BIOS

.IV

Features

BIOS

 

 

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Quick Power On Self Test (Enabled)

This field speeds up the Power-On Self Test (POST) routine by skipping retesting a second, third, and forth time. Setup default setting for this field is Enabled. A complete test of the system is done on each test.

HDD Sequence SCSI/IDE First (IDE)

When using both SCSI and IDE hard disk drives, IDE is always the boot disk using drive letter C (default setting of IDE). This new feature allows a SCSI hard disk drive to be the boot disk when set to SCSI. This allows multiple operating systems to be used on both IDE and SCSI drives or the primary operating system to boot using a SCSI hard disk drive.

Boot Sequence (A,C)

This field determines where the system looks first for an operating system. Options are A,C; A,CDROM,C; CDROM,C,A; CDROM,A,C; D,A; E,A; F,A; C only; LS/ZIP, C; LAN,A,C; LAN,C,A; and C,A. The setup default setting, A,C, is to check first the floppy disk and then the hard disk drive.

Boot Up Floppy Seek (Disabled)When enabled, the BIOS will seek drive A one time.Floppy Disk Access Control (R/W)

This allows protection of files from the computer system to be copied to floppy disk drives by allowing the setting of Read Only to only allow reads from the floppy disk drive but not writes. The setup default R/W allows both reads and writes.

IDE HDD Block Mode Sectors (HDD MAX)

This field enhances hard disk performance by making multi-sector transfers instead of one sector per transfer. Most IDE drives, except older versions, can utilize this feature. Selections are HDD MAX, Disabled, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32.

HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability (Disabled)

This field enables or disables S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) support for S.M.A.R.T.-capable hard disk drives. This technology requires an application that can display S.M.A.R.T. warning messages.

PS/2 Mouse Function Control (Auto)

The setting of Auto allows the system to detect a PS/2 Mouse on bootup. If detected, IRQ12 will be used for the PS/2 Mouse. If not detected, IRQ12 will be reserved for expansion cards. Enabled will reserve IRQ12 for the PS/2 Mouse.

OS/2 Onboard Memory > 64M (Disabled)

When using OS/2 operating systems with installed DRAM of greater than 64MB, you need to Enable this option otherwise leave this on the setup default of Disabled.

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PCI/VGA Palette Snoop (Disabled)

Some display cards that are nonstandard VGA, such as graphic accelerators or MPEG video cards may not show colors properly. Setting this to Enabled should correct this problem. Otherwise, leave this on the default setting of Disabled.

Video ROM BIOS Shadow (Enabled)

This field allows you to change the video BIOS location from ROM to RAM. Relocating to RAM enhances system performance, as information access is faster than the ROM.

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ASUS P5A User’s Manual