Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Max on February 02, 2008, 08:30:41 AM
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Having just built a custom system I'm curious about what I need to do, if anything, with BIOS settings. The system seems to be working fine. My Abit mobo shipped with a software program called uGuru which allows me to monitor and change cpu, fan, etc. settings. Since I fired up the computer and installed XP, I've done nothing with BIOS.
Where do I go from here?
Thanks
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If it works, you really don't need to change anything. Maybe you should set the boot order to Floppy-Optical-HDD so you can easily boot stuff without having to mess around. If you have onboard sound or video, but have a real card installed, you should disable those (the onboard ones).
Just friendly geek FYI: BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It's a very tiny operating system that pretty much sets up a list of what's attached to the computer and prepares the necessary things the real OS needs to boot. The settings part of the bootup is named after the chip it resides on, called the CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor).
BIOS is on erasable ROM, meaning it remains after the power is killed but can be erased and rewritten (BIOS flashing). CMOS is volatile, meaning that once the power is cut, it reverts back to factory settings (via the BIOS) when you start it back up. You may be wondering why it doesn't reset every boot up? You'll notice a CR2032 coin battery somewhere near your expansion slots. That's a rechargeable watch battery that powers your CMOS and system clock. If you experience loss of CMOS settings or your clock freaking out, it's time to replace that battery.
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Thanks for the heads up. I pulled out the Abit docs and read something I missed re; BIOS. I went in and selected what amounted to an optimized default setting, saved it and exited.