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What is BIOS
All computer hardware has to work with software through an interface.
The BIOS gives the computer a little built-in starter kit to run
the rest of softwares from floppy disks (FDD) and hard disks (HDD).
The BIOS is responsible for booting the computer by providing a
basic set of instructions. It performs all the tasks that need to
be done at start-up time: POST (Power-On Self Test, booting an operating
system from FDD or HDD). Furthermore, it provides an interface to
the underlying hardware for the operating system in the form of
a library of interrupt handlers. For instance, each time a key is
pressed, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) perform an interrupt
to read that key. This is similar for other input/output devices
(Serial and parallel ports, video cards, sound cards, hard disk
controllers, etc...). Some older PC's cannot co-operate with all
the modern hardware because their BIOS doesn't support that hardware.
The operating system cannot call a BIOS routine to use it; this
problem can be solved by replacing your BIOS with an newer one,
that does support your new hardware, or by installing a device driver
for the hardware.
In order to change the BIOS settings, you must first access the
CMOS Setup
When the system is powered on, the BIOS will perform diagnostics
and initialize system components, including the video system. (This
is self-evident when the screen first flicks before the Video Card
header is displayed). This is commonly referred as POST (Power-On
Self Test). Afterwards, the computer will proceed its final boot-up
stage by calling the operating system. Just before that, the user
may interrupt to have access to SETUP. Usually, setup can be entered
by pressing a special key combination (DEL, ESC, CTRL-ESC, or CTRL-ALT-ESC)
at boot time (Some BIOSes allow you to enter setup at any time by
pressing CTRL-ALT-ESC). The AMI BIOS is mostly entered by pressing
the DEL key after resetting (CTRL-ALT-DEL) or powering up the computer.
You can bypass the extended CMOS settings by holding the key down
during boot-up. This is really helpful, especially if you bend the
CMOS settings right out of shape and the computer won't boot properly
anymore.
Once the bios setup menu has been accessed, you want to try to look
for things that can be figured out using common sense; Such as "internal
cache --enabled? -- you bet!", or System speed "fast/slow?
-- doh!" It really can be that simple. Other things to look
for are wait states -- set them as low as possible, video shadow
-- enabled. Note, however, that you should try changing only one
of these at a time. Change one, note the effect, and if it doesn't
cause any problsms with your software then change another, and so
on.
Benchmarking can be useful in BIOS setting 'tweaking' as well. When
you change a BIOS setting, how do you know if it truly increased
the performance at all? By using a benchmark before the setting
change, and again after the change, you can determine whether the
performance went up, down, or stayed relatively the same. Choose
the benchmark that suits you best. 3D-Bench works well, as does
Chris's 3D-Benchmark or Norton SI for Win95. For memory timing changes
(read/write timing, i.e. 3-1-1-1 to 2-1-1-1), Cachechk v4.0 works
nicely as it primarily tests dram timing and does not rely heavily
on raw CPU power.
Finally, if after you have fiddled with the BIOS setup options your
system freezes up or acts strangely, don't panic! Simply enter the
setup program the same way you did the first time and change the
settings back to normal. One last point -- don't change anything
concerning the hard drive type as you won't be able to reboot the
computer until the correct type is reentered.
Turbo Frequency - Enabled (only on 66mhz and 100mhz bus)
Multiplier Factor - CPU default
SEL 100/66# Signal - Set LOW
AGPCLK/CPUCLK - Safest setting is 1/1
L2 cache Latency - As low as possible
Speed Error Hold - Enable in case of errors
CPU Power Supply - User Define, anywhere from 2.0v to 2.3 depending
on power supply
Virus Warning - Enable
CPU Level 1 Cache - Enable
CPU Level 2 Cache - Enable
CPU L2 Cache ECC Checking - Disable
Quick Power On Self Test - Enable
Boot Sequence - C,A,SCSI is fastest, doesn't really matter whatever
suits you best
Swap Floppy Drive - Disable
Boot Up Floppy Seek - Disable
IDE HDD Block Mode - Enable
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop - Disable, unless video card manual says
Delay for HDD - 0
Video BIOS Shadow - Disable
Shadow address ranges Disable as default
SDRAM CAS Latency Time - 2, if unstable use 3
SDRAM Precharge Control - Enable
DRAM Date Integrity Mode - Non-ECC, if you are using ECC memory
enable ECC
System BIOS Cacheable - Disable
Video BIOS Cacheable - Disable
Video RAM Cacheable - Disable
8 Bit I/O Recovery Time - 1
16 Bit I/O Recovery Time - 1
Memory Hole At 15M-16M - Disable
Passive Release - Enable
Delayed Transaction - Enable
Disclaimer -- We, at Mr Tweaks, will not be held responsible for
any damage to anything seemingly caused by our advice in this article!
This help is provided as a service to you, but common sense must
be used when attempting to change settings that you are unfamiliar
with. Most likely, the worst that can happen is you could change
the hard drive type as reported to the bios which will prevent the
system from being booted until the data is reentered, however I
am not familiar with all bios settings and therefore there may be
some that could cause damage.
When your computer starts up either hold the DEL key or when you
see a message saying change setting or something similar to that
press DEL. Now we are in the bios, you should see a blue screen
with a few menu options. The options are in order as they appear
in my bios, but you may have to search around for them, they also
may have a slightly different name to below, good luck
OTHER BIOS Downloads
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