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• To get to the BIOS screen, you have to follow the instructions when the
computer just starts to boot. For many motherboards, you hit the delete
key to enter the BIOS. Other BIOS' use F1, F2 and F10 just to mention a
few.
• As you can see, this BIOS is for a motherboard purchased in 2005. Both
newer and older motherboards will have different options/features. This
motherboard uses a Phoenix BIOS. Others may have a different type of
BIOS and may look significantly different. For most motherboards, the
owner's manual is available online at the manufacturer's web site. The
BIOS section of the manual will tell you what you need to know about the
BIOS settings. If you're unsure, you can almost always find help on one
of the computer forums like the Major Geeks forum.
This is the first page you'll see when you get into this particular BIOS. The
appearance and features of the various BIOS configurations from various
manufacturers vary significantly. This is a Phoenix/Award BIOS. Some
computers use an AMI BIOS. Other computer manufacturers produce their own
BIOS software/firmware.
Above, you can see that the 'Standard CMOS Features' is selected. If you hit
the ENTER key, you get the screen below. This is the screen where you set the
system clock and set several of the drive parameters. Luckily, most of the
newer BIOS' set/read the drive parameters automatically.
On the screen above, I scrolled down to the 'Primary IDE Drive' and hit ENTER.
The next screen is the result. In this machine, the primary IDE drive is a 40GB
Samsung drive. The screen shows the various drive parameters. Here, we want
to let the BIOS set the parameters if the drive is capable. Some older drives
don't have the capability to communicate that information to the BIOS and the
parameters have to be set manually. Thankfully, most of the older drives have
been taken out of service.
Next, we scroll down to what is simply labeled 'BIOS Features' and click
ENTER.
Here you can see some relatively new/unique BIOS features. Super-boot
allows the computer to start faster by storing certain basic system information
in memory. The Super BIOS protect protects the computer's BIOS information
from malicious software that tries to destroy the BIOS data. If the BIOS
information is completely destroyed, the computer can not be booted and, if
the BIOS IC isn't replaceable (installed in a socket vs soldered in place), the
motherboard has to be replaced. The SuperRecovery allows you to partition off
the drive in a way that nothing can access it from the OS (nothing -- not
partitioning software or malware -- nothing). It is supposed to offer the highest
level of protection for your data. The
This is an image of the initial SuperRecovery screen.
The next feature is the SuperSpeed feature. It allows you to increase the
speed of the processor but you have to be careful. If you set it too high, your
computer may become unstable, it may be unable to boot and/or it could
overheat. If you ever make a BIOS change that prevents the computer from
booting, you can clear the CMOS memory with the 'clear CMOS' jumper.
Generally, this presents no serious problem (except for all of the settings going
back to the default settings). However, in some cases where a RAID array is
set up in the BIOS, the recovery takes longer. If you're working with a RAID, it
may take several trips through the BIOS and several reboots to get things
back in order (don't ask me how I know :).
Below is a picture of the 'clear CMOS' jumper (inside the dotted yellow line).
It's generally very near the BIOS IC. If you ever need to clear the CMOS
memory, you simply remove power from the computer, move the jumper from
pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3. After a second, return the jumper to pins 1 and 2
and restart the computer. The BIOS settings will now be as they were when
you initially powered up the machine. In the following image, the green arrow
points to the BIOS IC. On this board, it's soldered directly to the board but
these are often installed in sockets to allow quick replacement. The orange
arrow points to the backup battery. This retains the CMOS settings when no
power is applied to the motherboard. The battery rarely needs replacing but if
you're working on an old machine, you should check it to confirm that its
voltage is approximately the rated voltage (generally 3v). The yellow arrow
points to the clear CMOS header. As you can see, a shunt is installed across
pins 1 and 2. If you're unsure about the pin numbering on a header, there are
often indicators like the white triangle (red arrow). On this board, there is also
a number 3 but there aren't always numbers.
Object 1
The image above is a Flash graphic so you can right-click and zoom in on it.
You can click HERE to open it in a new window.
A couple more notes about the CMOS. As was stated previously, clearing the
CMOS memory restores the system to what it was when the system was
powered up for the first time. Generally, the computer will function after
clearing the CMOS but for advanced systems there are some things you should
know.
• Any over-clocking settings will be lost. This won't cause any problems
but could be annoying if you have to find the sweet-spot for the system.
• If you're running a RAID hard drive configuration, clearing the CMOS will
remove the RAID settings and the system will not boot until the RAID
array has been reconfigured. If this happens and you don't know how to
reconfigure the RAID array, try to find someone who does. If you were
running a RAID array, it was likely done for a reason (security against
hard drive failure or for better performance). If you reload the operating
system on one of the drives (because you can't reonfigure the array),
you will lose the benefit of the array and will lose all information on the
drives.
• If you can't find the clear CMOS jumper/header, look for the battery. The
header is almost always near the battery (large silver coin-cell battery).
On some motherboards, there is an alternate way to clear the CMOS. On
THIS motherboard, you can see that there is a switch on the back of the
board. This is convenient but you have to be aware that it's there if
you're reaching around the back of the computer trying to plug
something in. If you accidentally push the button, it will clear the CMOS.
Here, we scrolled down to the 'Advanced BIOS Features' and clicked enter.
There are too many features here to cover them all but you should notice a
few. At the top, you can see that the virus warning is ENABLED. The 'quick
POST' is enabled (allowing even faster booting). Below that, you can see that
you have options for the boot order of the various drives. Here, we have told
the computer to boot to the CD ROM first and if you don't find a boot record,
boot from the hard drive. To shave a few seconds off of the boot time, you can
have it boot to the hard drive first but if you need to run something like True
Image recovery, you will need to go into the BIOS and set it to boot from the
CD ROM first.