ASUS CP55T2D User Manual

R

C-P55T2D CPU Card

USER'S MANUAL

USER'S NOTICE

No part of this product, including the product and software may be reproduced,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any lan­guage in any form by any means without the express written permission of ASUST eK
COMPUTER INC. (hereinafter referred to as ASUS) except documentation kept
by the purchaser for backup purposes.

Specifications are subject to change without notice. ASUS provides this manual
“as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not
limited to the implied warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose. In no event shall ASUS be liable for any loss or profits, loss of
business, loss of use or data, interruption of business, or for indirect, special, inci­dental, or consequential damages of any kind, even if ASUS has been advised of
the possibility of such damages arising from any defect or error in this manual or
product. ASUS may revise this manual from time to time without notice.

Products mentioned in this manual are mentioned for identification purposes only.
Product names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks
or copyrights of their respective companies.

• Intel, LANDesk, and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.

• IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

• Symbios is a registered trademark of Symbios Logic Corporation.

• Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

• Sound Blaster AWE32 and SB16 are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd.

• Adobe and Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
The product name and revision number are both printed on the board itself. Manual

revisions are released for each board design represented by the digit before and
after the period of the manual revision number . Manual updates are represented by
the third digit in the manual revision number. For previous or updated manuals,
BIOS, drivers, or product release information you may visit the ASUS home page
at http://www.asus.com.tw/ or contact ASUS from the following page.

© Copyright 1997 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All rights reserved.

Product Name: ASUS C-P55T2D
Manual Revision: 1.43
Release Date: May 1997

II

ASUS C-P55T2D User's Manual

ASUS CONTACT INFORMATION

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

Marketing Info:

Address: 150 Li-Te Road, Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Technical Support:

Fax: [phone]
BBS: 886-2-896-4667
Email: [e-mail]
WWW: http://www.asus.com.tw/
Gopher: gopher.asus.com.tw
FTP: ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS

ASUS COMPUTER INTERNATIONAL

Marketing Info:

Address: 721 Charcot Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131, USA
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Technical Support:

BBS: 1-408-474-0569
Email: [e-mail]

ASUS COMPUTER GmbH

Marketing Info:

Address: Harkort Str. 25, 40880 Ratingen, BRD, Germany
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Technical Support:

BBS: 49-2102-448690
Email: [e-mail]

ASUS C-P55T2D User's Manual III

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION........................................................1

How this manual is organized..........................................................1

Item Checklist ..................................................................................1

II. FEATURES .................................................................2

Map of the CPU Card.................................................................2

Features of This CPU card...............................................................2

Parts of the CPU Card ................................................................2

III. INSTALLATION ......................................................3

Jumper Settings ..........................................................................3

Dual CPU Compatibility ............................................................5

Dual CPU Identification Table .............................................6

Power Connection Procedures..............................................7

BIOS Chip ..................................................................................7

Support Software........................................................................7

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE ....................................................8

Flash Memory Writer Utility ...........................................................8

The Flash Memory Writer Utility Screen: ............................8

BIOS Setup ....................................................................................11

Load Defaults .....................................................................12

Standard CMOS Setup .............................................................12

Details of Standard CMOS Setup:......................................13

BIOS Features Setup ................................................................16

Details of BIOS Features Setup:.........................................16

Chipset Features Setup .............................................................19

Power Management Setup........................................................22

Details of Power Management Setup: ................................22

PNP and PCI Setup ..................................................................24

Load BIOS Defaults .................................................................26

Load Setup Defaults .................................................................26

Supervisor Password and User Password ................................27

IDE HDD Auto Detection ........................................................28

Save and Exit Setup .................................................................29

Exit Without Saving .................................................................29

IV

ASUS C-P55T2D User's Manual

CONTENTS

V. DESKTOP MANAGEMENT...................................31

Desktop Management Interface (DMI)..........................................31

Introducing the DMI Configuration Utility ........................31

System Requirements .........................................................31

Using the DMI Configuration Utility .................................32

Notes:..................................................................................32

ASUS C-P55T2D User's Manual V

FCC & DOC COMPLIANCE

Federal Communications Commission Statement

This device complies with FCC Rules Part 15. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions:

• This device may not cause harmful interference, and

• This device must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B
digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to
provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installa­tion. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if
not installed and used in accordance with manufacturer's instructions, may cause
harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the inter­ference by one or more of the following measures:

• Re-orient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

• Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which
the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

WARNING: The use of shielded cables for connection of the monitor to the graphics
card is required to assure compliance with FCC regulations. Changes or modifica­tions to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance
could void the user's authority to operate this equipment.

Canadian Department of Communications Statement

This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for
radio noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regu­lations of the Canadian Department of Communications.

VI

ASUS C-P55T2D User's Manual

I. INTRODUCTION

How this manual is organized

This manual is divided into the following sections:

I. Introduction: Manual information and checklist
II. Features: Information and specifications concerning this product
III. Installation: Instructions on setting up the CPU card
IV. BIOS Setup: BIOS software setup information
V. DMI Utility: BIOS supported Desktop Management Interface

Item Checklist

Please check that your package is complete. If you discover damaged or missing
items, please contact your retailer.

√ The C-P55T2D CPU card
√ Support software (view FILELIST.TXT detailed contents and description)

• Bus Master IDE Drivers

• PFLASH BIOS Utility

I. INTRODUCTION

(Manual / Checklist)

√ This user's manual

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 1

II. FEATURES

(Features)

II. FEATURES

Features of This CPU card

The C-P55T2D is carefully designed for the demanding PC user who wants great
versatility in the assembly of a computer system. This CPU card:

• PS/2 Connectors: PS/2 Mouse & PS/2 Keyboard connectors on bracket.

• V ersatile Processor Support: Intel Pentium

P54CS), IBM®/Cyrix® 6x86-PR166+ (Rev 2.7 or later), IBM®/Cyrix® 6x86MX
(PR166 & above), AMD-K5™ (PR75-PR133), AMD-K6™ (PR166-PR233).
Note: Only Intel CPUs support dual-processor configuration. See page 6 table.

• Intel Chipset: Features Intel's 430HX PCIset with I/O subsystems.

• Error Checking and Corr ecting (ECC): Using Intel's 430HX PCIset and par-

ity DRAM modules can detect and correct 1-bit memory errors.

• Oncard L2 Cache Memory: Oncard 512KB Pipelined Burst SRAM.

®

75-233MHz (P55C-MMX™, P54C/

™

Parts of the CPU Card

Dual ZIF Socket 7

Intel 430HX PCIset

Map of the CPU Card

CPU ZIF Socket 7

Processor 2

CPU Fan Power

CPU ZIF Socket 7

Processor 1

JP1

CPU Fan Power

3V-CPU Vcore
Voltage Selection

PS/2 Mouse

12 543

JP20

CPU Vcore
Voltage Selection

PS/2
Mouse

PS/2
Keyboard

JP15
JP16
Freq. Ratio

JP14

APIC Dual CPU Selection

2 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

PS/2 Keyboard

III. INSTALLATION

Jumper Settings

CPU to BUS Frequency Ratio (JP15, 16)

These jumpers set the frequency ratio between the Internal frequency of the
CPU and the External frequency (called the BUS Clock) within the CPU.

2

Complete Names:

Intel Pentium P54C, P55C-MMX
AMD K5, K6
IBM/Cyrix 6X86, 6x86MX

1

3/2 2 5/2 3

JP15
JP16

P54C/K5
P55C/K6/MX
IBM/Cyrix 6X86

CPU : BUS Frequency Ratio

1.5x(3/2)

3.5X(7/2)

3.0x(3/1)

2.0x(2/1)

2.0x(2/1)

2.0x(2/1)

2.5x(5/2)

2.5x(5/2)

1.0x(1/1)

3.0x(3/1)

3.0x(3/1)

4.0x(4/1)

Set the jumpers by the Internal speed of the Intel Pentium or compatible CPUs as follows:

(CPU Card (CPU Ext. Freq
CPU BUS BUS Ratio) Ext. on Baseboard)
Internal Ratio JP15 JP16 Freq. JP3 JP2

233MHz 3.5x [OFF] [OFF] 66MHz [1-2] [2-3]
200MHz 3.0x [ON] [OFF] 66MHz [1-2] [2-3]
166MHz 2.5x [ON] [ON] 66MHz [1-2] [2-3]
150MHz 2.5x [ON] [ON] 60MHz [2-3] [1-2]
133MHz 2.0x [OFF] [ON] 66MHz [1-2] [2-3]
120MHz 2.0x [OFF] [ON] 60MHz [2-3] [1-2]
100MHz 1.5x [OFF] [OFF] 66MHz [1-2] [2-3]
90MHz 1.5x [OFF] [OFF] 60MHz [2-3] [1-2]
75MHz 1.5x [OFF] [OFF] 50MHz [1-2] [1-2]

(Jumpers)

III. INSTALLATION

JP2

JP2

JP2

JP3

66MHz

CPU External Clock (BUS) Frequency Selection

JP3

1
2
3

60MHz

JP3

1
2
3

1
2
3

50MHz

WARNING: The CPU and/or motherboard will overheat if there is no
airflow across the CPU and onboard heatsinks.

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 3

III. INSTALLATION

Single/Dual Power Plane CPU Voltage Regulator Selections (JP1, 20)

The following jumpers set the voltage supplied to the CPU. Determine whether
your CPU has a Single Power Plane or Dual Power Planes and then the volt­age that it uses. When a single power plane CPU is installed, the dual power
plane selections will be automatically disabled. When a dual power plane CPU
is installed, the single power plane selections will be automatically disabled.
You may have one jumper on the Single Power Plane and another on the Dual

Power Planes at the same time.

WARNING: Incorrect setting can damage your CPU. If you are not
exactly clear on CPU jumper settings, check with your retailer.

3 Volt CPU Vcore Voltage Selection (JP1)

III. INSTALLATION

(Jumpers)

JP1

3

2

1

P54C/CS
(STD 3.4V) Default

Single Power Plane CPU Voltage Selection

2
1

JP1

3
2
1

P54C/CS/K5/6x86
(VRE 3.5V)

2.x Volt CPU Vcore Voltage Selection (JP20: 1-5)

12 543

JP20

2

1

K6-PR233 (3.2V)

JP20

P55C/6x86MX (2.8V)

Dual Power Plane CPU Voltage Selection

Power Type: Single Power Plane Dual Power Planes
CPU Voltage: STD VRE 2.5V 2.7V 2.8V 2.9V 3.2V
JP1 [1-2] [2-3] ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

12 543

K6-PR166/200 (2.9V)

JP20

JP20 ----- ----- [Short1] [Short2] [Short3] [Short4] [Short5]

IMPORTANT: When installing only one processor, you must use the
“Processor 1” CPU ZIF Socket.

4 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

III. INSTALLATION

APIC Dual CPU Selection (JP14)

This jumper turns on or off the multiprocessor operating system’ s support for multi­processors regardless of the number of processors installed in the system.

For single processor operating systems (e.g. DOS, OS/2 Warp, Win3.1x,
Win95, Nextstep): You can use one (or two) processor(s) and this “APIC Dual

CPU Selection” jumper has no function (you may leave on default setting).

For multiprocessor operating systems (e.g. WinNT, Unixware, SCO Unix
MP, Solaris 2.51): You can use one or two processors and Enable this “APIC

Dual CPU Selection” jumper . This solution allows some multiprocessor operat­ing systems to upgrade from one processor to two processors in the future with­out having to reinstall a multiprocessor OS. Otherwise Disable the dual proces­sor support in a multiprocessor operating system if for some reason necessary.

Dual CPU JP14

Enable [1-2] (Default)
Disable [2-3]

2

1

123

JP14

Enable (Default)

APIC Dual CPU (Enable/Disable)

123

Disable

JP14

Dual CPU Compatibility

A table on the next page shows the compatible CPU’s to be used on the ZIF socket
for the second processor. The following are codes used in the table:

• Type 0: This type of CPU can be used as the first processor only. Almost all

CPU’s are in this category and therefore not listed in the table.

• Type 2: This type of CPU can only be used as the second processor.

• Type 0/2: This type of CPU can be used as the first or second processor.

• Core Speed: This is the advertised speed of the CPU.

• BUS Speed: This is the BUS frequency that the baseboard must be set to.

• S-Spec: This is the identification code marked on the surface of the processor

without an attached fan heatsink. The code is marked on the underside of pro­cessors with an attached fan heatsink.

5: This is a boxed CPU without an attached fan heatsink
6: This is a boxed CPU with an attached fan heatsink

(Jumpers)

III. INSTALLATION

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 5

III. INSTALLATION

Dual CPU Identification Table

For 75-, 90, 100-, 120-, 133-, 150-, 166-, 200-MHz Pentium Processors

III. INSTALLATION

(Dual CPU Table)

Type Speed MHz S-Spec Voltage

(Core/BUS)

0/2 75/50 SX969 STD
0/2 75/50 SX998 STD
0/2 75/50 SZ994
0/2 75/50 SU0706STD
0/2 75/50 SX961 STD
0/2 75/50 SZ9775STD
0/2 75/50 SY005 STD
0/2 75/50 SU0976STD
0/2 75/50 SU0986STD

2 90/60 SX874 STD
0/2 90/60 SX957 STD
0/2 90/60 SX958 STD
0/2 90/60 SX959 STD
0/2 90/60 SZ9785STD
2 90/60 SX942 STD
2 90/60 SX943 STD
2 90/60 SX944 STD
0/2 90/60 SX968 STD
0/2 90/60 SZ9955STD
0/2 90/60 SU0316STD
0/2 90/60 SY006 STD

0/2 100/50, 66 SX970 VRE
0/2 100/50, 66 SX963 STD
0/2 100/50, 66 SZ9965STD
0/2 100/50, 66 SU0326STD

5

STD

Type Speed MHz S-Spec Voltage

(Core/BUS)

0/2 100/66 SX962 VRE
0/2 100/66 SY007 STD
0/2 100/66 SU110
0/2 100/66 SU0996STD

0/2 120/60 SY033 STD
0/2 120/60 SU1006STD

0/2 133/66 SY022 STD
0/2 133/66 SY023 STD
0/2 133/66 SU0736STD
0/2 120/60 SK110 STD
0/2 133/66 SK106 STD
0/2 133/66 S106J7STD
0/2 133/66 SK107 STD
0/2 133/66 SU0386STD

0/2 150/60 SY015 STD
0/2 150/60 SU071

0/2 166/66 SY016 VRE
0/2 166/66 SY017 VRE
0/2 166/66 SU0726VRE

0/2 200/66 SY044 VRE

5

STD

6

STD

6 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

III. INSTALLATION

Power Connection Procedures

1. After all jumpers and connections are made, close the system case cover.

2. Make sure that all switches are in the off position as marked by .

3. Connect the power supply cord into the power supply located on the back of
your system case as instructed by your system user's manual.

4. Connect the power cord into an power outlet that is equipped by a surge
protector.

5. You may then turn on your devices in the following order:
a. Your monitor
b. External SCSI devices (starting with the last device on the chain)
c. Your system power

6. The power LED on the front panel of the system case will light and the moni­tor LED as well. The system will then run power-on tests. While the tests are
running, additional messages will appear on the screen. If you do not see
anything within 30 seconds from the time you turn on the power, the system
may have failed a power-on test. Recheck your jumper settings and connec­tions or call your authorized dealer for assistance.

7. During power-on, hold down the <Delete> key to enter BIOS setup. Follow
the next section "BIOS SOFTWARE" for instructions.

BIOS Chip

The BIOS chip on the the Pentium CPU card and the Pentium Pro CPU card are
different. If purchasing a Baseboard with a CPU Card, the BIOS is correctly in­stalled. If purchasing an additional card which uses a different processor, it should
come with a BIOS chip to replace the one installed on your Baseboad.

Support Software

FILELIST.TXT - View this file to see the files included in the support software.
PFLASH.EXE - This is the Flash Memory Writer utility that updates the BIOS by

uploading a new BIOS file to the programmable flash ROM chip on the mother­board. To determine the BIOS version, check the last four numbers of the code
displayed on the upper left-hand corner of your screen during bootup.

NOTE: A binary BIOS file is no longer included with the support software.
Save the motherboard's BIOS file to a floppy diskette as soon as your system is
operational. See "Flash Memory Writer Utility" in this section to “Save Cur­rent BIOS to File.”

III. INSTALLATION

(Power Connections)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 7

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Flash Memory Writer Utility

1. Enable "Boot Block Programming" jumper as shown in section III.

2. Make sure the system is running in real mode. This utility will not operate if
the system is under protected mode or virtual mode. This means that you
cannot reprogram the motherboard BIOS under the Windows environment or
with any memory management software, including HIMEM.SYS. The fol­lowing describes the easiest way run your system from real mode:

• Boot from a floppy disk formatted with the "FORMAT A:/S" command with­out creating CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.

• If you are using MS-DOS 6.x, you can bypass the AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS by pressing <F5> when "Starting MS-DOS . . . “ line is dis­played on the screen.

• For W indows 95 users, press <F8> to enter the Microsoft Windows 95 Startup
Menu and then choose "Safe mode command prompt only"

3. Y ou should copy the contents of the \FLASH directory to your hard disk drive.
Once you have accomplished the above tasks, you can run the Flash Memory
Writer utility. To run the utility, change to the directory containing
PFLASH.EXE and then at the DOS prompt, type: PFLASH <Enter>

(Flash Memory Writer)

IV. BIOS

The Flash Memory Writer Utility Screen:

ASUSTeK PNP BIOS

Copyright (C) 1995, ASUSTeK COMPUTER Inc.

Flash Type -- SST 29EE010

Current BIOS Revision: #401A0-xxxx

Choose one of the following:

1. Save Current BIOS To File

2. Update BIOS Main Block From File

3. Advanced Features

Enter Choice: [1]

Press ESC To Exit

xxxx denotes the current BIOS version stored in the Flash EPROM

IMPORTANT : Flash Type may also be "INTEL 28F001BXT." If "unknown"
is after "Flash type --," then this ROM chip is not programmable or not sup­ported with the PnP BIOS and therefore cannot be programmed by the Flash
Memory Writer.

FLASH MEMORY WRITER V1.5

This screen provides three command options, which you can invoke by typing the
corresponding number of the command and pressing <Enter> key. The following
describes each command:

8 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

1. Save Current BIOS to File (Perform as soon as system is running)

This option allows you to copy the contents of the Flash memory chip into a file in
the \FLASH directory. This gives you a backup copy of the original motherboard
BIOS in case you need to re-install it. In such cases where the data on the chip get
lost or corrupted, you can reprogram the chip using this backup copy.

2. Update BIOS Main Block from File

This option updates the BIOS from a file on the disk. This can either be a new file or
a backup file created by the “Save Current BIOS to File” option. This will not
update the Boot Block if the Boot Block is different. You will be prompted with the
following if advanced features if necessary.

Boot Block of New BIOS is different from old one !!!

Please Use 'Advanced Feature' to flash whole bios !!!

3. Advanced Features

Selecting this option brings up the Advanced Features screen for clearing the PnP
configuration record and updating the motherboard BIOS.

To terminate the program and return to the DOS prompt, press the <Esc> key. Se­lecting the third option displays the Advanced Features screen.

Advanced Features

Flash Type -- SST 29EE010

Current BIOS Revision: #401A0-xxxx

Choose one of the following:

1. Clear PNP ESCD Parameter Block

2. Update BIOS Including Boot Block and ESCD

Enter Choice: [2]

Press ESC To Exit

xxxx denotes the current BIOS version stored in the Flash EPROM

Clear PNP ESCD Parameter Block

This option erases the Plug-and-Play (PnP) configuration record.

IV. BIOS

(Flash Memory Writer)

Update BIOS Including Boot Block and ESCD

This option updates the Boot Block, the motherboard BIOS and the PnP ESCD
Parameter Block from a new BIOS file in the \FLASH directory.

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 9

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

To select an option, type its corresponding number in the provided space and then
press the <Enter> key . Follow these procedure to update the PnP motherboard BIOS.

1. Download the new BIOS by selecting the second command option from the
Advanced Features screen. The program displays a second screen prompting
you for the name of the BIOS file. Type in the complete name of the file,
including the file name extension, and then press the <Enter> key . The utility
then downloads the new BIOS file. The following message appears:

DO NOT TURN OFF THE SYSTEM IF THERE IS A PROBLEM!

If you encounter problems while downloading the new BIOS, DO NOT turn
off your system since this might prevent your system from
booting up. Just repeat the process, and if the problem still persists, download
the original BIOS file you saved to disk.

(Flash Memory Writer)

IV. BIOS

2. After successfully downloading the new BIOS file, exit the Flash Memory
Writer utility and then turn off your system. Set the jumper back to its de-
fault setting of Programming “Disabled.”

3. Turn on the system and hold down <DEL> to enter BIOS Setup. You must
load "Setup Default" to affect the new BIOS.

WARNING: If the Flash Memory Writer utility was not able to successfully
download a complete BIOS file, your system may not be able to boot up. If
this happens, your system will require service from your vendor.

10 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

6. BIOS Setup

The motherboard supports two programmable Flash ROM chips: 5 Volt and 12
Volt. Either of these memory chips can be updated when BIOS upgrades are re­leased. Use the Flash Memory W riter utility to download the new BIOS file into the
ROM chip as described in detail at the beginning of BIOS Software section IV.

All computer motherboards provide a Setup utility program for specifying the sys­tem configuration and settings. If your motherboard came in a computer system, the
proper configuration entries may have already been made. If so, invoke the Setup
utility , as described later , and take note of the configuration settings for future refer ­ence; in particular, the hard disk specifications.

If you are installing the motherboard, reconfiguring your system or you receive a
Run Setup message, you will need to enter new setup information. This section
describes how to configure your system using this utility.

The BIOS ROM of the system stores the Setup utility. When you turn on the com­puter, the system provides you with the opportunity to run this program. This ap­pears during the Power-On Self Test (POST). Press the <Delete> key to call up the
Setup utility. If you are a little bit late pressing the mentioned key(s), POST will
continue with its test routines, thus preventing you from calling up Setup. If you
still need to call Setup, reset the system by simultaneously pressing the <Ctrl>, <Alt>
and <Delete> keys, or by pushing the Reset button on the system case. You can also
restart by turning the system off and then back on again. But do so only if the first
two methods fail.

When you invoke Setup, the CMOS SETUP UTILITY main program screen will
appear with the following options:

IV. BIOS

(BIOS Setup)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 11

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Load Defaults

The “Load BIOS Defaults” option loads the minimized settings for troubleshoot­ing. “Load Setup Defaults”, on the other hand, is for loading optimized defaults
for regular use. Choosing defaults at this level, will modify all applicable settings.

A section at the bottom of the above screen displays the control keys for this screen.
Take note of these keys and their respective uses. Another section just below the
control keys section displays information on the currently highlighted item in the
list.

Standard CMOS Setup

This “Standard CMOS Setup” option allows you to record some basic system hard­ware configuration and set the system clock and error handling. If the motherboard
is already installed in a working system, you will not need to select this option
anymore. However, if the configuration stored in the CMOS memory on the board
gets lost or damaged, or if you change your system hardware configuration, you will
need to respecify the configuration values. The configuration values usually get lost
or corrupted when the power of the onboard CMOS battery weakens.

(Standard CMOS)

IV. BIOS

The above screen provides you with a list of options. At the bottom of this screen
are the control keys for use on this screen. Take note of these keys and their respec­tive uses.

User-configurable fields appear in a different color. If you need information on the
selected field, press the <F1> key. The help menu will then appear to provide you
with the information you need. The memory display at the lower right-hand side of
the screen is read-only and automatically adjusts accordingly.

12 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Details of Standard CMOS Setup:

Date

To set the date, highlight the “Date” field and then press the page up/page down or
+/- keys to set the current date. Follow the month, day and year format. Valid
values for month, day and year are:

Month: 1 to 12
Day: 1 to 31
Year: up to 2099

Time

To set the time, highlight the “Time” field and then press the page up/page down or
+/- keys to set the current time. Follow the hour, minute and second format. Valid
values for hour, minute and second are:

Hour: 00 to 23
Minute: 00 to 59
Second: 00 to 59

time, just press the <Enter> key twice if you do not want to modify the current

You can bypass the date and time prompts by creating an AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
For information on how to create this file, please refer to the MS-DOS manual.

Hard Disks

This field records the specifications for all non-SCSI hard disk drives installed in
your system. The onboard PCI IDE connectors provide Primary and Secondary
channels for connecting up to four IDE hard disks or other IDE devices. Each chan­nel can support up to two hard disks; the first of which is the “master” and the
second is the “slave”.

Specifications for SCSI hard disks need not to be entered here since they operate
using device drivers and are not supported by any the BIOS. If you install the
optional PCI-SC200 SCSI controller card into the motherboard (see section VI for
instructions). If you install other vendor’s SCSI controller card, please refer to their
respective documentations on how to install the required SCSI drivers.

IV. BIOS

(Standard CMOS)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 13

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

For IDE hard disk drives, you can:

• Use the Auto setting for detection during bootup (see below)

• Use the IDE HDD AUTO DETECTION in the main menu to automatically
enter the drive specifications, or you can:

• Enter the specifications yourself manually by using the “User” option

The entries for specifying the hard disk type include CYLS (number of cylinders),
HEAD (number of read/write heads), PRECOMP (write precompensation), LANDZ
(landing zone), SECTOR (number of sectors) and MODE. The SIZE field auto­matically adjusts according to the configuration you specify. The documentation
that comes with your hard disk should provide you with the information regarding
the drive specifications.

The MODE entry is for IDE hard disks only , and can be ignored for MFM and ESDI
drives. This entry provides three options: Normal, Large, LBA, or Auto (see be-
low). Set MODE to the Normal for IDE hard disk drives smaller than 528MB; set
it to LBA for drives over 528MB that support Logical Block Addressing (LBA) to
allow larger IDE hard disks; set it to Large for drives over 528MB that do not sup-
port LBA. Large type of drive can only be used with MS-DOS and is very uncom­mon. Most IDE drives over 528MB support the LBA mode.

(Standard CMOS)

IV. BIOS

Auto detection of hard disks on bootup (New Feature)

For each field: Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary Master, and Secondary
Slave, you can select Auto under the TYPE and MODE fields. This will enable auto
detection of your IDE drives during bootup. This will allow you to change your
hard drives (with the power off) and then power on without having to reconfigure
your hard drive type. If you use older hard drives which do not support this feature,
then you must configure the hard drive in the standard method as described above
by the "User" option.

NOTE: After the IDE hard disk drive information has been entered into BIOS, new
IDE hard disk drives must be partitioned (such as with FDISK) and then formatted
before data can be read from and write on. Primary IDE hard disk drives must have
its partition set to active (also possible with FDISK).

14 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Drive A, Drive B

These fields record the types of floppy disk drives installed in your system. The
available options for drives A and B are:

360KB, 5.25 in.

1.2MB, 5.25 in.
720KB, 3.5 in.

1.44MB, 3.5 in.

2.88MB, 3.5 in.
None

To enter the configuration value for a particular drive, highlight its corresponding
field and then select the drive type using the left- or right-arrow key.

Floppy 3 Mode Support

This is the Japanese standard floppy drive. The standard stores 1.2MB in a 3.5"
diskette. This is normally disabled but you may choose from either:

Drive A
Drive B
Both

Disabled (Default)

Video

Set this field to the type of video display card installed in your system. The options
are:

EGA/VGA (Default)

Mono (for Hercules or MDA)
CGA 40
CGA 80

If you are using a VGA or any higher resolution card, choose the “EGA/VGA”
option.

Halt On

This field determines which types of errors will cause the system to halt.

All Errors (Default)
No Errors
All, But Keyboard
All, But Diskette
All, But Disk/Key

IV. BIOS

(Standard CMOS)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 15

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

BIOS Features Setup

This “BIOS Features Setup” option consists of configuration entries that allow you
to improve your system performance, or let you set up some system features accord­ing to your preference. Some entries here are required by the motherboard’ s design
to remain in their default settings.

A section at the lower right of the screen displays the control keys you can use. T ake
note of these keys and their respective uses. If you need information on a particular
entry, highlight it and then press <F1>. A pop-up help menu will appear to provide

(BIOS Features)

IV. BIOS

you with the information you need. T o load the last set values, press <F5>. Pressing
<F6> and <F7> load the BIOS default values and Setup default values, respectively .

Details of BIOS Features Setup:

Virus Warning

This field protects the boot sector and partition table of your hard disk against acci­dental modifications. Any attempt to write to them will cause the system to halt and
display a warning message. If this occurs, you can either allow the operation to
continue or use a bootable virus-free floppy disk to reboot and investigate your
system. The default setting is Disabled. This setting is recommended because con­flicts with new operating systems. Installation of new operating systems require that
you disable this to prevent write errors.

CPU Internal Cache

These fields allow you to set the CPU’s “Level 1” primary cache to Enabled (de­fault) or Disabled. Caching allows better performance.

External Cache

These fields allow you to set the CPU’s “Level 2” secondary cache to Enabled
(default) or Disabled. Caching allows better performance.

16 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Quick Power On Self Test

This field speeds up the Power-On Self Test (POST) routine by skipping retesting a
second, third, and fourth time. Setup default setting for this field is Enabled. A
complete test of the system is done on each test.

HDD Sequence SCSI/IDE First

When using both SCSI and IDE hard disk drives, IDE is always the boot disk using
drive letter C (default setting of IDE). This feature allows a SCSI hard disk drive to
be the boot disk when set to SCSI. This allows multiple operating systems to be used
on both IDE and SCSI drives or the primary operating system to boot using a SCSI
hard disk drive.

Boot Sequence

This field determines where the system looks first for an operating system. Options
are C,CDROM,A; CDROM,C,A; A,C; C,A The setup default setting is to check first
the hard disk and then the floppy drive, that is, C, A.

Boot Up Floppy Seek

When enabled, the BIOS will seek the floppy “A” drive one time. By setup default,
this field is set to Disabled.

Floppy Disk Access Control

This allows protection of files from the computer system to be copied to floppy
drives by allowing the setting of Read Only to only allow reads from the floppy but
not writes. The setup default R/W allows both reads and writes.

IDE HDD Block Mode Sectors

This field enhances hard disk performance by making multi-sector transfers instead
of one sector per transfer. Most IDE drives, except older versions, can utilize this
feature. By setup default, this field is set to HDD MAX, other selections are Dis-
abled 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32.

Security Option

When you specify a Supervisor Password and/or User Passwor d (explained later in
this section), the Security Option field determines when the system prompts for the
password. The default setting is System, where the system prompts for the User
Password every time you start your system. The other option is Setup, where the
system goes through its startup routine unless the Setup utility is called, when the
system prompts for the Supervisor Password.

PS/2 Mouse Function Control

The default of Auto allows the system to detect a PS/2 Mouse on bootup. If de­tected, IRQ12 will be used for the PS/2 Mouse. IRQ12 will be reserved for expan­sion cards if a PS/2 Mouse is not detected. Disabled will reserve IRQ12 for expan­sion cards and therefore the PS/2 Mouse will not function.

IV. BIOS

(BIOS Features)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 17

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

PCI/VGA Palette Snoop

Some display cards that are nonstandard VGA such as graphics accelerators or MPEG
V ideo Cards may not show colors properly . The setting Enabled should correct this
problem. Otherwise leave this on the setup default setting of Disabled.

OS/2 Onboard Memory > 64M

When using OS/2 operating systems with installed DRAM of greater than 64MB,
you need to Enable this option otherwise leave this on the setup default of Disabled.

MPS 1.4 Support

MPS 1.4 is Intel’s Multi-Processor Specification. Some MP operating systems still
cannot support it. If your MP operating system cannot support MPS 1.4, you must
leave this feature on the default of Disabled.

......................................................................................................................................

Video ROM BIOS Shadow

This field allows you to change the video BIOS location from ROM to RAM. Relo­cating to RAM enhances system performance because information access is faster
than to ROM. Setup default setting is Enabled.

C8000 – CBFFF Shadow to DC000 – DFFFF Shadow
These fields are used for shadowing other expansion card ROMs. If you install
other expansion cards with ROMs on them, you will need to know which addresses
the ROMs use to shadow them specifically . Shadowing a ROM reduces the memory
available between 640KB and 1024KB by the amount used for this purpose. Leave

(BIOS Features)

IV. BIOS

on default setting of Disabled.

......................................................................................................................................

Boot Up NumLock Status

This field enables users to activate the Number Lock function upon system boot.
The setup default setting for this field is On.

Boot Up System Speed

This has no function and should be left at the setup default of High.

Typematic Rate Setting

When enabled, you can set the two typematic controls listed below. Setup default
setting is Disabled.

Typematic Rate (Chars/Sec)

This field controls the speed at which the system registers repeated keystrokes.
Options range from 6 to 30 characters per second. Setup default setting is 6; other
settings are 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, and 30.

Typematic Delay (Msec)

This field sets the time interval, in milliseconds, for displaying the first and second
characters. Four delay rate options are available: 250 (default), 500, 750 and 1000.

18 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Chipset Features Setup

This “Chipset Features Setup” option controls the configuration of the board’ s chipset.
Control keys for this screen are the same as for the previous screen.

Auto Configuration

The default setting of 60ns DRAM sets the optimal timings for items 2 through 9 for
60ns DRAM modules. If you are using 70ns DRAM modules, you must change this
item to 70ns DRAM. See Section III (Installation) of the baseboard user’s manual
for DRAM installation information.

Peer Concurrency (Leave on default setting of Enabled)
PCI Streaming (Leave on default setting of Enabled)
Passive Release (Leave on default setting of Enabled)
Chipset Global Features (Leave on default setting of Enabled)
16-bit I/O Recovery Time

Timing for 16-bit ISA cards (Leave on default setting of 1 BUSCLK)

8-bit I/O Recovery Time

Timing for 8-bit ISA cards (Leave on default setting of 1 BUSCLK)

Video BIOS Cacheable

Allows the Video BIOS to be cached to allow faster execution. (Leave on default
setting of Enabled)

IV. BIOS

(Chipset Features)

Memory Hole At 15M-16M

Enabling this features reserves 15MB to 16MB memory address space to ISA ex­pansion cards that specifically require this setting. This makes the memory from
15MB and up unavailable to the system. Expansion cards can only access memory
up to 16MB. The default is Disabled.

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 19

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

[DRAM and ECC]

If all your DRAM modules have parity chips (e.g. 8 chips + 4 parity chips), they are
considered 36bits. This motherboard sums the memory per bank and therefore two
modules will give 72bits and the following will be displayed:

If your DRAM modules do not have parity chips (e.g. 8 chips), they are considered
32bits and the following will be displayed instead:

The default of Disabled for Memory parity SERR# (NMI) will not show memory
errors on your monitor . When using parity DRAM modules, you can select from the
default of Parity or ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) to correct 1 bit memory
errors that may occur in the memory . See Section III (Installation) of the baseboard
user’s manual for DRAM memory modules information.

......................................................................................................................................

Onboard FDC Controller

(Chipset Features)

IV. BIOS

When enabled, this field allows you to connect your floppy disk drives to the on­board floppy drive connector instead of a separate controller card. If you want to
use a different controller card to connect the floppy drives, set this field to Disabled.
Default setting is Enabled.

Onboard FDC Swap A: B:

This field allows you to reverse the hardware drive letter assignments of your floppy
disk drives. T wo options are available: No Swap (default) and Swap AB. If you want to
switch drive letter assignments through the onboard chipset, set this field to Swap AB.

Onboard Serial Port 1

Settings are 3F8H/IRQ4 (default), 2F8H/IRQ3, 3E8H/IRQ4, 2E8H/IRQ10, and Dis­abled for the onboard serial connector.

Onboard Serial Port 2

Settings are 3F8H/IRQ4, 2F8H/IRQ3 (default), 3E8H/IRQ4, 2E8H/IRQ10, and Dis­abled for the onboard serial connector.

20 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Onboard Parallel Port

This field sets the address of the onboard parallel port connector. You can select
either: 3BCH / IRQ 7, 378H / IRQ 7 (default), 278H / IRQ 5, Disabled. If you install
an I/O card with a parallel port, ensure that there is no conflict in the address assign­ments. The PC can support up to three parallel ports as long as there are no conflicts
for each port.

Parallel Port Mode

This field allows you to set the operation mode of the parallel port. The setting
Normal, allows normal-speed operation but in one direction only; EPP allows bidi-
rectional parallel port operation at maximum speed; ECP allows the parallel port to
operate in bidirectional mode and at a speed faster than the maximum data transfer
rate; ECP+EPP (default) allows normal speed operation in a two-way mode.

ECP DMA Select

This selection is available only if you select ECP or ECP+EPP in the

Parallel Port Mode. Select either DMA Channel 1, 3 (default), or Disabled.
UART2 Use Infrared

When enabled, this field activates the onboard infrared feature and sets the second
serial UAR T to support the infrared module connector on the motherboard. If your
system already has a second serial port connected to the onboard COM2 connector,
it will no longer work if you enable the infrared feature. By default, this field is set
to Disabled, which leaves the second serial port UAR T to support the COM2 serial
port connector . See section III for IrDA-Compliant Infrared Module Connector.

Onboard PCI IDE Enable

You can select to enable the Primary IDE channel, Secondary IDE channel, Both
(default), or Disable both channels (for systems with only SCSI drives).

IDE 0 Master/Slave Mode, IDE 1 Master/Slave Mode

Each channel (0 and 1) has both a master and a slave making four IDE devices
possible. Because each IDE device may have a different Mode timing (0, 1, 2, 3, 4),
it is necessary for these to be independent. The default setting of Auto will allow
autodetection to ensure optimal performance.

IV. BIOS

(Chipset Features)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 21

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Power Management Setup

This “Power Management Setup” option allows you to reduce power consumption.
This feature turns off the video display and shuts down the hard disk after a period
of inactivity.

(Power Management)

IV. BIOS

Details of Power Management Setup:

Power Management (User Define)

This field acts as the master control for the power management modes. User Define
allows you to set power saving options according to your preference; Disable dis­ables the power saving features; Min Saving puts the system into power saving mode
after a long period of system inactivity; Max Saving puts the system into power
saving mode after a brief period of system inactivity.

IMPORTANT: Advanced Power Management (APM) should be installed to
keep the system time updated when the computer enters suspend mode acti­vated by the BIOS Power Management. For DOS environments, you need to
add DEVICE=C:\DOS\POWER.EXE in you CONFIG.SYS. For W indows 3.1x
and Windows 95, you need to install Windows including the APM feature. A
battery and power cord icon labeled "Power" will appear in the “Contr ol Panel.”
Choose “Advanced” in the Power Management Field.

Video Off Option (Susp,Stby -> Off )

This field determines when to activate the video off feature for monitor power man­agement. The settings are Susp,Stby -> Off, All Modes -> Off, Always On, and Sus-

pend -> Off.

Video Off Method (DPMS OFF)

This field defines the video off features. The following options are available: DPMS
OFF, DPMS Reduce ON, Blank Screen, V/H SYNC+Blank, DPMS Standby, and

DPMS Suspend. The DPMS (Display Power Management System) features allow
the BIOS to control the video display card if it supports the DPMS feature. Blank
Screen only blanks the screen (use this for monitors without power management or
“green” features. If set up in your system, your screen saver will not display with
Blank Screen selected). V/H SYNC+Blank blanks the screen and turns off vertical

and horizontal scanning.

22 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Suspend Switch

This field enables or disables the SMI connector on the motherboard. This connec­tor connects to the lead from the Suspend switch mounted on the system case. De­fault setting for this field is Enable.

Doze Speed (div by), Stdby Speed (div by)
These two fields set the CPU speed during each mode. The number indicates what
the normal CPU speed is divided by.

PM Timers

This section controls the time-out settings for the Power Management scheme. The
fields included in this section are “HDD Power Down”, which places the hard disk
into its lowest power consumption mode, and the Doze Mode, Standby Mode and
Suspend Mode.

The system automatically “wakes up” from any power saving mode when there is
system activity such as when a key is pressed from the keyboard, or when there is
activity detected from the enabled IRQ channels.

HDD Power Down shuts down any IDE hard disk drives in the system after a pe­riod of inactivity . This time period is user -configurable to Disable or from 1 Min to
15 Min. This feature does not affect SCSI hard drives.

The Doze Mode, Standby Mode, and Suspend Mode fields set the period of time
after which each of these modes activate: 30 sec, 1 Min, 2 Min, 4 Min, 8 Min, 20
Min, 30 Min, 40 Min, 1 Hour.

PM Events

This section sets the wake-up call of the system. If activity is detected from any
enabled IRQ channels in the left-hand group, the system wakes up from suspended
mode. You can enable power management for IRQ 3-IRQ15 individually in the list
at the right of the screen. The power management feature will work on the enabled
IRQ channels.

NOTE: A Microsoft serial mouse or compatible will use either COM1 (IRQ4)
or COM2 (IRQ3), and a PS/2 mouse will use IRQ12. If you know which IRQ
your mouse is using, you can enable the wake-up Event for that IRQ here and
the system will wake up when you move the mouse or click its button.

.......................................................................................................................................

IV. BIOS

(Power Management)

IRQ3 (device)-IRQ15 (device)

You can individually Enable or Disable each IRQ to include in the sleep function.
IRQ8 (RTC Alarm) is usually set to Disable so that any software alarm clock or
event calendar can wake up the system.

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 23

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

PNP and PCI Setup

This “PNP and PCI Setup” option configures the PCI bus slots. All PCI bus slots on
the system use INTA#, thus all installed PCI cards must be set to this value.

PNP OS Installed

This field allows you to use a Plug-and-Play (PnP) operating system to configure
the PCI bus slots instead of using the BIOS. Default setting is No.

Slot 1 (RIGHT) IRQ to Slot 4 (LEFT) IRQ

(Plug & Play / PCI)

IV. BIOS

These fields set how IRQ use is determined for each PCI slot. The default setting for
each field is Auto, which uses auto-routing to determine IRQ use. The other options are
manual settings of NA, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 or 15 for each slot.

PCI Latency Timer

The default setting of “32 PCI Clock” enables maximum PCI performance for this
motherboard.

IRQ xx Used By ISA

These fields indicate whether or not the displayed IRQ for each field is being used
by a legacy (non-PnP) ISA card. Two options are available: No/ICU and Yes. The
first option, the default value, indicates either that the displayed IRQ is not used or
an ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) is being used to determine if an ISA card is
using that IRQ. If you install a legacy ISA card that requires a unique IRQ, and you
are not using an ICU, you must set the field for that IRQ to Yes. For example: If you
install a legacy ISA card that requires IRQ 10, then set IRQ10 Used By ISA to Yes.

......................................................................................................................................

24 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

DMA x Used By ISA

These fields indicate whether or not the displayed DMA channel for each field is
being used by a legacy (non-PnP) ISA card. Available options include: No/ICU and
Yes. The first option, the default setting, indicates either that the displayed DMA
channel is not used or an ICU is being used to determine if an ISA card is using that
channel. If you install a legacy ISA card that requires a unique DMA channel, and
you are not using an ICU, you must set the field for that channel to Yes.

ISA MEM Block BASE

This field allows you to set the base address and block size of a legacy ISA card that
uses any memory segment within the C800H and DFFFH address range. If you
have such a card, and you are not using an ICU to specify its address range, select a
base address from the six available options; the ISA MEM Block SIZE field will
then appear for selecting the block size. If you have more than one legacy ISA card
in your system that requires to use this address range, you can increase the block
size to either 8K, 16K, 36K, or 64K. If you are using an ICU to accomplish this task,
leave ISA MEM Block BASE to its default setting of No/ICU.

SYMBIOS SCSI BIOS

The default uses Auto settings for the onboard SCSI BIOS. If you do not want to use
the onboard SCSI BIOS, select Disabled.

USB Function

This motherboard supports Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices but current operat­ing systems do not. The default is set to Disabled until support disks and USB
devices are available in which time you can set this function to Enabled.

IV. BIOS

(Plug & Play / PCI)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 25

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Load BIOS Defaults

This “Load BIOS Defaults” option allows you to load the troubleshooting default
values permanently stored in the BIOS ROM. These default settings are non-opti­mal and disable all high performance features. To load these default settings, high­light “Load BIOS Defaults” on the main screen and then press the <Enter> key . The
system displays a confirmation message on the screen. Press the <Y> key and then
the <Enter> key to confirm. Press the <N> key and then the <Enter> key to abort.
This feature does not affect the fields on the Standard CMOS Setup screen.

Load Setup Defaults

This “Load Setup Defaults” option allows you to load the default values to the sys­tem configuration fields. These default values are the optimized configuration set­tings for the system. To load these default values, highlight “Load Setup Defaults”
on the main screen and then press <Enter>. The system displays a confirmation
message on the screen. Press <Y> and then <Enter> to confirm. Press <N> and
then <Enter> to abort. This feature does not affect the fields on the Standard CMOS
Setup screen.

(Load Defaults)

IV. BIOS

26 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

Supervisor Password and User Password

These two options set the system passwords. “Supervisor Password” sets a pass­word that will be used to protect the system and the Setup utility; “User Password”
sets a password that will be used exclusively on the system. By default, the system
comes without any passwords. To specify a password, highlight the type you want
and then press <Enter>. A password prompt appears on the screen. Taking note that
the password is case sensitive, and can be up to 8 alphanumeric characters long, type
in your password and then press <Enter>. The system confirms your password by
asking you to type it again. After setting a password, the screen automatically re­verts to the main screen.

T o implement the password protection, specify in the “Security Option” field of the
BIOS Features Setup screen when the system will prompt for the password. If you
want to disable either password, press <Enter> instead of entering a new password
when the “Enter Password” prompt appears. A message confirms the password has
been disabled.

NOTE: If you forget the password, see CMOS RAM in section III (Installation) of
the baseboard user’s manual for procedures on clearing the CMOS.

IV. BIOS

(Passwords)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 27

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

IDE HDD Auto Detection

This “IDE HDD Auto Detection” option detects the parameters of an IDE hard disk
drive, and automatically enters them into the Standard CMOS Setup screen.

Up to four IDE drives can be detected, with parameters for each listed inside the
box. To accept the optimal entries, press <Y>, otherwise select from the numbers
displayed under the OPTIONS field (2, 1, 3 in this case); to skip to the next drive,
press <N>. If you accept the values, the parameters will appear listed beside the
drive letter on the screen. The process then proceeds to the next drive letter. Press­ing <N> to skip rather than to accept a set of parameters causes the program to enter

(Hard Drive Detect)

IV. BIOS

zeros after that drive letter.
Remember that if you are using another IDE controller that does not feature En-

hanced IDE support for four devices, you can only install two IDE hard disk drives.
Y our IDE controller must support the Enhanced IDE features in order to use Drive E
and Drive F. The onboard PCI IDE controller supports Enhanced IDE, with two
connectors for connecting up to four IDE devices. If you want to use another con­troller that supports four drives, you must disable the onboard IDE controller in the
Chipset Features Setup screen.

When autodetection is completed, the program automatically enters all entries you
accepted on the field for that drive in the Standard CMOS Setup screen. Skipped
entries are ignored and are not entered in the screen.

If you are autodetecting a hard disk that supports the LBA mode, three lines will
appear in the parameter box. Choose the line that lists LBA for an LBA drive. Do
not select Large or Normal.

The autodetection feature can only detect one set of parameters for a particular IDE
hard drive. Some IDE drives can use more than one set. This is not a problem if the
drive is new and there is nothing on it.

28 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

IV. BIOS SOFTWARE

IMPORTANT: If your hard disk was already formatted on an older previous
system, incorrect parameters may be detected. You will need to enter the cor­rect parameters manually or use low-level format if you do not need the data
stored on the hard drive.

If the parameters listed differ from the ones used when the drive was formatted, the
drive will not be readable. If the auto-detected parameters do not match the ones
that should be used for your drive, do not accept them. Press <N> to reject the
presented settings and enter the correct ones manually from the Standard CMOS
Setup screen.

Save & Exit Setup

Select this option to save into the CMOS memory all modifications you specified
during the current session. To save the configuration changes, highlight the “Save
& Exit Setup” option on the main screen and then press <Enter>.

Exit Without Saving

Select this option to exit the Setup utility without saving the modifications you specify
during the current session. To exit without saving, highlight the “Exit Without Sav­ing” option on the main screen and then press <Enter>.

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 29

IV. BIOS

(Save & Exit)

(This page was intentionally left blank)

30 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

V. DESKTOP MANAGEMENT

Desktop Management Interface (DMI)

Introducing the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility

This motherboard supports DMI within the BIOS level and provides a DMI Con­figuration Utility to maintain the Management Information Format Database (MIFD).
DMI is able to auto-detect and record information pertinent to a computer’s system
such as the CPU type, CPU speed, and internal/external frequencies, and memory
size. The onboard BIOS will detect as many system information as possible and
store those collected information in a 4KB block in the motherboard’ s Flash EPROM
and allow the DMI to retrieve data from this database. Unlike other BIOS software,
the BIOS on this motherboard uses the same technology implemented for Plug and
Play to allow dynamic real-time updating of DMI information versus creating a new
BIOS image file and requiring the user to update the whole BIOS. This DMI Con­figuration Utility also allows the system integrator or end user to add additional
information into the MIFD such as serial numbers, housing configurations, and ven­dor information. Those information not detected by the motherboard BIOS and has
to be manually entered through the DMI Configuration Utility and updated into the
MIFD. This DMI Configuration Utility provides the same reliability as PnP updat­ing and will prevent the refreshing failures associated with updating the entire BIOS.

System Requirements

The motherboard BIOS must support DMI. The following motherboards do not
support DMI:

• P/I-P6RP4 (not supported)

• PCI/E-P54NP4 (not supported)

• PCI/I-P54NP4D (not supported)

The DMI Configuration Utility (DMICFG.EXE) must be ran in real mode in order
for the program to run and the base memory must be at least 180K. Memory man­agers like HIMEM.SYS (required by W indows) must not be installed. You can boot
from a system disk without AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, “REM”
HIMEM.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS, or press <F5> during bootup to bypass your
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

V. DMI

(DMI Introduction)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 31

V. DESKTOP MANAGEMENT

Using the DMI Configuration Utility

Edit DMI (or delete)

Use the ← → (left-right) cursors to move the top menu items and the ↑↓ (up-down)
cursor to move between the left hand menu items. The bottom of the screen will
show the available keys for each screen. Press enter at the menu item to enter the
right hand screen for editing. “Edit component” appears on top. The reversed color
field is the current cursor position and the blue text are available for editing. The
orange text shows auto-detected information and are not available for editing. The
blue text “Press [ENTER] for detail” contains a second pop-up menu is available,
use the + - (plus-minus) keys to change the settings. Enter to exit and save, ESC to
exit and not save.

If the user has made changes, ESC will prompt you to answer Y or N. Enter Y to go
back to the left-hand screen and save, enter N to go back to left-hand screen and not

(Using DMI Utility)

V. DMI

save. If editing has not been made, ESC will send you back to the left hand menu
without any messages.

Notes:

A heading, *** BIOS Auto Detect *** appears on the right for each menu item on
the left side that has been auto detected by the system BIOS.

A heading, *** User Modified *** will appear on the right for menu items that has
been modified by the user.

32 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual

V. DESKTOP MANAGEMENT

Save MIFD

You can save the MIFD (normally only saved to flash ROM) to a file by entering the
drive and path here. If you want to cancel save, you may press ESC and a message
“Bad File Name” appears here to show it was not saved.

Load MIFD

You can load the disk file to memory by entering a drive and path and file name
here.

Load BIOS Defaults

You can load the BIOS defaults from a MIFD file and can clear all user modified
and added data. You must reboot your computer in order for the defaults to be saved
back into the Flash BIOS.

V. DMI

(Using DMI Utility)

ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual 33

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34 ASUS C-P55T2D User’s Manual