Comment #111

Adrian,

I really appreciate your BIOS page. Comment #17 complained about printing the white on black text in Netscape Navigator. It used to be that Navigator had a setting under page setup, or under preferences (it has been a while since I used Netscape, unfortunately) where you could check to "Print black text." That would take care of the writer's problem. It would still be nice to have the guide available as a downloadable file.

Thanks again,

Ben Edge

Hello Ben,

Thanks for the tip! I'll try to fix up at least a printer-friendly guide in the near future. 

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #112

Noticed in your optimization guide - the part dealing with 8/16 bit delays - I had a scanner [some Moosetek or such] that didn't seem to work until I set these to '2' instead of '1'. May save a lot of headaches out there.

System: Celaron 300A on a BH-6, at 450. 96MB SDRAM

RSVP_1

Hello RSVP_1,

If I'm not mistaken, your scanner must be hooked up to an 8-bit or 16-bit ISA SCSI card, right? As I've mentioned in the guide, setting either to NA improves the performance of the ISA card in question but may cause stability issues with some cards. So, if your ISA card appears to be having problems with the setting at NA or 1, try increasing the 8-bit or 16-bit Recovery Time. That should solve the problem. Note that both BIOS options do not have any effect if there are no ISA cards present in the system.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #113

My BIOS allows me to change the AGP aperture size, but I own a Voodoo3 3000, and I have read elsewhere that this setting does not matter for my video card. Is this true? If not, having a Celeron 450 and 256MB of RAM, what should I set the value to? 

Thanks

Larry Moriarti

Hello Larry,

That's correct. Because 3dfx cards do not support AGP texturing, the AGP aperture size option has no effect for that graphics card. You can set it to any value you want but it's safer to set it to 64MB just in case you do install a different card in the future - you may forget to reset this option and the new graphics card may not work then. By setting it to 64MB even though your Voodoo3 may not use it, you will be taking preventive measures against problems with your future graphics card upgrade.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #114

Hi Adrian,

Today I read that there should be a new version of your BIOS Optimization Guide over at AnandTech including something about USWC, so I tried to check it - which turned out to be quite difficult, because neither from home nor from work I could get a connection to your server during German daytime, but that is another story... At least now it worked, but it was hard to find the USWC-thingy, because it's only contained in the comments section. Maybe you should change that - "just to avoid any confusion" ((c) Monty Python's Flying Circus)...

Today I made quite a lot of measurements with activated Write Combining with the "benching- machine" at work (P3/600 on Asus P3B-F and 192 MB, at the moment with a Matrox G400/16MB): It didn't really make any positive differences. Instead especially the variances between several runs of 3DMark 2000 seemed to grow - without producing better numbers at all. There seemed to be less effects on UT and no effects using Q3A - the latter also goes for Winstone 99. Several conclusions possible:

1) USWC doesn't really work with the tested combination.
2) There might be more than one way to activate Write Combining - maybe the graphics card driver can also do that.
3) If 2) is true, then there might be some possible interaction between the graphics card driver and the BIOS setting, which leads to no good at all.

Sorry, I can't tell you more about that right now. I'll measure Expendable again with USWC enabled tomorrow - maybe I can see something there, but actually I doubt it. But I'll keep on the topic - and if I find out more, I'll tell you, ok!?!

Greetings from Munich/Germany!

Manfred / Lini

P.S.: By the way: Using a 64 MB setting for AGP Aperture Q3A refused to run in 32 Bit modes at all - setting it to 128 MB solved the problem. I just wonder, why there is no 96 MB setting, because jumping from 64 to 128 MB seems quite a big (maybe unnecessarily big) leap...

Hello Manfred,

The USWC Write Posting BIOS option was already part of the BIOS Optimization Guide. Check it out here.

Like you, I have found little performance difference with USWC enabled (using FastVid). In fact, I discovered that it may even decrease performance with newer processors. However, I have yet to test the option using a motherboard that supports it so it's possible that USWC implementation by FastVid may not be correct. I'll have to get a motherboard that actually has such an option so that I can test it.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #115

Hi Adrian,

I've seen your BIOS guide since it's first release though I've not been keeping track. Anyway, I noticed in Rev 6.0 that you're still asking users  to enable IRQ for USB in their BIOS. This isn't necessary at all actually as USB devices do not require an IRQ to work. Disabling this of course also means allowing an extra IRQ for usage (damn suckers are seriously getting scarce). 

Anyway, great guide. Excellent esp for people new to BIOS tweaking. Great work dude. 

Daniel

Hello Daniel,

Are you sure the USB port does not require an IRQ to work? According to the manuals, the ports require an IRQ for proper functioning. Anyway, thanks for the tip. I'll try to confirm it. :)

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #116

I see no info on how to enable AGP2X mode on motherboards anywhere in this article. This would really help me and a bunch of other people I'm sure. Any chance on getting this added?

Thanks,

Christian Williamson

Hello Christian,

Click here to go to the AGP2X Mode BIOS option. Note that this is not provided on all motherboards. Only if it's available, can you choose to enable or disable AGP2X transfer mode.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #117

Dear Adrian,

Thanks for producing so many great articles first, they're so informative and I like them very much!

Anyway, here's what I want to say, about the Processor Number Feature in the BIOS Optimization Guide.

What you've said in the article is correct, but sometimes ago I've heard that even you disabled it, "crackers" can still use some mysterious codes to read it... So... I think the feature is somewhat useless if that rumor is true... Blame Intel for that... ^.^

BTW, I found such a statement "if you are using an ISA card that is not PCI 2.1 compliant." at
http://www,rojakpot.com/adrian/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_2c.htm, I wonder if it should be "PCI card"...

Happy Lunar New Year!

Spree

Hello Spree!

Thanks for that tip-off! I don't know how I missed that but you are right. It should be PCI and not ISA. It will be corrected in the next revision.

About the Processor Number Feature, I think that referred to some software utility that Intel provided to enable users the ability to switch the feature off or on. But I guess if they can get pass that, the BIOS switch's pretty useless too. After all, it does nothing but turn the feature on or off while booting up.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #118

About "Delayed Transaction" in your BIOS, NEVER ENABLE IT!!!

I enabled it on mine, when I went into windows my sound was f****d up, and when I shut down the comp froze for 5 seconds, I heard super-high pitched noise (it wasn't my monitor, it was the computer itself!) and my lights on my computer were flashing like crazy. then if finally shut down. Holy crap that scared me though!

Kevin Lang

Hello Kevin,

That's certainly surprising. I guess one or more of your add-on cards isn't non-PCI 2.1 compliant. Personally, I have never had a problem with it when I used it with my old Sound Blaster 16 card. But if you don't use ISA cards at all, it shouldn't be an issue at all since it only affects PCI cycles to and from the ISA bus.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #119

Hi Adrian!

I just thought to ask a question about the Abit BE6 II BIOS, since you seem to be the best guy on the market! ;) Ok here we go.. If you check out the BE6 II BIOS ID:PO (Date: 12/30/1999), you will notice these "new" settings:

1.Supports I2C debug card.
2.Adds an AGP transfer mode for choosing AGP transfer mode.

There. The first one is irrelevant to me, but the second one is the one I'm after. Could you explain what it does, how it works, when it should be used etc...

I checked the BIOS when I had upgraded it, and the AGP Transfer Mode gives you the following options:

1. Default
2. High
3. Normal

The Normal is said (in the BIOS) to be used if your FSB exceeds 125Mhz. When Default is set, the gfx card's drivers choose the "transfer mode" automatically. And the Last "High" has no explanation.

My system is:

Intel PIII 550E -> 733MHz (pretty stable with 1.6v and default cooling..)
Soltek FCPGA -> Slot1 adapter
Abit BE6 II (latest BIOS Date: 02/01/2000 ID: QJ)
Guillemot/Hercules Prophet 3D DDR-DVI (not overclocked)
256mb RAM (128MB PC-100 6ns and 128MB PC-133 7ns)
Network card (noname)
Aureal SQ2500 soundcard

So, which of those options should I use, and what does it do! :) I hope you have time to answer this, since I couldn't find it explained anywhere!

Thanks a bunch!

Nicklas "worm" Renqvist
http://www.3dcolony.com

Hello Nicklas,

To be frank, I have not seen explanations for such a BIOS option anywhere too! But I'm willing to hazard a guess at its function. Based only on what you wrote, there are two possibilities.

1. It could be a AGPCLK/CPUCLK switch. When set to Normal, the AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratio would be set to 2/3. At 125MHz system bus speed, you would definitely need to do that since very few AGP cards can support such a high AGP bus speed. As for the setting High, the AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratio would be 1/1.

However, I think it's unlikely to be a AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratio switch because the ABIT BIOS already contains one (if it's still there) and there's no reason to switch the technical but perfectly logical name for something more obscure like AGP Transfer Mode. Also, AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratios cannot be determined and set by the graphics card's driver. So, it's highly unlikely this function serves as a AGP bus ratio switch.

2. More likely, this option sets the AGP transfer protocol or mode for the AGP bus. Hence, the now logical name of AGP Transfer Mode. Normal should set the transfer mode to 1X which is useful at 125MHz bus speed or higher since most AGP cards cannot run at 2X mode when the AGP bus speed is 83MHz or higher.

The High setting would naturally enable AGP2X mode which is normally only usable if the AGP bus speed is less than 83MHz. Default, on the other hand, leaves the selection of the AGP transfer mode to the graphics card driver or its settings.

Since this is nothing more than guesswork, the only way for you to confim that is to set the option to Normal and check (using PCIList or a similar utility) if AGP2X has really been disabled in favour of AGP1X. Please do let me know if I'm right and it really sets the AGP transfer protocol.

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/

Comment #120

Dear Adrian,

I'm impressed with your technical know-how with the BIOS Setup. You did well in explaining them... Congrats!!! Unfortunately, I still encountered problem despite following your suggestions. I really hope you could help me out. Pleaaassseee...

Fact:- (with Win98SE OS) I used the minimum BIOS setting i.e. all unnecessary cacheables set to "disabled" unless you recommend otherwise, except the Video RAM is shadowed and Gate A20 is set to "Fast"). Problem:- My PC still goes hang (unstable, I suppose?) especially when:-

1. I play games (Command & Conquer for instance, after half and hour of excitement) or
2. when I leave it to idle (doing nothing) for a long time, say... one hour. For your information I'm using TRANSCEND TS-AVD1 PC133 Mobo (Taiwan) with :-
   a. a Celeron 433 with slotket (default v-core+multipliers),
   b. 8MB AGP card (aperture of 128M),
   c. 9.1GB UDMA 66 HDD (prefetch and Block Mode enabled),
   d. 50X UDMA33 CD-ROM (auto-enabled),
   e. 32MB "LGS" PC100 SDRAM (I tried to set to Latency of 3 but the BIOS suggested 2 instead.)

My Questions are :

1. Is it because I set the Gate A20 option to "Fast"?
2. Should I ignore the Latency setting suggested by the BIOS and use 3 instead of 2 to stabilize it?
3. Whether the AGP aperture too large?
4. Is it because I've once overclocked the CPU but later found out that the Mobo is not that friendly and my CPU got heated up to 49 degress celcius and is now defective? (However, I manage to keep the CPU temperature to maximum of 39 degrees now after some modifications on the heatsink and fan.)
5. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance for your time. I hope this does not take much of your precious time to solve... Thanks again.

Yours faithfully,

Myzah Isma

Hello Myzah,

I think you meant Video BIOS is shadowed. I don't recommend that you enable shadowing of the video BIOS at all. In fact, most graphics card manufacturers recommend that you disable the Video BIOS Shadowed option. Anyway, here are the answers to your questions :-

1. Gate A20 should be set to Fast. That improves memory access performance and does not affect stability.

2. You should try using the CAS Latency of 3. Not all CAS2 PC100 SDRAM chips can retain their CAS 2 latency times when overclocked beyond 100MHz. Many will be forced to use a CAS latency of 3 especially when the bus clock approaches 133MHz.

3. AGP aperture has no bearing on the stability of the system, as long as it is set to a size larger than 8MB. 64MB or 128MB are pretty recommended numbers (although 64MB more so).

4. It's possible that your processor may have suffered some damage from the lack of thermal dissipation. You should try reducing the clockspeed and see if it makes a difference.

5. Well, if there's an option for L2 Cache ECC Checking, enable it. Also, try updating your games with the latest patches. You might also want to check and see if you have accidentally set the AGPCLK/CPUCLK ratio to 1/1 especially if the system bus is running beyond 83MHz. Finally, run though the BIOS guide again. There have been numerous changes in the text that may not be apparent at first glance.

Hope that helps you some! :)

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/