BIOS Setup Help: A beginner entering into an encrypted world

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 10:55 pm

Hello again…

well, the first and second steps have been fulfilled: building up the system and powering it up sound and save… Now comes the Bios Setup!

What am I supposed to do now? Well, of course I’m going to start reading the manual in depth, so I get acquainted, as much as I can, in BIOS matters.

My first question about this is: Am I obliged to setup everything at the same time? I mean, do I have to start the setting of the BIOS up finishing it in the same session? Or can I do it slowly, booting and shutting down the computer as many times as I need till I get all the BIOS done? Cheers…

[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-04 00:14 ]

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 4:11 am

You can do it in steps. And you can redo it, when you want to. Some settings will affect you OS-installation i.e. the "plug and play OS" setting. Turn this to off, before installing windows.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:12 pm

How do I save a copy of the motherboard's origital BIOS to a bootable floppy disk? This is recomended before starting anything, but I don't konw, or understand how to...

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:18 pm

What i want to do is to update the BIOS, from 1002 to 1005, is it recomended to do it before starting the setup, or can I just do it after finishing, throught eh liveupdate of Asus P4PE?

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:22 pm

I would recomend doing it before, now that you have the option.

I can not help you with the save-to-floppy thing. Maybe try the official Asus-forum?

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:55 pm

Actually I don't think there is a lot you have to do in the BIOS. Most obvious things are to disable on-board audio/graphics stuff if your motherboard has that, and also disable things like com-ports if you don't use 'em (frees up IRQ's).

that's pretty much all I ever do in the BIOS anyway

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 3:17 pm

I have already read the procedure on how to do the bootable disc, but didn't understand it fully. I'm going to searh for the Asus forums too.

I din't know there was little to be done in the BIOS setup, alwyas thought the contrary. Well, see you later...

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 6:30 pm

What do you understand by this...

"Create a bootable system floppy disk by typing [FORMAT A:/S] from the DOS prompt without creating "AUTOEXEC.BAT" and "CONFIG.SYS" files."

I can't really understand... I'm trying to creat a copy of the original BIOS onto a floppy disc... Where do I have to write [FORMAT A:/S], have I to open a MSDOS program in my spare computer, do it there and then come back? How do I do it? (sorry, no idea)

[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-04 19:33 ]

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 6:54 pm

In your spare PC
Put in a floppy disc
Turn on the PC
Press F8 many times durring boot-up
You should get about 5 options
One of them is "only dos prompt"
Take that one
You get a line saying something like c:
Now type the format a:/s stuff.

Maybe you can also turn on win98 in your old PC
Run (it is in "start" - lower left corner)
Type format a:/s

arela · Post by **arela** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 4:50 am

hey Nestor
Best way to copy original bios is to download it:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download ... lName=P4PE
(i don't think it's posible to copy bios to disc without some scary parameters)

By the way, thx for remind me of the new bios, think i will upgrade too.

regards from (at this time

) sunny Norway

[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2003-07-05 06:16 ]

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 9:14 am

With the P4PE, there is no need to flash the BIOS from DOS - you can do it from within the BIOS itself! Check the manual

Also, don't worry too much about saving your current BIOS. Newer BIOS are almost *always* better, and if you screw up the flashing process, a previous version of the BIOS will be of no use to you anyway.

peace

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 9:43 am

I din't know there was little to be done in the BIOS setup, alwyas thought the contrary. Well, see you later...

it's just that most options in the BIOS are allright in their default positions and the only time you want to change it is if you explicitly want something other than default settings (like disabling onboard sound, this would be "on" by default)
There are also powersaving features in the BIOS but I think these are mostly off by default as well.
I have never made any backups of my BIOS. I just use the supplied ASUS software to update to the latest version and that's the last time I look at the BIOS.

_________________

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-05 10:44 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:20 pm

I did to bootable floppy Immanuel, thanks.

Yes Arela, I already went to the like you have given me, but this is not the original BIOS, it’s the last 1005 one.

Dark, you are talking about EZ Flash to update the BIOS. Yes, of course, we have to use this great utility which upgrades it almost automatically. All you have to do is pressing “Alt” + “F2” booting up, and the utility appears, you enter the exact name of the new BIOS, and that’s it, “enter”, done, the system reboots. But… my problem was how to get the original bios from within the ROM, as I understand I have to do, to put it into a floppy disk with the original BIOS just in case the upgrade goes wrong, as recommended by the manual. I’m sure you’re right when saying that new BIOS are practically always better than older ones… Frankly, all I wanted to do is to follow the manual’s instructions cos I’m a complete new on this matters.

Yea King, it’s seems so complicated at first sight but it is not when you use the ASUS update… It’s just scary to do it for the first time.

Anyway, which are your recommendations for BIOS using Pulsar? Any special recommendation I should choose into Main Menu, Advanced Menu, Power Menu, Boot Menu?

Thank you for you introducing me into this BIOS matters…

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:25 pm

BTW; I forgot to ask you Arela, if you’ve got a CD with your P4PE called P4PE/GE Series Motherboard which gives you all the software and support for your motherboard. Well, there is a folder into the “Afhash” file, within it there is several others and one of them is called bios. When you open it, there are three files, and the last one is called p4pe1002.swd, I think THIS is the original BIOS which is in the ROM of the MOBO. What do you think?

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 1:34 pm

The BIOS on the CD can easily be different from the on on your PC. CDs are often made in huge amounts, but the manufacturer will often install the lattest BIOS before shipping. When they have a new BIOS, they start building motherboards with it. So your CD can be older than the BIOS on the motherboard.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 1:45 pm

Well... There are two BIOS on the CD, one of them is the p4pe1002.awd, when you start the BIOS in bootin up, the BIOS is a "revision 1002", so I assume it is the same one. And this is my only complication, otherwise, I already understood the workings and procedures to be taken.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 3:20 pm

Well, well, well… I’m happy to tell you my BIOS are updated from 1002 to the latest 1005…

First question:
Now, what to do first? Would you go for a standard setup or should I build a special BIOS for Pulsar?

Second question:
How do I install the SATA HDDs, cos there are not HDDs detected by the system…

Cheers

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 9:49 pm

Waiting for your knowledge to spred out through the last questions I've done, I want to give this information to P4PE owners, it's quite important. As said about the latest BIOS for this MOBO:

"ASUS now offers its customers to download new BIOS for its famous P4PE mainboard to add 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus support for i845PE-based solutions.

Here you have a little link so you can read about...

http://www.asuscom.de/products/mb/fsb800.htm

This morning, when I upgraded my BIOS from version 1002 to version 1005, I’ve never thought it would change the bus speed from 533MHz to 800MHz! I don’t know if it is save to overclock to such an extent the FSB… If I’m new to building a PC so I’m just naked facing up overcloking… Should we go there or should I get back to my latest BIOS with 533MHz bus speed?

[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-06 00:30 ]

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun Jul 06, 2003 2:07 am

Keep it at 533 Nestor.
About BIOS setings. Go thru the tips and tricks for win2000/xp. I am sure, there will be something there. Also turn of pnp (plug and play OS). You probably do not need to do much more than that, and what people have already told you. To go thru a total in depth BIOS-tweaking-for-the-½-% would an hour to write, and I would probably forget ½ of it. I don't think it will be too bad for you to just install XP after going thru tips and tricks for win 2000/XP.

arela · Post by **arela** » Sun Jul 06, 2003 5:48 am

How do I install the SATA HDDs, cos there are not HDDs detected by the system…

Here is the correct link to asus p4pe, and under download, you'll find all bios etc.
http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P4PE&langs=01

SATA

Insert XP cd, and soon you will be asked to insert a floppy with RAID or SCSI driver (-and as i can recall, there was an option to copy it from xp-cd to floppy). Then restart with floppy and you need to setup HD in "Fastbuild utility"
There you'll get 5 options.
I used "3" - Define Array - because i wanted 2 partitions, but maybe option "1" Auto setup is as good.
Hmmm, daubtful hmmm, probably partition / format came after Array was defined. (almost shure)
Correct me if i'm lost!