Dell Mini Tower System Preparing to Use the ICU, Starting the ICU, Backing Up the ICU Diskette

After you have run the ICU for your non-Plug and Play ISA expansion cards and it has configured all your Plug and Play and PCI expansion cards, you can use the utility to lock the configuration of your Plug and Play and PCI expansion cards so that they are always assigned the same resources. See your online System User’s Guide or “Locking and Unlocking Cards” found later in this chap- ter for details.

Preparing to Use the ICU

Before using the ICU for the first time, you must com- plete the following steps:

1.If your system includes Dell-installed software, make a program diskette of the utility from the diskette image on your hard-disk drive.

NOTE: If you received an ISA Configuration Utility Diskette with your system, skip to step 2.

For instructions on how to create a program diskette from the diskette image, see the online help provided in the Program Diskette Maker, which is available in the Dell Accessories folder or program group.

2.If you want to use your mouse with the ICU, copy your mouse driver file (mouse.exe) to your ICU diskette.

3.Make a backup copy of your ICU diskette, as described in the next subsection, “Backing Up the ICU Diskette.”

Use the backup copy whenever you run the utility; store the original diskette in a safe place.

Backing Up the ICU Diskette

Before using the ICU, make a backup copy of the ICU diskette by performing the following steps.

NOTE: If you received an ISA Configuration Utility Diskette with your system, use this procedure to create a backup of that diskette.

1.Make sure you have a blank, high-density, 3.5-inch diskette.

2.Turn on your computer system if it is not already on.

3.Make a copy of the ICU program diskette.

See your operating system documentation for instructions on making a copy of a diskette.

4.Store your original ICU diskette in a safe place. Use only the backup diskette when running the ICU.

Starting the ICU

After you have completed the procedures in “Preparing to Use the ICU” found earlier in this chapter, insert the backup copy of the ICU diskette into drive A. Then either turn on your system or reboot it by pressing the reset button.

Accessing Help

You can access online help in the ICU in four ways:

•Select Contents from the Help menu to display a list of topics. Select a topic and click Help. Help text on that topic appears in a dialog box.

•For most dialog boxes, you can click Help to display information on the action you are performing.

•From the ICU window, press the <F1> key to display a list of available help topics.

•To redisplay the last message you received from the ICU, select Previous Message from the Help menu.

Making Selections in the ICU

The ICU window is the main window of the utility and the starting point for making expansion-card changes. This window lists all non-Plug and Play ISA, Plug and Play, and PCI expansion cards currently installed in the computer. The ICU window contains menus and a tool bar, as shown in Figure 3-1. When you choose a course of action, the ICU displays dialog boxes to guide you through the various steps.

Figure 3-1. ICU Window

Using the ISA Configuration Utility 3-3