How can you access cmos setup program

What can be set up in the CMOS setup program? What are the 3 common keys used to access the BIOS? What is good bios time? Why is Bios time so high? Does more RAM improve boot time? Previous Article What is a good impact factor of a journal? On virtually all systems using a processor or better, the standard CMOS configuration screens are extremely similar, varying mainly in the number and types of drives that can be used. If the drives are not defined correctly, the system cannot boot.

Many versions of the AMI and Award BIOS allow you to automatically configure all screens except the Standard setup screen with a choice of these options from the main menu:. Use BIOS defaults to troubleshoot the system because these settings are very conservative in memory timings and other options. Normally, the Setup defaults provide better performance. Turbo, if present, speeds up the memory refresh rate used by the system.

As you view the setup screens in this chapter, you'll note these options are listed. If you use either automatic setup after you make manual changes, all your manual changes will be overridden! With many recent systems, you can select Optimal or Setup Defaults, save your changes, and exit, and the system will work acceptably.

However, you might want more control over your system. In that case, look at the following screens and make the changes necessary. In this screen, you can adjust the NumLock setting, type of video, keyboard repeats speed, settings for cache memory, and other special features. Most systems built since the early s include this screen. Prevents users from booting with floppy floppy disk left in A: won't spread disks; boot sector viruses to the system; system won't stop if floppy disk is left in A:.

Located between KB-1MB upper memory blocks. Depending on the system, you might be able to boot from CD-ROM, ZIP, or LS drives in addition to the floppy disk drives and hard drives traditionally available as boot devices, as shown in Figure 3. To view the settings for any CMOS configuration option, either use the help key F1 as shown here, or press the correct key to step through the options for the setting. The following are some typical features of this menu:.

Configuration of the AGP slot —Depending on the specific AGP video card installed if any , you might need to set the size of the memory aperture used to transfer data between the system and the AGP port and select the AGP mode 1x, 2x, and 4x. Virtually all systems built since the mids are designed to allow power management; watch for the EPA "Energy Star" logo when you start the computer.

Power management works like this: After a user-defined period of inactivity, devices such as the monitor, the hard drive, or even the CPU will go into different low-power modes:. Standby mode —Shuts off the hard drive and blanks monitor screens that use Display Power Management Signaling. Move the mouse or press a key to "wake up" the system.

Suspend mode —Turns off the CPU clock to save even more power. Systems that fully support suspend mode allow you to choose a special shutdown option that "remembers" what programs and files were open, and can bring the system back to that state when the power is restored.

Early power-management systems require that you, the user, keep working with the mouse or keyboard to prevent the system from going into power-saving modes, which can cause modem or network transfers to be interrupted, losing data.

On most newer systems, such as the one featured in Figure 3. I have always regarded power management as being a great idea that does not always work well in practice. Devices such as hard drives and monitors can be powered down and powered back up without loss of information. Power management is set to monitor network and Internet devices, such as modems and network cards, for activity to prevent the connection from being dropped. All devices installed in a system are monitored for activity to prevent data loss.

For example, Figure 3. Monitors with blinking power lights, or power lights a different color than normal, while the screen remains blank. Keyboards that seem "dead" for a few seconds after you start typing because the hard drive must spin up. Users who are unfamiliar with power management might panic and reboot the computers losing their data! Sometimes, the best fix is to disable power management completely or to use Windows to configure power management settings through its Power icon in Control Panel.

Plug-and-Play PnP configuration allows either the operating system or the system BIOS to select hardware settings for PnP-compatible cards when first installed and to change those settings when new cards are installed.

PnP BIOS support has been part of virtually all systems shipped with Windows 95 or newer versions of Windows, and virtually all add-on cards and other devices such as printers, monitors, modems, and so on also support PnP configuration.

Early versions of the Plug-and-Play Configuration screen see Figure 3. Unless you have problems with installing cards, that is normally all you need to set. On some systems, this screen also lets you adjust advanced hard disk options, such as PIO mode and block mode. Generally, you disable a built-in port if you add a card containing a port that will conflict with it. Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots.

Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Prev NEXT. These points are also the ones that can be used to get the work done without any issue. It has been mentioned several times that BIOS is not a ground to play. It is not advised to access the restricted area until the homework has not been done. The user needs to first execute the BUOS only if the areas are known. On the other hand, the user should also know the areas that are to be accessed.

If the homework has not been done then the options should not be changed. The BIOS on the other hand can be accessed for educational purposes only. This ensures that the options are just studied and the user gets the educational work done. There are certain tweaks that can be used to get the work done. The user should access the tens of thousands of articles that are available online. If the BIOS is being accessed by a person who is not tech-savvy then it is not advised to proceed without professional help.

The goal n this regard matters a lot. Within the BIOS the proper path is also important to get the work done. The user might need a new copy of windows if the BIOS configurations are changed on their own. The following documents have been written generically to teach the users how to access the BIOS. The steps that are mentioned here are multipurpose and therefore can be applied to any brand of the world to access the BIOS.