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Comment #51
Hello,
I have one comment in regard to video BIOS shadowing. WinNT doesn't seem to handle this
feature well, at least on my motherboard (Abit BX2). Some DOS games had corrupt graphics
because of BIOS shadowing. With it disabled there were no problems.
Thanks for the guide
Matt Hausig
Hello Matt,
Thanks for sharing your experience. This goes to show that some games still have
problems with the shadowing of the video BIOS.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #52
Adrian:
Your BIOS settings page is excellent. It's nice to have a comprehensive and detailed
list of what all those settings do and how they should be set for optimal performance.
It's a shame that those who write motherboard manuals usually don't include this type of
information.
I'd like to point out one minor observation I've made about the "PNP OS
Installed" option in PNP/PCI Configuration. I've noticed that this setting can cause
problems with certain ISA PNP cards under Win9x. I've had both an ISA PNP soundcard and
modem that would work either erratically or not at all with this option enabled.
Keep up your good work on the site.
Allen Gall
Thanks for sharing your experience there, Allen. I guess PnP isn't as matured or stable
as it should be. Your experience will be of great help to users with similar problems.
Thanks again! :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #53
Q. Does Windows NT use 32-bit I/O accesses (also known as HDD Block Mode)?
A. To date, this has been seen to corrupt data in some cases. Therefore, it is not used.
Does "not used" in this context really imply that it should not be enabled?
Microsoft's wording in their answer implies that they can control the access from the
operating system. (Perhaps by doing 16-bit port I/O in the kernel, I would have to look in
the driver code.) If you dual, (or in my case tri) boot different operating systems you
might want to leave it enabled.
Jeanna Shore
Hello Jeanna,
I think what Microsoft meant was it was not [to be] used. If they can disable IDE HDD
Block Mode from within the OS, they wouldn't need to post that article. Perhaps there is a
way to disable HDD Block Mode in WinNT manually but unfortunately, I don't know of one.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #54
In your reply to NBK you wrote:
All video cards have a BIOS
That is completely true but I wanted to let you know that 3D add-on cards like Voodoo
and Voodoo2 don't have a BIOS since they only support 3D and not 2D.
Keep up the good work!
RansAckeR
Hello RansAckeR,
That's correct. All add-on cards like add-on 3D accelerators and MPEG cards don't have
a BIOS because they require a 2D card (with BIOS) to be present.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #45
Adrian,
Thought you might want to upgrade the section on the BIOS for the MPS setting.
I spent 3 sleepless nights trying to get NT and my TNT/TNT2 video card to work
together. I tried everything...
Except..
the MPS setting.. for NT set it to 1.4 NOT 1.1 I have not tested out Linux SMP yet but
will let you know the results when I do.
I noticed that both you and the BP6 manual don't say anything about the MPS setting.
Also, cool site.. Good going fellow Malaysian.
Eugene Tan
Hello there, Eugene,
Thanks for that tip there! The manual wasn't specific about what it meant by
"older" and "newer" OSes... so thanks for details like that. I'll be
looking forward to your results with Linux SMP.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #56
Regarding your take on the 8 bit and 16 bit I/O recovery time. Have you actually set
this to N/A in your system? I am asking because I did set it to N/A in mine and now my
computer won't boot. All I'm getting when powering up my computer is a single beeping
sound. Could the N/A setting be causing this? I can't even go into BIOS to set it back to
1. Would appreciate any help you can give me on this.
Thank you.
Richard
Hello Richard,
Yes, I have actually used the N/A setting in my system. In fact, I still set both 8-bit
and 16-bit I/O Recovery Times in my present system to N/A even though I'm not using any
ISA cards. There has been no problem with this setting so far. The 8-bit and 16-bit I/O
Recovery Times only pertain to the operation of 8-bit and 16-bit ISA cards so if you don't
use them, those settings won't affect your system at all.
If your system refuses to boot after a wrong BIOS setup, try pressing the INS key while
cold-starting it. It should reset the BIOS settings to safe defaults and enable you to
redo your BIOS settings. If that still does not let you initialize your BIOS, then there
could be something wrong with your system, like an improperly inserted card or SDRAM
DIMM.
Check your connections.
Hope that helps you some! :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #57
Hi Adrian!
Thanks for the guide, u did a great job!
About the PIRQ_0 Use IRQ No. ~ PIRQ_3 Use IRQ No. section in
PNP/PCI Configuration, can
you give an example? I don't quite understand that table that you have in there.
What if I had PIRQ_0 set to 10,
PIRQ_1 set to 11,
PIRQ_2 set to 9,
PIRQ_3 set to 5
What wud the various slots end up getting?
Thanks again
Fang-Piau Kao
Hello Piau,
I have already updated that section on that with an explanation on how to set the IRQ
you want for each slot. Check it out. You'll understand how to use the table then.
If you set it as so, then AGP slot 1 and PCI slot 1 will be assigned IRQ 10,
PCI slot 2 will be assigned IRQ 11
PCI slot 3 will be assigned IRQ 9
PCI slot 4 and 5 will be assigned IRQ 5
Hope that helps you some! :)
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #58
Hi, Found this page while doing some illegal surfing in the office,.. I tried to print
it but all I got were white pages with yellow letters.. I think cause you make use of
white letters on a black page this happens.
Could you send me the this great document a word format? I have some problems with my
PC at home, when it goes to standby mode for a longer time, it doesn't see my ISDN or
network card anymore. So I want to use your document to walk through all my settings and
optimize it. Is it possible for you to send it to me?
Thanks!
Regards,
Robert Cras
Grabowsky Polytechnics BV53 Koninginnegracht2514AE The Hague Netherlands
tel: +31-70-3131 020fax: +31-70-3131 021mob: +31-6-53684022
Hello Robert,
I know this problem has been plaguing many people. I'm attempting to solve this
problem. It will be solved but in the meantime, why don't you try downloading the PDF
files which have been provided by Shane Millsom? You can use it to print nice copies of
the guide. It's available at the end of both the BIOS Features Setup and Chipset Features
Setup parts of this guide.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #59
Hi Adrian,
Is there a way in the BIOS to set my ISA/PnP audio card to use INT5 and DMA1 on my BH6
motherboard? Windows try to use another INT and DMA, and I have to set them manually in
Device Manager.
Takis Alvas
Hello Takis,
Yes, there is. If you have a motherboard with a BIOS that has the Resource Controlled By function,
then you can use it to set the IRQ and DMA you want for the ISA PnP card.
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/
Comment #60
Hello, Layman Teo here.
Your BIOS Guide is good and it help me a lot. I think you had miss out one setting in
the Chipset features setup. In my BH6 board, there is a setting called SDRAM RAS Latency
Time. It is almost the same as SDRAM CAS Latency Time. Could you recommend/update the
optimal setup for this.
Saw your TNT tweaks too. Hoping that you could write one for TNT2.
Thanks.
Layman Teo
Hello Layman Teo,
Yes, I'm aware that quite a few BIOS options have not appeared in the guide. One good
example is the SDRAM RAS Latency Time. Sorry about that. I'll try to update the guide as
soon as I can.
About the TNT2, I just got one myself. I'll see what I can do about the
TNT2 tweak guide. The problem is always the lack of time. :(
Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/ |
