AMI BIOS Manual for HIPPO 10 486 The system BIOS provides an interface for operating systems and applications to access hardware. It is fully compatible with standard AT BIOS and works in the network system. It also performs self-test after reset and includes a setup program to setup the system. SELF-TEST To ensure the computer hardware is functional, the system BIOS will carry out a self-test upon reset.The test is very intensive and covers all parts of hardware. It takes a while before some messages are shown on the screen. It  does not mean that the system is not working when the screen is blank. So wait for a while after turning on the power and listen carefully to the speaker. Some errors are reported by a number of beep sounds. After completing the self-test, the BIOS will display some messages on the screen. In case of serious errors, the BIOS will suspend the test. If the display is not initialized, the BIOS will report the error through a sequence of beep sounds. Otherwise, error message will be shown on the screen. These fatal errors are usually communicated through a series of audible beeps. The numbers on the fatal error list below correspond to the number of beeps for the corresponding error. All errors listed, with the exception of #8, are fatal errors. No. of Beeps Error Message 1/. DRAM Refresh Failure 2/. Base 64KB Memory Parity Error 3/. Base 64KB Memory Failure 4/. System Time Failure 5/. Processor Error 6/. Keyboard Controller Gatez A20 Failure 7/. Processor Exception Interrupt Error 8/. Display Memory Read / Write Error (Video Adapter) 9/. ROM Checksum Error 10/. CMOS Shutdown Register Read/Write Error If no error is found during self-test, the system BIOS will proceed to boot from floppy disk or hard disk. The system BIOS will list the system configuration on the screen shown in next page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Configuration (C) Copyright 1985-1990, American Megatrends Inc., Main Processor : 80486 Base Memory Size : 640 KB Numeric Processor : PRESENT Ext. Memory Size : 7424 KB Floppy Drive A : 1.2 MB, 5," Hard Disk C: Type : 47 Floppy Drive B : 1.44MB, 3+" Hard Disk D: Type : 47 Display Type : VGA or EGA Serial Port(s) : None ROM-BIOS Date : 04/30/94 Parallel Port(s) : 3BC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do check the list to make sure that the configuration is correct. Sometimes, problems arise because of the incorrect information of the configuration. For example, if you forget to modify the setup after changing the floppy disk drive from one type to another, it can not boot from floppy disk or may not work properly. If you check the list, you can find the cause of the problem. The BIOS incorporates FOUR setup sections: 1/. SETUP 2/. UTILITY 3/. SECURITY 4/. DEFAULT It is important that all the setup procedures should be completed before operating the system. Otherwise, the system will not run properly with the incorrect setup information. Run the setup again if the configuration is changed. To enter the setup section, press 'DEL' when the following message is shown during memory test : Hit if you want to run SETUP Whenever the system BIOS finds that the configuration of the system is altered, error message will be shown and you may press 'F1' to run setup. ===== SETUP ===== STANDARD -------- Date Time Use arrow keys to select the date or time. Press '+' or '-' to change the value. The date and time cannot be entered directly. Floppy A/B Four types of floppy disk drives are supported: 1. 5-1/4, inch standard drive (360K) 2. 5-1/4, inch high-density drive (1.2M) 3. 3-1/2, inch standard drive (720K) 4. 3-1/2, inch high-density drive (1.44M) The system BIOS supports two floppy disk drives and they are recognized as drive A and B. Select the correct types. Otherwise the drives cannot work properly. If one of them is not installed, select 'Not Installed' for that drive. Master Disk / Slave Disk There are 47 types of fixed disks supported by the BIOS. Consult your fixed disk manual to determine its correct type. The parameters such as cylinder number, head number, sector number and pre-compensation must match your fixed disk's parameters. Use arrow keys to change the fixed disk type. If the type of your fixed disk is not included in the hard disk list, define a new type as type 47. Use left and right arrow keys to move between the parameter fields and enter the parameters. The parameters will be stored in the CMOS RAM and your fixed disk can be used afterwards. Each hard disk can be assigned a different type 47 hard disk. So two hard disks which are not included in the list can be used together in your system. If the type of fixed disk is wrong, it takes a while before the BIOS can identify the error. After setting the fixed disk type, if the system halts after reboot, please wait for a while. It is most likely that the setting of fixed disk type is incorrect. When you install a new hard disk, make sure whether it is already formatted. If not, the BIOS has to check for a while before reporting the hard disk error. In fact, the error arises only because the hard disk is not formatted. If the hard disk is formatted, you can run DOS FDISK and DOS FORMAT. Some fixed disks are specially handled and must be set to 'Not Installed'. Consult the fixed disk manual for details. ADVANCED -------- All the registers of the chipsets are set to default values by the system BIOS. Usually, there is no need to modify these registers unless the configuration is changed. Since improper settings of these registers may cause the system malfunction, check your settings carefully before exit. After changing the registers' settings, test your system first to make sure that the settings are correct. It is possible that your system becomes unstable and you need to setup the registers again. In this section, you simply use the up and down arrow keys to move between options and press enter to show bit value. After you finish the Setup, press `Esc' to return to main menu. The BIOS will set the registers accordingly. Typematic Rate Programming By enabling this option, the user can adjust the rate at which a keystroke is repeated. The options "Typematic Rate Delay" and "Typematic Rate" affect this rate. When a key is pressed and held down, the character appears on the screen and after a delay set by the Typematic Rate Delay, it keeps on repeating at a rate set by the Typematic Rate Value. When two or more keys are pressed and held down simultaneously, only the last key pressed will be repeated at the typematic rate. This stops when the last key pressed is released, even if other keys are depressed. System Keyboard If a keybaord is attrached to the system select 'Present'. The BIOS will test the keyboard during self-test. Primary Display Four types of display are supported: 1/. Absent 2/. VGA/EGA 3/. CGA 40x25 4/. CGA 80x25 5/. Mono If the type of display is incorrect, the BIOS will prompt you and ask you to set up again. But the BIOS is still able to display messages on the display attached to the system. Thus you can enter the setup program. About 1MB Memory Test This feature, when enabled, will invoke the POST memory routines on the RAM above 1 MB (if present on the system). If disabled, the BIOS will only check the first 1 MB of RAM. Memory Test Tick Sound This option will enable (turn on) or disable (turn off) the "ticking" sound during the memory test. Parity Error Check If the system board does not have parity RAM, the user may disable the memory parity error checking routines in the BIOS. The user should check with the manufacturer regarding the proper setting of this option. Hit "DEL" Message Display When enabled, the following message will be shown during the boot up to allow you to enter BIOS Setup. "Hit if you want to run SETUP" If disabled, the message is not shown. To enter the system setup, press `DEL' when counting DRAM in cold boot, or before the `Waiting ...... 'message in warm boot. Extended BIOS RAM Area The AMI BIOS SETUP features two user-definable hard disk types. Normally, the data for these disk types are stored at 0:300 in lower system RAM. If a problem occurs with other software, this data can be located at the upper limit of the DOS shell (640 KB). If the option is set to `DOS 1 KB,' the DOS Shell is shortened to 639KB, the top KB is used for the hard disk storage. When the system BIOS shadow F000 is enabled, the BIOS will add the user-defined hard disk type to the hard disk type table in the system BIOS. Hence, there is no need to store the data for the user-defined hard disk type in the separate area. So this option will be ignored. Wait for "F1" if Any Error Before the system boots-up, the BIOS will execute the POST routines, a series of system diagnostic routines. If any of these tests fail, but a non-fatal error has occurred and the system can still function, the BIOS will respond with an appropriate error message followed by the following statement : "Press to continue" If this option is disabled, any non-fatal error which occurs will not generate the above statement, but the BIOS will still display the appropriate error message. This will eliminate the need for any user response to a non-fatal error condition message. System Boot Up Sequence The AMI BIOS will normally attempt to boot from floppy drive A: (if present), and if unsuccessful, it will attempt to boot from hard disk C:. This sequence can be switched using this option. If the option is set to "C:, A:," the system will attempt to boot from the hard drive C:, and then A:. If the option is set to "A:, C:," the sequence is reversed. External Cache / Internal Cache The default setting is enabled. This option is control the cache of system board. When selected this option to disable, it will slow down the system performance. Video,Adapter and System ROM shadow There are two options of shadow RAM for video adapter, ten options of shadow RAM for add-on card and one for the system BIOS. For the option System ROM, the content of the system at F000H segment BIOS is copied to the on board memory. For the option Video ROM, the video ROM at C0000H segment or C4000H segment are copied to memory. If you install an add-on card which ROM BIOS is locate at one of the Adapter ROM shadow options, you may select corresponding option to shadow this ROM. If there is any problem after enabling the shadow memory on the add-on card, it recommends to enable the shadow RAM function for system BIOS only. IDE block Mode If your IDE hard disk support Block Transfer mode, you can enable this feature to improve its performance. Primary / Secondary Hard disk transfer mode The default setting is disabled. If your hard disk support the corresponding option, you can select it to enable. Some of the hard disks are specially handled and must be set to disable. Refer the fixed disk manual for detail or consult the hard disk manufacturer. CHIPSET ------- Auto config function "Auto configuration function" loads the default system values directly from ROM. If the stored record is corrupted or wrong setup by user, these default values will load automatically when the system is boot up. Cache Read Hit Wait State / Cache Write Hit Wait Sate The following table shown these options in different system speed. 33 MHz / 25MHz 3-1-1-1 0W 40MHz 3-2-2-2 1W 50MHz 3-2-2-2 2W DRAM Wait state select / DRAM Page mode The number of wait state for DRAM read / write operation depends on the clock speed of CPU and the rating of the DRAM. Improper setting can making the system unstable. In general, select 0W for 25MHz , 1W for 33MHz and 2W for 40MHz / 50MHz. Normally, select fast for DARM page mode. POWER MANAGEMENT ---------------- An enery efficient mainboard combats such energy waste by using System Management Mode (SMM), Static technology, and processor clock control to conserve energy. During period of inactivity, system automatically initiates a SLEEP mode, reduing hard disk, system and monitor power consumption. PERIPHERAL ---------- Hippo 10 is provided on multi I/O. It can use BIOS setup to select enable /disable. FDC port The default setting of Floppy disk controller is enabled. Serial port 1 The default setting is enabled and the I/O port is 3F8H. Serial port 2 The default setting is enabled and the I/O port is 2F8H. Parallel prot The default setting of I/O port is 378H. Game port The default setting is enabled. IDE Port The default setting of Hippo 10 Loacl bus IDE is enabled. Protect Partition Table The on-board local bus IDE supports anti-virus write protection by hardware controlled disk. When select it to enable, it can protect the fixed disk of partition table. Primary / Secondary Hard Disk Timing There are five options of loacl bus IDE timing to select. 1/. slowest 2/. slower 3/. faster 4/. fastest 5/. auto If you don't know the timing of the IDE hard disk, the 'AUTO' option will automatically detect and optimal the best performance. ======= UTILITY ======= Most IDE drives can be interrogated for their parameters. To select this option, the desired parameters will appear in their respective fields. ======== Security ======== Password When you select this function, you can create a password. During every time boot up the system, your must enter the password in boot up screen. Auti Virus Bootsector virus protection is provided as a user selatable option. It offers a measure of protection against malicious programs by trapping writes to the main boat sector. It also traps attempts to low-level-format any region of the fixed disk. ======= DEFAULT ======= Optimal The OPTIMAL with BIOS default is used for the user to setup the system in safety opertion and reliable setting. Once the OPTIMAL is applied, the user need not to configure the ADVANCED setup and CHIPSET setup. The STANDARD setup will need to set those options after the OPTIMAL is used.