Gateway ALR 9200 - Manual (Page 93)

Using BIOS Setup 81
Using BIOS Setup
This section describes the BIOS Setup options. Use Setup to change the
system configuration defaults. You can run Setup with or without an
operating system present. Setup stores most of the configuration values in
battery-backed CMOS; the rest of the values are stored in flash memory.
The values take effect when you boot the system. POST uses these values to
configure the hardware; if the values and the actual hardware do not agree,
POST generates an error message. You must then run Setup to specify the
correct configuration.
Run Setup: you can run Setup to modify any standard system board
feature such as:
• Select the diskette drive
• Select the parallel port
• Select a serial port
• Set the time or date (to be stored in the real-time clock (RTC))
• Configure an IDE hard drive
• Specify the boot device sequence
• Enable the SCSI BIOS
Run SSU, not Setup: you must run the SSU instead of Setup to do the
following:
• Enter or change information about an expansion card
• Alter system resources (e.g., interrupts, memory addresses, I/O
assignments) to your choices instead of those selected by the BIOS
resource manager
Record Your Setup Settings
It is a good idea to maintain a current record of the Setup and SSU settings
for each system. If the default values ever need to be restored (after a
CMOS clear, for example), you must run Setup again. Referring to your
notes will make the task easier.
3424.boo Page 81 Wednesday, September 2, 1998 9:23 AM