User manual ASUS A7V8X-MX SE

[. . . ] A7V8X-MX SE User Guide Motherboard E1493 Checklist First Edition V1 December 2003 Copyright © 2003 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modified or altered, unless such repair, modification of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the product is defaced or missing. 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. [. . . ] The LED lights up when you turn on the system power, and blinks when the system is in sleep mode. · System Warning Speaker Lead (4-pin SPEAKER) This 4-pin connector connects to the case-mounted speaker and allows you to hear system beeps and warnings. · System Management Interrupt Lead (2-pin SMI) This 2-pin connector allows you to manually place the system into a suspend mode, or "green" mode, where system activity is instantly decreased to save power and to expand the life of certain system components. Attach the case-mounted suspend switch to this 2-pin connector. · Reset Switch (2-pin RESET) This 2-pin connector connects to the case-mounted reset switch for rebooting the system without turning off the power switch. · ATX Power Switch/Soft-Off Switch Lead (2-pin PWR) This connector connects a switch that controls the system power. Pressing the power switch turns the system between ON and SLEEP, or ON and SOFT OFF, depending on the BIOS or OS settings. Pressing the power switch while in the ON mode for more than 4 seconds turns the system OFF. · Hard Disk Activity Lead (2-pin IDE LED) This connector supplies power to the hard disk activity LED. The read or write activities of any device connected to the primary or secondary IDE connector cause this LED to light up. 1-22 Chapter 1: Product introduction Reset Ground Chapter 2 This chapter tells how to change system settings through the BIOS Setup Menus. Detailed descriptions of the BIOS parameters are also provided. BIOS information 2. 1 Managing and updating your BIOS · · The original BIOS file for this motherboard is in the support CD. Copy the original BIOS to a bootable floppy disk in case you need to restore the BIOS in the future. 2. 1. 1 Creating a bootable floppy disk 1. Do either one of the following to create a bootable floppy disk. DOS environment Insert a 1. 44 MB floppy disk into the drive. At the DOS prompt, type: format a: /s , then press the <Enter> key Windows® 98SE/ME environment a. From your Windows desktop, click Start, point to Settings, then click Control Panel. Follow the suceeding screen instructions to complete the process. Windows® XP environment a. Select "Create an MS-DOS Startup Disk" in the Format Options field, then click Start. Copy the original (or the latest) motherboard BIOS to the bootable floppy disk. 2-2 Chapter 2: BIOS information 2. 1. 2 Using the AwardBIOS Flash Utility You may update the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) using the built-in Award BIOS Flash utility or using a bootable floppy disk with the executable Award BIOS Flash utility (AWDFLASH. EXE). Rename the file to *. BIN, then save it to the bootable floppy disk you created earlier. Save only the updated BIOS file in the floppy disk to avoid loading a wrong BIOS file. Press <Alt> + <F2> during POST to display the following screen. 5. The computer returns to POST after the new BIOS file is copied. ASUS A7V8X-MX SE motherboard user guide 2-3 Updating the BIOS using a bootable floppy disk 1. At the "A:\" prompt, type "C:\" and then press <Enter>. At the "C:\" prompt, type "AWDFLASH/ BIOSFILENAME" and then <Enter>. For example: "AWDFLASH/ aw0702. bin" The AWDFLASH screen appears. Follow steps 5 to 7 in "2. 1. 2 Using the Award BIOS Flash Utility. " 2. 1. 3 CrashFree BIOS feature The CrashFree BIOS feature allows you to boot the computer from a floppy disk and update the BIOS in case the original BIOS fails or gets corrupted. The bootable floppy disk could be the one that you created following the procedure in section 2. 1. 1, and should contain the AWDFLASH. EXE utility. [. . . ] Configuration options: [Enabled] [Disabled] Boot up Floppy Seek [Disabled] When enabled, the BIOS will seek the floppy disk drive to determine whether the drive has 40 or 80 tracks. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] Boot up NumLock Status [On] Allows you to select the power-on state for the NumLock key. Configuration options: [On] [Off] 2-26 Chapter 2: BIOS information APIC Mode [Enabled] When enabled, this option allows you to distribute interrupt routings other than the 16 IRQs. The Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) setting allows you to use the 16 IRQs only. [. . . ]