your motherboard!

Unfortunately I can’t give you specifics on exactly how to flash the BIOS, since it’s going to be different for each
motherboard. It’s very important to check that chapter in your motherboard manual and follow the directions exactly.

Some motherboards might have a flash utility built into the BIOS screen that will let you update the BIOS from a file saved
on a flash drive:
Others may have software that you can use from within Windows once you’ve already gotten everything installed:
Still others might require you to boot from a floppy, bootable cd, or usb flash drive, usually running some version of DOS
or FreeDOS. If this is the case and you need some help, be sure to leave a post over on our forums.

Important: Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully when updating the BIOS. I’ve not had a bad
BIOS update in many, many years… but if it happens the motherboard would probably need to be replaced. The most
important thing to prevent problems is to not power the system off during the BIOS update.

Testing the Computer Before Installation

Now that you’ve setup all the BIOS options, it’s a good idea to test the computer to make sure everything is functioning
correctly. The last thing you want to do is install Windows and use it for a week, only to find out that you have a bad
memory stick causing all sorts of problems.

There are a couple of options for testing… I always use an Ubuntu live cd to test out a computer first, because you can
quickly boot and test out the general working operations of the computer:

For instance, within a few minutes after putting the computer together and setting up the BIOS, I was online:
The only problem with using the live cd is that you won’t be testing the hard drive at all… but it’s still a worthy test and it
feels great to have your new computer online almost immediately.

Ultimate Boot CD

There are also a number of boot cds which you can download that contain testing tools. If you have a favorite, then be
sure to let us know in the comments, otherwise you can always use the Ultimate Boot CD, which contains dozens of testing
tools you can use.

Once you boot off the cd, you’ll be nearly instantly prompted with the menu of tools.

If you look under Mainboard Tools, you’ll find the Memory Tests section, where you can choose from a number of memory
tests.

I highly recommend at least running a memory test, since RAM problems can be extremely tricky to diagnose later, and
can cause everything from corrupted files to complete system crashes. It’s better to know that you have a problem right
away than to waste countless hours troubleshooting problems that end up being memory related.
You’ll also find CPU tests and Hard drive tests, although I’ll warn you that most of the generic hard drive tests won’t work
for SATA drives. There’s a lot more options to look through if you want.

Note that I’m not necessarily recommending this boot cd over others, it’s just the one that I’m most familiar with.
Hopefully our great readers will suggest some good pre-installation testing tools in the comments.
Procedure Steps:

1. Autodetect Hard Disk: Find the entry in the BIOS setup menu for autodetecting your
hard disk and use it. This should detect your hard disk and set up its basic parameters.
Note that some systems do not have a separate entry in the menu for autodetecting hard
disks, but instead have autodetection as an option in the Standard Settings menu, where
the hard disk parameters themselves are. See this section for more information on
autodetection.
2. Set Standard Settings: Enter the Standard Settings menu and configure the following
options:
o Date: Make sure you enter this in the correct format, usually MM/DD/YY.
o Time: This is normally entered in 24-hour clock format.
o IDE Primary Master / Primary Slave / Secondary Master / Secondary Slave:
These entries contain the parameters for your IDE/ATA devices. If you
successfully autodetected your hard disk(s) in the previous step then you should
see the hard disk parameters that the BIOS found displayed here. These
parameters are discussed in detail in this section. If your system does not have a
separate autodetection menu item, it probably autodetects devices by pressing
{Enter} while the cursor is on the "Type" setting; look at your motherboard or
system manual. You'll have to autodetect each drive individually. I would
recommend that you verify that the autodetection set the hard disk settings
correctly by going through this list, because sometimes the settings are either not
correct, or the BIOS tries to pick the most optimal values (and we are looking for
safe values here):
 Type: This should normally be set to "User" for hard disks. If your system
has it, set this to "CD-ROM" for your CD-ROM drive.
 Size: This is calculated and not something you can enter. Don't worry
about it.
 Cylinders / Heads / Sectors / Write Precompensation / Landing Zone:
These should be left at the values that were autodetected.
 Translation Mode: For most modern hard disks, this should be set to
"LBA". Older hard disks below 504 binary megabytes (528 decimal
megabytes) should be set to "Normal" or "CHS", depending on the BIOS.
Do not change the translation mode on a drive that already contains data
or you may trash the drive's contents.
 Block Mode: This is supported by most hard disks but should be disabled
for maximum compatibility.
 PIO Mode: This can normally be left at whatever the BIOS detected.
However, if the BIOS set it to a value that you know exceeds the
maximum for the drive, reset it to whatever the maximum is. You may
want to try lowering this value if you experience problems with your
system. CD-ROMs generally have a maximum PIO mode of 3.
 32-Bit Transfer Mode: Disable this for maximum compatibility; you can
re-enable it later.
o Floppy Drive A / Floppy Drive B: Set these to the correct type for the floppy
drive(s) in your system.
 o Video Display Type: Set to "VGA" or "VGA/EGA".
o Halt On: Set to "All Errors" to make sure that all errors are trapped by the BIOS.
3. Set Advanced Features: Enter the Advanced Features menu and configure the following
options:
o Virus Protection / Virus Warning: I would strongly recommend disabling this
while configuring or setting up a system, or it will drive you nuts interrupting you
with warning messages when you partition and format your hard disk.
o Internal Cache: This should be enabled. If you have to disable this to get the
system to work then you have a motherboard or CPU problem that will
undoubtedly manifest itself in other ways (as well as seriously degrading
performance).
o External Cache: This too, should be enabled at all times. If disabling this is
required for stable operation, you probably have a motherboard hardware
problem. It may also be a CPU problem, especially with processors that have
integrated level 2 cache.
o Quick Power On Self Test / Quick Boot: Disable this to ensure that all POST
tests are performed at boot time.
o Boot Sequence: The options for this parameter depend entirely on the system.
You want to choose a sequence that has the floppy disk (A:) first, so that your
boot disk will work properly.
o Swap Floppy Drives: Make sure this is set correctly (normally you want it
disabled) or you are going to be mighty confused about the behavior of your
floppy disk drives.
o Fast A20 / A20 Gate Option: Disable this for maximum compatibility.
o Video BIOS Shadow: Disable for maximum compatibility.
o System BIOS Shadow: Disable for maximum compatibility.
o xx00-xxFF Shadow: There will be a number of options for shadowing various
ranges of upper memory. Ensure that all of these are disabled.
4. Set Advanced Chipset Features: Enter the Advanced Chipset Features menu and
configure the following options. Bear in mind that for the mostpart you will not want to
move these values from their defaults:
o Chipset Special Features / Global Features: Disable this for now.
o Cache Timing: Leave this on "Auto" or whatever the appropriate setting is for
your type of cache.
o Level 2 Cache Size: If your system has this option, set it appropriately.
o DRAM Parity Checking: Enable this if using parity or ECC memory.
o DRAM Parity / ECC Mode: Leave this on "Parity" if using true parity memory.
Set to "ECC" if using ECC memory. Parity mode is preferred for a new system or
while debugging as it will tell you immediately if a problem situation is arising.
o DRAM Speed / DRAM Timing / DRAM Auto Configuration: Set this to either
"Auto" or to the correct speed of the memory you have installed. This should lock
out most of the other options in this section.
o DRAM Speculative Leadoff: If this option is not locked out, disable it.
o Turn-Around Insertion: If this option is not locked out, disable it.
5. Set PCI / PnP Configuration Settings: Enter the PCI / PnP Configuration menu and
configure the following options. Bear in mind that for the mostpart you will not want to
move these values from their defaults; use "Auto" settings wherever possible:
o Plug and Play Aware OS: If setting up a Windows 95 system, enable this,
otherwise leave it disabled.
o Automatic Resource Allocation: Leave this set to "Auto". This should lock most
of the other settings in this section.
o PCI VGA Palette Snoop: Disable unless you know for sure that your system
requires it.
6. Disable Power Management: Enter the Power Management menu. You should find that
the first setting is some sort of global or master setting that controls all the other power
management settings. I recommend that you disable this at first when setting up a new
system, or if you are experiencing hardware or system problems. Note however that if
you totally disable power management, this will also eliminate some advanced power
features such as the ability to have Windows turn off the PC on an ATX form factor
system. As an alternative, leave power management enabled but disable the
standby/suspend timing parameters so that the BIOS does not automatically turn off parts
of the system after a period of time.
7. Set Integrated Peripherals Settings: Enter the Integrated Peripherals menu and
configure the following options:
o Integrated Floppy Disk Controller: Make sure this is enabled or your floppy
disk will not function.
o Integrated IDE / Hard Disk Controllers: You will either find two of these
parameters--one for the primary IDE channel and the other for the secondary--or a
single setting that controls both using options like "Disabled", "Primary",
"Secondary" and "Both". Enable whichever channels you are using. Most systems
will have at least one device on the primary channel. Some will also have a device
on the secondary channel.
o Integrated Serial Port 1 (COM1): You will normally want this enabled, and the
standard resource setting is IRQ #4, with I/O address 3F8h.
o Integrated Serial Port 2 (COM2): You will usually want this enabled, and the
standard resource setting is IRQ #3, with I/O address 2F8h. Disable COM2 if you
don't need it, or if you have or plan to install a modem configured using COM2's
default resources. (Many modems come configured to use COM2 by default).
o Integrated Parallel Port: You will normally want to enable this. The standard
resource assignment is IRQ #7, with I/O address 378h (3BCh on some systems).
o Integrated Parallel Port Mode: Set this to either "SPP" or "EPP". Do not set it
to "ECP", as this mode involves the use of additional DMA resources and is less
compatible.
o PS/2 Mouse Enable: Set to "Auto" if your system has that option, otherwise
enable it if using a PS/2 style mouse, disable otherwise.
o USB Enable: Disable on most systems, unless using USB.
8. Set Hardware Device Settings (jumperless systems only): If you have a jumperless
motherboard, enter the "CPU Soft Menu" (or whatever it is called on your system) and
configure your motherboard options:
 o CPU Operating Speed: If this option is present, set your CPU's speed here. This
will set and lock the "External Clock" and "Multiplier Factor" settings.
o External Clock: Set to the correct system bus speed for your PC.
o Multiplier Factor: Set to the multiplier factor for your PC.
o CPU Power Plane: Set to either "Single Voltage" or "Dual Voltage" depending
on what your CPU requires.
o I/O Plane Voltage: Set the appropriate external or I/O voltage for your processor.
o Core Plane Voltage: Set the appropriate internal or core voltage for your
processor.
9. Save and Exit Setup: Return to the main menu and choose the option to save and exit
the BIOS setup program. This will reboot the system. If you are setting up a new system,
make sure your floppy boot disk is still in the floppy drive so that the system will boot
from it.
 Installing Step 1
BIOS

Introduction
The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the lowest level of software in the PC. It is
located on a separate chip on the motherboard and is the first thing that is loaded when we
turn the computer on.
The BIOS starts by testing each component to make sure everything is operating as it should and that
the computer has everything it needs to load the OS. This starting test is called the Power On Self
Test, or POST. If any errors are detected during POST, the BIOS will report them either through a
series of beeps or by displaying the error on the screen.
usually when we talk about the BIOS we are really talking about the BIOS setup, and the interface
that is used to adjust these settings. The BIOS settings are like to core values of the PC and they are
used to dictate how the computer will operate at a fundamental level.
To access the BIOS setup, you must press a particular key during the POST, usually this is
the 'DELETE' key or the 'F2' key, depending on your motherboard.
As complicated as all this may sounds, in reality we don't have to do much in the BIOS setup,
almost all of the default values are fine. There are a few we need to check and may need to be
adjusted before we install our OS, but after that we will rarely or never need to come back to the
BIOS (unless you intend to overclock that is).

Below are descriptions of which setting to check within each of the menus.
Standard CMOS

Inside the standard CMOS menu, you will find the time and date settings, so ensure that these are
correct for your time zone. You will also see a list of connected IDE drives and an option to set your
floppy disk drive. Unless you are installing windows XP on a SATA drive then you probably do not
have any use for a floppy drive and can set this to 'none'.

The ‘Standard CMOS’ is where you can set the Time/date and enable floppy disk drive, as well as
setting the errors for which the BIOS will halt the startup process.

Advanced BIOS

The Advanced BIOS has options relating to the Boot order, CPU features and POST screen The boot
priority is the order in which the BIOS looks at different drives for an operating system to 'boot' from.
Under normal conditions the OS will be installed on the Hard drive, so this would be where the BIOS
should look for it, but we haven't installed in onto the hard drive yet, so we need it to first check the
CD/DVD drive so that it can boot from the Windows disk and install it onto the hard drive:

1. Go into the Advanced BIOS menu.

2. Locate the boot priority settings and set the first device to CDROM and the second to
Hard Drive (HDD). The order of the following devices does not matter.

You may also have options to set the hard drive boot priority which will tell the BIOS the order in
which to check the hard drives installed in your PC. If you later find that you are having problems
getting your PC to boot the OS, check the hard drive priorities to ensure the BIOS is checking the right
drive first.

The ‘Advance BIOS’ is where you can set the boot priority, telling the system where to look for the
Operating System.

Integrated Pheriperals

Here you will need to check that the SATA controller is enabled to allow you SATA drives to be
recognised. Most likely this will be set to enabled as default but its worth checking. If you can't find
any options that match this then down worry it just means it is automatic on your motherboard.

If you intend to run a RAID array then you may also need to check for options to enable RAID.
Again you may not have this options in your BIOS so don't worry if you can't find it.
The ‘Integrated Peripherals’ is where you can set the SATA and RAID controllers. However to set up a
RAID array you must use the RAID utility.

PC Health

The PC Health menu will provide you with readouts of temperatures, voltages and fan speeds. You will
be able to set temperature warning thresholds and warnings to indicate if a fan stops working.

Some motherboards will also have settings for adjusting fan speeds depending on certain
temperatures inorder to make the PC quieter when not running at full speed.
Setting up RAID

In order to use a RAID array you must first create it in the RAID utility. This is separate to the BIOS
and the screen that prompts you to open this utility will usually follow the POST or motherboard logo
screen after you have switched on your computer.

You will be prompted to pres a key combination (for example ctrl + i) in order to enter the setup
utility. On entering it will list any existing arrays and will give you a small number of options, usually
'Create RAID volume', 'Delete RAID Volume' and 'Exit'. It should be pretty self explanatory
what these options are. Once you go to create RAID volume you will be given the options to
add disks to the array and the type of array you would like (eg. stripe (0), mirror (1), Stripe
with parity (5) etc.).

Once set up the array will be usable as a single unit so that you can install the OS onto it or
just use it for data storage.

The RAID utility allows you to create RAID arrays from the available drives.
Configure The BIOS
Now, your new PC should be up and running and you should be staring at the BIOS setup screen.
Your next step is to make sure your BIOS is using the proper settings. While some users like to use the BIOS to tweak the system into
running like greased soap, during an initial build it is best to keep settings conservative, which usually means leaving them at their defaults.
Remember at this point we are most interested in getting this PC to work. I will first walk you through the necessary steps, then I will go over
some of the other settings you may see that you don’t need to mess with at this point.
When you get into CMOS for the first time, do the following:
1. Go into your Standard CMOS Setup screen. Ensure your video settings are correct (typically EGA/VGA) and that your floppy disk
is properly set to the size you are using (usually 1.44M). You will see settings for IDE Primary/Secondary Master/Slave. If these items
are not already properly set for the hardware you have, have the BIOS auto-detect your drives for you. Also, set the date and time to
the correct settings.
2. Unless your board has jumper-controlled processor and voltage settings, you will need to set these options in your CMOS now. In
our Soyo board, the screen to go into is called “Soyo COMBO Feature”. It may be called “SoftMenu” or some other term on your board.
Consult the manual to find out if you can’t see it. Once in that screen, you need to set your system bus speed, CPU multiplier, memory
timing speeds, CPU voltage, etc. Many of these options have an AUTO setting which is the safest choice if you don’t know otherwise.
Some other systems have a list of possible processors, in which case just choose yours from the list. On our testbed Soyo board, this
screen was also used for enabling or disabling onboard sound, RAID, and 10/100 LAN and if your board has similar settings, you can
set this to your liking. For example, if you will be using a sound card of your own, you would need to disable the built-in sound on your
motherboard. If you have onboard SCSI or onboard RAID capability, then set these depending on whether you will be using them or
not.
3. Confirm your boot order. One of the screens in your CMOS (many times the Advanced Features screen) will have a boot order
option. This controls the order in which the PC will look for a copy of something to boot off of, whether it is a full operating system or
just a diskette or CD. In a little bit you will be installing your full operating system and will need to boot the system beforehand. If you
are using a standard system diskette, make sure A: (or your floppy) is enabled to be first in line. In this case, you might want to also
check to be sure that if there is a setting to disable seeking out the floppy altogether, that is set to indeed seek out the floppy drive
(some people set this to off so as to make the boot process faster, but you cannot do that while building). If you are going to be booting
from a CD (as is probably the case if you will be installing Windows XP) then make sure your CD-ROM is first in line.
Those are the basics of what you will need to set in order to continue with this tutorial and have your PC set properly. Now, I will give a brief
rundown of some of the other settings you may see. This is by no means meant to be a complete reference, as all boards are different. Your
motherboard’s manual is your best reference to the settings you need to concern yourself with.
Advanced BIOS Features
This section controls some of basic operating settings of your PC. For example, you will enable/disable things such as on-board cache,
determine the boot device, etc. Here are some of the common settings:
 Virus Protection/Warning: Will scan your hard drive boot sector on startup for viruses and alarm you if anything attempts to write
to the boot sector. Enable for increased security, but disable to avoid the annoyance. If you are using a third-party antivirus utility (or
plan to) then this is useless.
 Cache Settings: These settings control L1 and L2 cache, which in most newer systems resides on the processor itself. In almost
all cases, this is enabled and should be. If there is an option to have ECC error checking on the L2 cache, go ahead and have it
enabled.
 Quick POST: This will allow the BIOS to skip some tests such as the memory test on boot-up, thus allowing the PC to boot faster.
You can disable it for the sake of thoroughness, and this is fine if you leave your PC on most of the time. But, if you turn it on a lot, this
is an annoyance and I’d recommend enabling Quick POST.
 Boot Sequence: This controls the order in which the PC looks at the drives for bootable information. Sometimes the BIOS will
have one field for this and you scroll through the options. Other versions have separate settings for “First Boot Device”, “Second Boot
Device” and so on. This was addressed above.
 Boot Up Floppy Seek: Controls whether the floppy drive will be looked for at all. Set this to enabled, at least until you get your
operating system installed
 Swap Floppy Drive: Allows you to control the assigning of the A and B drive letters to your floppy drives by swapping the order
that is dictated by the twist in the floppy drive ribbon cable. Most of the time this is disabled.
 Fast A20 Gate: The gate A20 is a device used for addressing memory above the 1 MByte mark (don’t really need to get into that
here). This used to be controlled by the keyboard via a pin. Keyboards still play a role in this today, but you control it via the BIOS.
Some BIOS have enable/disable, some have Normal/Fast. I would go ahead and leave it at the default.
 Typematic Rate Settings: These options control the rate at which holding down a key on the keyboard will produce characters on
screen. Just leave it disabled as it isn’t very important.
 Boot Numlock: Enable to have Numlock on when you start the computer.
 CPU Serial Number: Enables or disables the serial number thing in some older Intel CPUs. Privacy buffs, disable it.
 Security Option: Some systems have an option to require a password every time the system boots up. You’ll probably want this
disabled.
 Video BIOS Shadow: – Disable.
 OS Select For DRAM > 64MB: Set to Non-OS2. This is an archaic setting.
 HDD SMART Capability: Set to disabled. It is only useful if you have software running which monitors the status of the hard
drives.
 Small Logo Show: Controls whether the little EPA logo is shown on your bootup. Disable. Sometimes there is a small select
option, too, for selecting which logo will be shown.
Advanced Chipset Features
This area of the BIOS allows you to control certain aspects of your motherboard which are specific to the chipset on your board. This would
include bus speeds and memory issues. Some boards place their controls for processor, bus speed into this screen as well. I address that in
more detail above. Most of the time, you don’t need to worry about anything in here for the sake of this tutorial. But, a general outline:
 Chipset Special Features: Disable. Not all BIOS have this.
 L2 Cache size: If this option exists, set it to match the size of your external cache.
 DRAM Parity Checking: Enable only if using parity memory
 Dram parity/ECC mode: “Parity” if using parity memory, “ECC” if using ECC memory
 Memory Timings: This area allows you to control the speed of the memory. On Via chipsets, it will usually also display the
processor bus speed and the DRAM bus speed, allowing you to set the memory to operate on the Host Clock or BY SPEED. You can
set the memory speed manually or have it run at the same speed as the system bus. If you are using SDRAM, you can also control the
CAS latency, which is usually best left at default unless you’re a real tweaker.
 AGP Mode: Controls the AGP Mode, such as 1X, 2X, 4X or 8x. Set to Auto if available, or whatever it is set to already.
 AGP Frequency: Set to 66MHz.
 AGP Aperture: Controls how much of the PCI memory address range will be dedicated to graphics memory space. Usually, 64MB
is fine, but you can set it to whatever you want.
 DRAM Frequency: Set to the speed of your memory
 System BIOS Cacheable: Only valid when the system BIOS is shadowed. It can speed up access to the BIOS, but because the
OS rarely needs to look at the BIOS, enabling this does not cause much benefit. Disable.
Power Management
This section should be fairly straight-forward to even the novice user, and you should be able to use your manual to best describe the
settings. I usually leave everything in here default and you should for now, too. You’re just trying to get the PC working at this point, not fine-
tuning every little aspect of the BIOS.
Integrated Peripherals
 IDE HDD Block Mode: Speeds up hard disk access by transferring data from multiple sectors at once instead of using the old
single sector transfer mode. When you enable it, the BIOS will automatically detect if your hard disk supports block transfers and
configure the proper block transfer settings for it. Up to 64KB of data can be transferred per interrupt with IDE HDD Block Mode
enabled. Since virtually all hard disks now support block transfers, there is normally no reason why IDE HDD Block Mode should not be
enabled.
 Master/Slave PIO Mode: This function allows IDE drive to transfer several sectors at a time. Several modes are possible. Mode 0
means one sector at a time. Mode 1 is no interrupts. Mode 2 means sectors are transferred in a single burst. Mode 3 means 32-bit
instructions at up to 11.1 MB per sec. Mode 4 is 16.7 MB/sec. and Mode 5 is up to 20 MB/sec. Standard for most drives today is PIO
Mode 4. But, many BIOS’s offer an AUTO setting that will automatically make the best call for your drive. These modes must be set for
each drive, including primary master, slave, secondary master, slave.
 Master/Slave UltraDMA: Set to Auto. Enable if your drives are UDMA capable. Keep in mind that to use this feature also requires
it to be set up via the operating system.
 On-Chip PCI IDE, or IDE Controller: Used to either enable or disable either of your on-board IDE controllers. You can disable one
of these if you do not need it, freeing up resources. For example, if IDE-2 is unused, you can disable it, thus freeing up IRQ 15 so
something else can use it.
 USB Controller: Enable or disable your motherboard’s on-board USB controller.
 USB Keyboard Support: Many boards have a separate setting for USB keyboards, so you will need to enable this if you use one.
 USB Mouse Support: Same as keyboard, but sometimes you see one for mice, too.
 Onboard 1394: Enable or disable your onboard Firewire capability
 FDD Controller: Enable or disable your motherboard’s on-board floppy disk controller. You probably want this enabled.
 OnBoard Serial Port: Used to enable or disable the serial ports. Setting to AUTO will usually default to IRQ 4, and 3F8 (COM 1) or
IRQ 3 and 2F8 for COM 2. Disabling will, of course, free up the IRQ’s.
 Onboard IR Function: If you have an infrared device connected to the motherboard, you can enable IR here. IrDA (HPSIR) mode,
ASK IR (Amplitude Shift Keyed IR) mode, and disabled are the available options. Sometimes you might see an SCR mode, for smart
card readers. Choose the mode used by your IR device. This setting is usually linked to Serial port 2, so if that is disabled, this option
may not show up. Sometimes this option is called UART Mode.
 Duplex Mode: This will determine full duplex or half duplex transfer modes for your IR port, if enabled.
 Parallel Port: There are four options. The default value is Normal (SPP) which will work with all parallel port devices but is very
slow. Two faster bidirectional modes are available, namely the ECP (Extended Capabilities Port), used for devices with large data
transfers, and EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), for devices that switch directions a lot. ECP uses the DMA protocol to achieve data
transfer rates of up to 2.5Mbits/s and provides symmetric bidirectional communication. On the other hand, EPP uses existing parallel
port signals to provide asymmetric bidirectional communication. There is usually an EPP+ECP mode for users who don’t know which
mode to choose, but this can also take up an extra IRQ.
 ECP Mode use DMA: Controls the DMA channel used for ECP transfers. DMA 3 is default. You can set to 1 if there are conflicts.
 Init Display First: Used to control whether to initialize an AGP or a PCI video card first on start-up. Only relevant to users who use
both types of video cards with one monitor.
 Power On Function: Some motherboards allow you to turn on the system via a variety of alternative ways other than the normal
power switch. Examples include mouse buttons, button only (normal), or by keyboard. Select whichever option you want.
PnP/PCI Configuration
This section controls some of the various aspects of plug and play and the PCI bus. Much of it will not need to be touched at this point, but a
couple items bear mentioning:
 PNP OS Installed: If all your operating systems support Plug & Play (PnP), select Yes so that they can take over the management
of device resources. If you are using a non-PnP-aware OS or not all of the operating systems you are using support PnP, select No to
let the BIOS handle it instead. Some say that it is best to leave this option set to No regardless of whether your OS is PNP-capable or
not. The reason is that when it is set to No, the BIOS will attempt to resolve any resource conflicts. If it is set to Yes, even if a conflict is
detected, the BIOS will ignore it. So, setting it to Yes provides a bit of a safety net, and it will not affect the ability of the OS to perform
PNP on its own.
 Reset Configuration Data (Force Update ESCD): ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) is a feature of the Plug & Play
BIOS that stores the IRQ, DMA, I/O and memory configurations of all the ISA, PCI and AGP cards in the system (PnP or otherwise).
Normally, you should leave the setting as Disabled. If you encounter serious problems with the installation of a new PCI card, these
settings can help bail you out. Such a conflict could be serious enough that the OS may not start. If this happens, you can go into the
BIOS and enable this option. Next time the PC boots, the BIOS will go and re-configure the settings for all PNP cards. The BIOS will
automatically reset this setting to DISABLED next time you boot.
 Resources Controlled By: Normally, the BIOS controls the IRQ and DMA assignments of all of the boot and PNP devices in the
system. When this option is set to AUTO, this is what happens, and the ESCD is the mechanism for doing it. If you set this option to
Manual, you will be able to manually assign all IRQ and DMA information, usually via a sub-screen of the BIOS that will enable if you set
this option to Manual.
 PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: This option is only useful if you use an MPEG card or an add-on card that makes use of the graphics
card’s Feature Connector. It corrects incorrect color reproduction by “snooping” into the graphics card’s framebuffer memory and
modifying (synchronizing) the information delivered from the graphics card’s Feature Connector to the MPEG or add-on card. It will also
solve the problem of display inversion to a black screen after using the MPEG card.
 Assign IRQ for VGA: Many high-end graphics accelerator cards now require an IRQ to function properly. Disabling this feature
with such cards will cause improper operation and/or poor performance. Thus, it’s best to make sure you enable this feature if you are
having problems with your graphics accelerator card.
 Assign IRQ for USB: Assigns an IRQ to the USB controller. It enables or disables IRQ allocation for the USB (Universal Serial
Bus). If you are using AGP, this should be enabled. If you are not, you can disable this to free up an IRQ.
PC Health
This might be called by a bunch of different names, but it is the section of the BIOS (if it has it) that monitors things like fan speed, CPU
temperature, voltage levels, etc. You may also be able to set a shut down temperature, so if the CPU gets way too hot, the system would
shut itself down for safety.
Defaults
Many BIOS versions have pre-set sets of default values which you can pre-load. Some have “fail-safe” defaults and “optimized” defaults. If
you don’t wish to mess with any of the above, you can use these options to set the BIOS info up to certain sets of settings in one or two
button clicks.
Passwords
Most BIOS versions have security options to allow for user or supervisor passwords. Most people do not use them. But, if you do, just make
sure you record the password. If you lose it, you’ll have to reset your whole BIOS to get your system back.
Save and Exit the BIOS setup program. This will reboot the machine. Make sure your system disk is still in Drive A:.