The post is a series of around 9 articles which starts from explaining how to get inside the BIOS, the BIOS Main menu, the standard CMOS features, advanced BIOS features and all the details you need to know in the BIOS of computers.

An example of the guide are as follows:

Standard CMOS Features

Exactly as the name implies, this is where the standard settings are located, including the date, time, and drive configuration.

Date and Time: You shouldn’t need to configure the date and time more than once, but if it keeps getting knocked out of whack, it may be time to replace the CMOS battery. You can try leaving your PC on for an extended period of time to recharge the battery, but it’s cheap enough to replace outright and a new one should last for years. Check your motherboard manual for the type of battery it uses, which will probably be a CR2032.

IDE Channels: Here is where you’ll find what IDE drives you have connected to your PC. These are the ones that use those old school fat ribbon cables of yesteryear and require multiple drives on the same channel be configured as ‘Master’ and ‘Slave.’ Your drives should show up automatically, but if not, highlight the appropriate entry and hit the Enter key, which brings up another submenu.

- IDE HDD Auto-Detection: Use this to auto-detect a newly connected hard drive.
- Access Mode: Also known as the Translation Method, this setting relays the physical characteristics of your IDE drive to your system and how to define the disk size.

If you’re still not seeing your drive(s) show up, check that the jumper on the back has been properly configured and that you remembered to plug in a Molex power connector.

Image from MaximumPC.

Go ahead and read the article here — Ultimate BIOS Guide: Every Setting Decrypted and Explained!.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Only BIOS Guide You’ll Need

Many of the responses that nonits (non-IT folk) receive from IT start with a, “Have you checked the amount of free RAM on your computer?” or, “What processes were running when this occurred?” My guess is that if you knew the answers to these questions, you wouldn’t be calling technical support. The big, bad IT guy has to take a step back and realize that he’s paid to do his job because that’s what he knows how to do. I’m sure that he wouldn’t like it if accounting asked why the debits and credits did not foot properly (and yes, that is a real term in accounting as my girlfriend just informed me).

Remember, not everyone is an IT genius. Some need a guiding hand, one who will understand that RAM, BIOS and PCI are just letters to others, not technical pieces of a computer system.

Post from: EveryJoe

Keeping it simple all the time