UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs

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Chapter 3—BIOS Configurations and Upgrades
Table 3.6 Troubleshooting Common BIOS-Related System
Problems Continued
Problem Solution Notes
System wastes time Disable automatic drive
detecting hard drives detection in BIOS;
at every bootup. “lock in” settings for
drives by using
“detect drives”
option in BIOS.
System drops network Power management not Determine which IRQs are used
or modem connection set correctly for IRQs by devices and adjust power
when system is idle. in use by modem or management for those devices;
network card. disable power management in BIOS.
Parallel or serial port Change configuration in See Chapters 6 and 7 for details.
conflicts. BIOS.
For more about troubleshooting and adjusting BIOS configuration
settings, see Chapter 5 of Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 12th Edition,
published by Que.
Soft BIOS CPU Speed and Multiplier
Settings
Conventional motherboards might require the user to configure
CPU speed, FSB (motherboard or system bus) speed, and clock multipliers
through a series of jumpers or switches or through BIOS
configuration screens. One danger to BIOS configuration is that the
user might create a configuration that won’t allow the system to
boot, and might require the CMOS configuration to be deleted to
enable the user to try another option.
As an alternative, ABIT motherboards have pioneered BIOScontrolled
configuration of CPU speeds, clock multipliers, FSB
(motherboard/system bus) speeds, and other options using a feature
called SoftMenu III that also enables hardware overrides.
SoftMenu III enables users to do the following:
• Adjust FSB speeds up to 200MHz
• Adjust core voltage
• Adjust AGP and PCI clock ratios
If the user creates an “impossible” combination of settings that
won’t permit the system to boot, a set of DIP switches on motherboards
using SoftMenu III can override the BIOS configuration,
enabling the system to boot.