BIOS settings

You can boot up faster & improve your performance by changing settings in your BIOS. First of all need to access it. When you're starting the PC, hit the Delete key. It should bring up the BIOS a few seconds later. Use another key if necessary.

NOTE - Write down all your current settings for future reference in case you do something that you shouldn't have. Either that or want you just want to restore it to your old configuration. Some of the definitions used are taken from my VT6X4 manual.

You may need to search under different sections of your BIOS to find these, so be prepared to look. I'll put these into different sub-categories where they generally would appear.

Standard CMOS features

Date: Use this to set the date for the computer to use.

Time: Use this to set the time for the computer to use.

IDE Primary master: There are more options available for selection in a submenu. Many of the parameters for the options below will be shown on your hard drive, so write them down if possible (Note these fields are only necessary for hard drives, not for DVD drives, etc.). Many of the settings used here will be printed on your hard drive.

·         IDE HDD auto-detection: This can be used to auto-detect all parameters for the values shown below. Press Enter to try auto-detection.

·         Access mode: Use this to set the access mode for the hard drive. Set this to Auto if you are unsure. Set to Normal if the hard drive is less then or equal to 528MB (highly unlikely now). Set to LBA (Logical Block Addressing) for large disk support. If LBA mode is not supported try Large mode instead.

·         Capacity: Enter in the size (in MB) of the hard drive.

·         Cyclinder: Use this field to set the number of cyclinders on the hard drive.

·         Head: Use this to set the number of read/write heads on the hard drive.

IDE Primary slave: See IDE Primary master.

IDE Secondary master: See IDE Primary master.

IDE Secondary slave: See IDE Primary master.

Drive A: Select the type of floppy drive you have installed in your machine, if any.

Drive B: Select the type of the second floppy drive you have installed in your machine, if any.

Floppy 3 mode support: If you are using a Japanese PC then you'll most likely be using this type of floppy drive, in which case you should set it to Drive A/B depending on which drive it is installed as. All others should set this to Disabled.

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