Few questions about BIOS tune up

[Alon Brodski]

Hello!

Recently I've got a 2nd hand PC (6 yo one)-PIII 800-133 VIA
So there's AWARD BIOS in it.
I've read a good book about BIOS by Adrian Wong ,but few things remained
unclear (esp. when his recommendation didn't match the defaults settings).
1)For some reason there were manual settings for the HD (Quantum Fireball
lct 20 (20 GB).Why not to set it to Auto? LANDZ was 39559 (?)-possibly it's
something to check at Maxtor's....
2)Bank DRAM Timing (Default is 8/10 ns,also there're Normal,Fast and Turbo
settings present).My RAM is SDRAM PC133 7,5 ns (-75 written on chips).
3)Read Around Write.Default is disable.But Mr. Wong recommend to enable it.
4)IDE HDD Block Mode...I guess Block Mode has something to do with LBA? So
Mr. Wong alledges that one should enable it.Default-disable.
5)PCI Delay Transaction.Default=disable.He recommends=enable.
6)AGP Master 1WS Write/Read....Default=disable.Recommendation=enable.
7)Memory Parity/ECC Check....complete blackout.Even Mr. Wong didn't say
anything about it.
8)Concurrent PCI/Host -same as above.
9)If my BIOS Setup doesn't have PC Health in it ,would it make a difference
if I have ACPI enabled or disabled in BIOS PM settings in a context of
stopping the CPU if overheating? Or in my case there's no way for
controlling the CPU temperature in the 1st place? Or maybe Intel had
something else in mind in these kinda cases?

Thanks in advance!
Alon

 

[Jerry]

Try this book: The BIOS Companion by Phil Croucher ISBN 0-9681928-0-7
www.electrocution.com

 

[Guest]

6yrs old,its obsolete....Have you updated the BIOS,as far as settings go,set
at "load optimal defaults" or similiar,most settings with that hardware cant
take any added stress.Leave SDRAM at default,the max or turbo mods are
used when performance memory is installed,running the basic in higher mods
will fry youre board......

 

[Ghostrider]

6yrs old,its obsolete....Have you updated the BIOS,as far as settings go,set
at "load optimal defaults" or similiar,most settings with that hardware cant
take any added stress.Leave SDRAM at default,the max or turbo mods are
used when performance memory is installed,running the basic in higher mods
will fry youre board......

There is really no good reason to do a bios update if the
system is doing all that is expected of it. OTOH, if one is
considering adding new hardware, then a bios update to the
proper revision number is expected. Also, knowing all the
potential features of bios design and their use is one thing
but keep in mind that the particular bios chip in the system
is the one tailored for it by the system designer and not the
author of a review text.

 

[Jonny]

Hello!

Recently I've got a 2nd hand PC (6 yo one)-PIII 800-133 VIA
So there's AWARD BIOS in it.
I've read a good book about BIOS by Adrian Wong ,but few things remained
unclear (esp. when his recommendation didn't match the defaults settings).
1)For some reason there were manual settings for the HD (Quantum Fireball
lct 20 (20 GB).Why not to set it to Auto? LANDZ was 39559 (?)-possibly
it's something to check at Maxtor's....

All HD mfrs did publish manual setting for their hard drives. Its been my
experience that auto and manual may be slightly different using such CHS and
LDZ settings. Leave it in auto.

2)Bank DRAM Timing (Default is 8/10 ns,also there're Normal,Fast and Turbo
settings present).My RAM is SDRAM PC133 7,5 ns (-75 written on chips).

Unless you're tweaking for max performance, just leave it be. Be prepared
for problems if doing otherwise.

3)Read Around Write.Default is disable.But Mr. Wong recommend to enable
it.

Same as above.

4)IDE HDD Block Mode...I guess Block Mode has something to do with LBA? So
Mr. Wong alledges that one should enable it.Default-disable.

Block mode is standard on most mobo's bios setting as enabled.

5)PCI Delay Transaction.Default=disable.He recommends=enable.

Can get you into trouble. At least with some scsi cards I've tried.

6)AGP Master 1WS Write/Read....Default=disable.Recommendation=enable.

If the AGP card can handle it, go ahead.

7)Memory Parity/ECC Check....complete blackout.Even Mr. Wong didn't say
anything about it.

If the RAM has parity, go ahead. If not, don't bother.

8)Concurrent PCI/Host -same as above.

Unknown to me.