OWNER’S HANDBOOK

6 BIOS SETUP

Using the Setup utility

The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) mediates between the computer’s hardware – the processor, memory, and so on – and its software – the operating system and your programs. The BIOS program is kept in permanent, read-only memory or ROM.

Setup is a helpful utility that forms part of the BIOS program. It allows you to view and alter the computer’s hardware configuration. Configuring the computer may be necessary to ensure that the software you use can recognise and exploit the hardware’s capabilities.

The current configuration is kept in a special area of memory, called CMOS memory, and maintained by a battery so that the configuration is preserved even while the computer is switched off.

Your computer arrives already configured, but may need to be configured again in certain circumstances.

Whenever the computer is turned on, the BIOS power-on self-test (POST) routine tests various hardware components, including memory, and compares the actual configuration of the computer with that recorded in permanent (CMOS) memory.

Using the Setup utility is fairly straightforward; all of the options and control keys available are constantly displayed at the bottom of the screen, and there is item-specific help displayed on the right of the screen for whichever item is currently selected.

The Setup utility contains the following main menu screens:

￿Main

￿Advanced

￿Security

￿Power Saving

￿Exit

B I O S S e t u p

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