Specifications

123
Motherboard Types and Features
3
Floppy disk Sets the floppy disk type; choices are usually 3
1
⁄2-inch
type and 5
1
⁄4-inch. If you must choose a size in MB or inches,
the most likely choices are 1.44 MB (the maximum data size)
and 3.5 inch (the physical size of the disk).
System Reports installed processor and speed, BIOS version,
information installed RAM.
BIOS Features Quick boot Enable/disable. Enable to cause POST to skip some tests
Menu and speed up booting. Disable this feature when installing
or testing a motherboard to get a thorough POST.
Above 1 MB Disables POST check of this memory to speed up
memory test booting; the OS checks this memory anyway.
Memory parity For older motherboards, enables parity checking to ensure
error check that memory is correct.
System boot Establishes the device the system turns to first to look for
sequence an OS. Possible devices are the hard drive (drive C), CD drive,
DVD drive, USB device, floppy drive (drive A), or the network.
External cache Enables L2 cache. A frequent error in setup is to have cache,
memory but not use it, because it’s disabled here. Used on older
motherboards that have on-board cache memory.
Password Establishes a startup password. Use this only if you need to
checking prevent someone from using your PC. Sometimes there are
option two passwords, each with different levels of security.
System ROM Enabling shadow system ROM is recommended. Shadowing
Shadow ROM is copying ROM programs into RAM. Programs are then
F000, 64 K executed from RAM, which is faster than executing programs
from ROM.
IDE multiblock Enables a hard drive to read or write several sectors at
mode or block a time; depends on the kind of hard drive you have.
mode
Plug and Play Enable/disable. Disable for Windows 2000/XP/Vista, which
(PnP) does all the PnP configuration. Enable for Windows 9x,
which uses PnP data from BIOS.
Advanced Audio controller Enable/disable.
Chipset Setup
Network port Enable/disable.
Wireless network Enable/disable.
controller
AGP capability Switches between AGP 1x, AGP 2x, AGP 4x, and AGP 8x
versions to accommodate different AGP video cards.
AGP aperture size Adjusts the amount of system memory AGP can address.
AGP voltage Sets AGP operating voltage according to video card
requirements.
VGA BIOS Determines the order in which PCI/AGP is initialized;
sequence important mainly with dual monitors on legacy systems.
Processor serial Allows processor ID# to be switched off for privacy
number (Pentium III only).
Category Setting Description
Table 3-5 BIOS settings and their purpose (continued)
A+ 220-701
A+
220-701
1.2
2.5
5.2
1435487389_ch03_CTP.qxd 7/30/09 5:22 PM Page 123