BIOS Setup Program



Despite its many functions and the important role it plays in 
running your PC, the system BIOS is most "famous" for the BIOS 
setup program, the little built-in utility that lets you set the 
many functions that control how your computer works. In fact, 
some people even call this program "the BIOS" or "the CMOS" 
which of course is inaccurate ("CMOS" refers to the technology 
used to create the tiny memory where the BIOS settings 
are stored ).

This section discusses the BIOS setup program, while the 
settings contained within it are discussed here .


Setup Program Manual

Your motherboard manual should come with instructions on how to 
use the setup program; the BIOS program and its settings typically 
take up the second half of the entire manual. Unfortunately, most 
of these manuals are pitifully inadequate. They will usually 
provide a list of each setting with one or two sentences to 
describe them, and that's about it. Better motherboard companies 
will do better than this.

Warning: Be sure to check the manual closely and compare it 
against the settings you actually see on the screen. If you see 
mismatches, I would recommend you try to get an updated manual 
from the various sources on the Internet. It is, unfortunately, 
all too common to find incorrect or outdated BIOS manuals shipped 
with motherboards. This is usually worse with cheaper 
motherboards, but even good ones tend to come with bizarrely 
cryptic or inaccurate documentation.


Setup Program Interfaces

There is no standard interface for the BIOS setup program; it 
varies depending on the manufacturer and even within BIOSes by 
the same manufacturer. You would think that with only two 
companies (Award and American Megatrends, better known as AMI) 
dominating the field that they could coordinate and come up with 
some sort of a standard, but this has not happened. In fact, 
just the opposite, since AMI's newer BIOSes are actually 
Windows-like, complete with cursor and mouse control! Most 
traditional setup programs are text-based and use menus.

As PCs have grown more complex, they have started to have more 
and more settings that can be controlled. Generally speaking, 
this is a good thing, because you have much more control over 
how your system works than you ever have had before. However, it 
can also mean some confusion. Early PCs had a very simple setup 
program, sometimes even just a list of 10 or 12 questions 
displayed on the screen. Newer ones use sections to organize 
the various settings. Most PCs of the same general caliber will 
have similar settings, even though they may be 
organized differently.


Entering the BIOS Setup Program

The BIOS setup programs can normally be entered only during the 
boot process, either a cold boot or a warm boot (after hitting 
{Ctrl-Alt-Del}). Some setup programs will let you go into setup 
program using a key combination at any time.

At least one thing is finally becoming somewhat standard: the use 
of the {Del} key to enter the setup program during boot. This is 
true of AMI and Award BIOSes, and some others as well. Older 
BIOSes can use any of a myriad of strange key combinations, 
including {Esc}, {F1}, {F2}, {Ctrl-Esc}, {Alt-Esc}, 
{Ctrl-Alt-Esc}, {Ctrl-Alt-Enter}, {Ins} or others.


Typical Key Controls

Most setup programs show on the screen itself the keys to use to 
select and change various options; some instead use a very 
limited help screen, normally accessed with the F1 key. The 
following keys are pretty much universal: 

	{Enter} is normally used to select a menu or sub-area.

	The arrow keys are used to move between settings (in rare 
	cases, they are used to change the selected setting). 

	{Page Up} and {Page Down} or {+} and {-} are the two most 
	common pairs of keys for modifying the current setting. 

	{Tab} can also sometimes be used to move between sections 
	or settings. 

	{Esc} is normally used to move up the menu hierarchy one 
	level, and in some BIOSes it is used to quit out of the 
	setup program as well. 

The newer AMI BIOSes are graphical, as mentioned earlier; you put 
a standard serial mouse on the first serial port and a faux 
Windows screen pops up with the settings in little "program 
groups". If you don't have a mouse or it isn't working, you can 
access this program using keys as well. (I tried it with a 
PS/2-style mouse once and it didn't work, strange that they 
wouldn't support this...)

Note: Some BIOSes have the ability to bypass some of the extended 
settings during boot, by holding down the {Ins} key during the 
boot process. This can be useful in the event that you make such 
incorrect settings that the BIOS cannot even boot (which can 
happen, though it takes talent. :^) ) Check your motherboard 
manual to see if your machine can do this.
