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Comment #1
Regarding your BIOS guide,
I have yet to see a BIOS guide mention that both IDE Block Mode and 32-bit I/O modes
MUST be disabled when running Windows NT. Neither of these features are supported by NT
and they may cause corrupted data if left enabled. It's a common error since loading Setup
Defaults will usually enable Block Mode in Award BIOSes. 32-bit I/O mode is sometimes
enabled by loading setup defaults. I've noticed the latest text-mode AMI BIOS (on
Supermicro m/b's - NOT the WinBIOS type) do in fact enable 32-bit I/O on all hard disks
when Optimal Settings (equivalent to Setup Defaults in Award) are loaded.
Otherwise, nice guide. I look forward to the rest of it.
Chris Bope
Thanks so much for that piece of information, Chris! :)
I'll add it into the guide immediately!
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Adrian,
Since I've gotten quite a bit of e-mail regarding my suggestion of disabling IDE Block
Mode/32-bit Mode on hard drives under NT, I've done a little testing to see if it indeed
does cause data corruption in NT. I have a server running NT4 Server/SP5, with 64MB
SDRAM,
a no-name brand Intel LX chipset m/b with a PII-266. I've enabled both IDE Block Mode and
32-bit Mode on my 4.3GB Samsung HD. I have used heavy MS SQL Server 6.5 and Solid Server
2.2 database transactions with about 500MB of data. So far, I have not seen any cases of
data corruption, although with so much data, it would be difficult to see small errors and
corruption may occur over long periods of use. I plan to further test this with possibly
larger data sets. It is far from conclusive that these two BIOS settings are safe with NT,
but they seem to be so far. It is possible that the documented problems from MS may have
been corrected in a subsequent service pack, although I have been unable to confirm this.
Chris Bope
Hello Chris,
I have received many mails about this matter too. Many people claim there's no such
thing but an article by Microsoft about EIDE operation with
WinNT will squash all opposition, I should think. It details the fact that enabling
32-bit I/O mode or IDE HDD Block Mode may cause data corruption in WinNT. So while your
tests may not show any data corruption so far, there's always a possibility of it
happening with WinNT. Thus, you are still right. IDE HDD Block Mode should be disabled if
you are running WinNT.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #2
Thank you for the BIOS guide. VERY GOOD! Thanks a lot.
Archangel
Comment #3
re: Video BIOS shadowing (page 3 - BIOS guide)
-If the Video BIOS is "not used at all" by the computer when running Win9x why
do manufactures such as Matrox, Canopus, and others offer BIOS flash updates to some of
their video cards?
-Should Video BIOS shadowing be enabled or disabled for use with Linux? (Linux could be
the answer to my first question, huh?).
-Is it true that with newer video cards (AGP) shadowing should be disabled because the
BIOS on the newer cards is faster than shadowing?
Thanks for your time,
Christopher Dilts (GEAE, Greenwich)
Hello Christopher,
The BIOS handles the basic functionality of the card like refresh rates, clockspeeds
and basic VGA functions. It does not handle any acceleration tasks. That's for the
graphics accelerator chip itself. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but to access those
acceleration functions, only the graphics card's driver is used, and the BIOS is
completely bypassed. Thus, shadowing the BIOS won't improve the performance of the
graphics accelerator card at all.
I've never used Linux before so I can't comment on it.
I doubt any BIOS chip can be faster than the system RAM. Shadowing the BIOS will
definitely improve BIOS access time but the question is whether it actually improves
performance or not. IMHO, it does not. Besides, it introduces the possibility of
instability / crashes if i.e., a game accesses a RAM region that has been used to shadow
the BIOS.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #4
Article about the BIOS settings was a good idea.
Charles Meehling
I thought so too, Charles. ;)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #5
Hi Adrian,
It has been a long time since I ever thought of well, letting you know what happened to
this computer belonging to a friend of mine the last time...
I've read thru your BIOS optimization page and thought that you might be interested to
know that most graphic cards, especially those bus mastering cards from
Matrox, require a
free IRQ to function in busmaster mode.... =)
Yup! Most graphics cards these days require an IRQ for proper operation. Thanks for the
additional information there! :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #6
Hi there. Just read your BIOS guide, good stuff. I have a question about a setting in
my BIOS called "Plug n' Play OS" - it is currently set to No. I am running
Win98. can you explain what this setting does and if there are any
advantages/disadvantages to enabling it?
Thanks,
Reyaz Datoo
Hello there, Reyaz,
That setting is found in the PNP/PCI Configuration menu (which I have yet to write the
guide for). When I do, I will write down with more detail on what it does. But for the
moment, it is sufficient to say that if you are using a PnP-aware operating system like
Win9x, enable it so that the operating system can manage the system resources.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #7
Finally someone is doing a BIOS Optimization article! It's great so far, but please
include the following BIOS parameters in later installments:
1. HDD operating mode : Normal, LBA, Large . My ABIT manual recommends LBA but the BIOS
autodetect finds that my drive is using Normal so that is my BIOS setting. However the
ABIT manual says that the Normal setting can't allow full access to drives larger than 528
MB (yeah, that old limit). Clearly it does give me full access to my 6.4 GB drive. What is
the best or most efficient setting?
2. L2 Latency. What is this? Mine is set to "default" yet I've seen mention
of people using values as low as 1 and of programs (by H. Oda, I think) to change this
without rebooting. What is "L2 Latency" and what value should I set ?
3. Passive Release and
4. Delayed Transaction. These two are always listed near each other. Are they related
or interdependent ? I've seen various online reviewers disagree on what the optimal
settings for these two parameters are. These two parameters seem pretty mysterious and are
in dire need of some clarifiaction.
Sorry to be so wordy! Keep up the great work.
Kevin Ash
Hello Kevin,
I definitely intend to address all those settings in the later installments of this
BIOS guide. I'll just touch a little on your problems :-
1. Your 6.4GB hard disk should be able to run using LBA mode which has been the default
setting for all hard disks for quite a while now. The Normal setting won't allow full
access to drives larger than 528MB but a software overlay could possibly circumvent it.
You could be using one which could account for the fact that you are able to fully access
your 6.4GB hard disk.
2. Naturally, a lower latency equals higher performance. But it could also mean greater
instability. Test it out to see what L2 latency is best for your processor.
3. & 4. Irrespective of what may have been said by others, enable both Passive
Release and Delayed Transaction for optimal performance and to meet PCI 2.1 specs.
Hope that helps you some! :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Hello Kevin,
Adrien Huvier (Comment #23) has an observation
about your 6.4GB hard disk that you may find interesting. Check out Comment #23.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #8
Hey. Just wanted to say great job. I think you might be able to improve by checking the
different types of BIOSes i.e Award, AMI, Phoenix etc.. see what options are the most
commonly used for each one and address those as for each manufacturer. would be a
tremendous help I use award and some of the stuff that is in there makes no sense. But
good job so far. Keep up the good work..
William @ WB
Hello William,
Thanks for your compliment. The BIOS guide is still in its infancy. I intend to improve
much more on it when I have more time. :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #9
Three thoughts on your BIOS Guide:
1) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Before I stumbled across your site I was very
surprised that this info could not be found elsewhere on the 'net.
2) A printable version would be a boon for us who cannot surf whilst experimenting with
BIOS settings on our only machine.
3) An mailing list alert for future updates would also be pretty cool.
Did I say "Thank You"?
Enjoy,
Bill Burton
Thanks so much, Bill! :)
I'm very happy you liked it.
Actually you can print the entire BIOS guide out using your web browser. I'm not sure
about Netscape but if you are using Internet Explorer, all you need to do is press Ctrl-P
to print the current page.
Ahh... a mailing list. :) That's certainly a great idea.
The thing is I'm not proficient in this sort of thing. But if I can get someone to help,
it would certainly be doable.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #10
Hello, good guide, bout' time someone who speaks proper english explained the functions
of a BIOS :-)
Just a little query about the Video BIOS / System BIOS thingy.
From what I gather (and I'm not sure) is that video cards that have a BIOS (I
understand that most have) work by the fact that all calls/info to the card and from the
card go though its little BIOS (or big for 3D cards :-). And that by default, the cards'
BIOS (or part of) is loaded into upper memory (for DOS, into somewhere for other
OSes).
And that most functions of the card are handled via this BIOS, like refresh rates, clock
settings, graphic mode etc.
What I'm getting at is it true that all the System BIOS does is pass the buck from the
device driver to the video BIOS? And does it pass it though the upper memory window like
most other devices?
Sorry if this is a bit apart from actual System BIOS settings, but you could also throw
in a few explanations as to what settings effect this process (if it is correct that is).
Thanks in advance.
NBK Hotmail
Hello NBK,
All video cards have a BIOS. The BIOS handles the basic functionality of the card like
refresh rates, clockspeeds and basic VGA functions. It does not handle any acceleration
tasks. That's for the graphics accelerator chip itself. The video card's BIOS is not
necessarily shadowed. That's why there's an option in the BIOS for it. But all
acceleration tasks are handled by graphics accelerator chip itself via the video driver.
I don't think the System BIOS has anything to do with the Video BIOS. They are
essentially two different things. In any case, the video card's driver bypasses the video
BIOS and accesses the video hardware directly.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/ |
