Leadtek WinFast 6200MA User Manual - Introduction Of Bios
Leadtek Research Inc.
18
Introduction of BIOS
Chapter 4
The Mainboard BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) acts as the bridge between your
Hardware (CPU, Disk Drives, Video, etc.) and Operating System Software (Windows
95, OS/2 and so on…) The BIOS Setup (also called CMOS Setup) is where many
hardware configuration options are set and stored. This configuration information will
remain in the BIOS until it is changed, or cleared by removing the battery for a while
then reinstalling it back. CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) refers
to the chip in which the BIOS information is stored.
This mainboard also features a “Flash” BIOS. A Flash BIOS can be upgraded via
software, thereby eliminating the need to actually replace the “BIOS Chip” on the
mainboard. The Award BIOS installed in your computer system’s ROM (Read Only
Memory) is a custom version of an industry standard BIOS.
This chapter describes the AwardBIOS Setup program. The Setup program lets you
modify basic system configuration settings. The settings are then stored in a dedicated
battery-backed memory, called CMOS RAM that retains the information when the
power is turned off.
The rest of this chapter is intended to guide you through the process of configuring
your system using Setup.
The AwardBIOS is immediately activated when you first turn on the computer. The
BIOS reads system configuration information in CMOS RAM and begins the process
of checking out the system and configuring it through the power-on self test (POST).
When threes preliminaries are finished, the BIOS seeks an operating system on one of
the data storage devices (hard drive, floppy disk, etc.). The BIOS launches the
operating system and hands control of system operations to it.
During POST, you can start the Setup program in one of two ways:
1. By pressing Del immediately after switching the system on, or
2. By pressing Del or by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Esc when the following message
appears briefly at the bottom of the screen during POST:
TO ENTER SETUP BEFORE BOOT PRESS CTRL-ALT-ESC OR DEL KEY
If the message disappears before you respond and you still wish to enter Setup, restart
the system to try again by turning it OFF then ON or by pressing the RESET button on
the system case. You may also restart by simultaneously pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del. If you
do not press the keys at the correct time and the system does not boot, an error
message appears and you are again asked to
PRESS F1 TO CONTINUE, CTRL-ALT-ESC OR DEL TO ENTER SETUP
If, after making and saving system changes with Setup, you discover that your
computer no longer is able to boot, the AwardBIOS supports an override to CMOS
settings that resets your system to its default configuration.