System Setup Options

Time
Keyboard Errors
Date
System Password
Diskette Drive A and B
Boot Sequence
IDE Drives
Setup Password
Base Memory
Power Management
Board Memory
Serial Port 1 and Serial Port 2
Extended Memory
Parallel Port
Fast Video BIOS
Parallel Mode
CPU Speed
Hard Disk
Num Lock
Diskette
Speaker
System Data Categories

Screen 1

Screen 2

Time

TIME resets the time on the computer's internal clock.

Time is kept in a 24-hour format (hours:minutes:seconds). To change the time, use the right-arrow key to increase the number in the highlighted field, the left-arrow key to decrease the number, or type in numbers in each of the fields.

Date

DATE resets the date on the computer's internal calendar.

The system automatically displays the day of the week corresponding to the settings in the 3 fields that follow (MONTH, DAY-OF-THE-MONTH, and YEAR).

To change the date, press the right-arrow key to increase the number in the highlighted field, press the left-arrow key to decrease the number, or type in numbers in the MONTH and DAY-OF-THE-MONTH fields.

Diskette Drive A and B

DISKETTE DRIVE A (the boot drive, the top drive) and DISKETTE DRIVE B identify the type of diskette drives installed in the computer. The first drive listed on Page 1 of System Setup is the top drive in the computer.

Options:

• 5.25 INCH, 360 KB
• 5.25 INCH, 1.2 MB
• 3.5 INCH, 720 KB
• 3.5 INCH, 1.44 MB
• NOT INSTALLED

IDE Drives

DRIVE 0 and DRIVE 1 refer to the IDE hard-disk drives installed in the computer. For each drive, 7 parameters can be chosen as a group by drive-type number, or they can be set automatically.

To use the automatic settings, highlight DRIVE 0 or DRIVE 1 and type

a

. The category setting changes to AUTO. Reboot the system and the System Setup program sets the correct drive-type number and parameters.

For other types of IDE devices (IDE CD ROMs and IDE tape drives), set the category to NONE.

Assigning the Drive Parameters Manually

Highlight DRIVE 0 or DRIVE 1, and type in the drive-type number (if known), or type

u

to set the TYPE parameter to USER. Then press the <TAB> key to highlight each of the parameter fields and enter the appropriate number for each field for the drive.

• TYPE is the drive-type number for the selected hard-disk drive.
• CYLS is the number of logical cylinders.
• HDS is the number of logical heads in the drive.
• PRE is the cylinder number at which the electrical current for the drive head changes to compensate for
    differences in data density across the disk surface (has no effect for IDE drives).
• LZ is the cylinder number that is used as the drive's landing zone for the heads when the drive is not 
    in use.
• SEC is the number of logical sectors per track.
• MB (automatically calculated by the system) is the number of millions of bytes of storage provided by  
    the drive.

Base Memory

BASE MEMORY (no user-selectable options) displays the amount of memory available to MS-DOS programs that do not use extended or expanded memory.

The default value is 640 KB, which includes 1 KB reserved for system use.

Board Memory

BOARD MEMORY is used to specify how much of the system's base memory is to be derived from SIMMs on the system board (usually 640 KB).

Change the default setting only under special circumstances; for example, a memory expansion card may need to be addressed starting at 80000h (512 KB). Only part of the base memory can come from the SIMMs on the system board when this card is used; the remainder of the 640 KB comes from the memory expansion card.

Options:

• 640 KB (default)
• 512 KB

Extended Memory

EXTENDED MEMORY (no user-selectable options) indicates the amount of system memory available as extended memory.

The value is in KB rather than MB. To convert KB to MB, divide the KB total by 1024.

Fast Video BIOS

FAST VIDEO BIOS offers the option of shadowing and caching the BIOS for a VGA card installed in an expansion slot.

Options:

• ON (default)
• OFF

NOTE: The system's built-in VGA BIOS is always shadowed and cached.

When set to ON, the system (after booting) immediately copies the video BIOS code into write-protected memory locations in RAM (=shadowing). Shadowing lets the system manipulate video display data more quickly, improving video performance. It is also cached. Caching speeds system performance by retaining the most recently accessed data and instructions in an intermediate storage area of SRAM.

FAST VIDEO BIOS should normally be set to ON. Some video cards are not designed to be shadowed or cached. If video problems occur, set this category to OFF.

CPU Speed

CPU SPEED specifies the processor speed at which the system boots and runs.

Press the left- or right-arrow key to toggle the CPU SPEED category between the installed microprocessor's rated speed (default) and a lower compatibility speed that accommodates speed-sensitive application programs (rebooting not required).

Num Lock

NUM LOCK chooses whether the system boots with the Num Lock mode activated on 101- or 102-key keyboards (it does not apply to 84-key keyboards).

Speaker

SPEAKER determines whether the on-board speaker is ON (default) or OFF. A change to this category takes effect immediately (rebooting not required).

Keyboard Errors

KEYBOARD ERRORS enables or disables reporting of keyboard errors during POST.

This category is useful when applied to self-starting servers or host systems that have no permanently attached keyboard.

The default setting is REPORT. Selecting DO NOT REPORT suppresses all POST error messages relating to the keyboard or the keyboard controller. However, an attached keyboard still operates properly.

System Password

SYSTEM PASSWORD displays the current status of the system's password security feature and allows the assignment and verification of a new system password.

Options:

• NOT ENABLED (default)
• ENABLED
• DISABLED BY JUMPER

A new system password cannot be assigned unless the current status is NOT ENABLED, which is displayed in bright characters. See Using the System Password Feature.

Boot Sequence

NOTE: This feature is available only on OptiPlex™ systems.

BOOT SEQUENCE can be set to DISKETTE FIRST (default) or HARD DISK ONLY.

Selecting DISKETTE FIRST causes the system to try booting from drive A first. If it finds a diskette that is not bootable in the drive or finds a problem with the drive itself, the system displays an error message. If it does not find a diskette in the drive, the system then tries to boot from the hard-disk drive (drive 0).

Selecting HARD DISK ONLY causes the system to boot only from the hard-disk drive, even if there is a bootable diskette in drive A.

Setup Password

NOTE: This feature is available only on OptiPlex systems.

SETUP PASSWORD provides restricted access to the computer's System Setup program in the same way that access to the system can be restricted with the SYSTEM PASSWORD feature.

Options:

• NOT ENABLED (default)
• ENABLED
• DISABLED BY JUMPER

See Assigning a Setup Password.

Power Management

POWER MANAGEMENT allows the reduction of system power consumption for certain types of monitors and most IDE hard-disk drives. When it is enabled, these monitors and drives automatically switch into low-power mode during periods of system inactivity.

There are 4 options:

• MAXIMUM
• REGULAR
• MINIMUM
• DISABLED

Power Time-out Periods

Serial Port 1 and Serial Port 2

SERIAL PORT 1 and SERIAL PORT 2 configure the system's built-in serial ports. These categories can be set to AUTO (default) to automatically configure a port to a particular designation (COM1 or COM3 for SERIAL PORT 1; COM2 or COM4 for SERIAL PORT 2) or to OFF to disable a port.

If a serial port is set to AUTO and then an expansion card containing a port configured to the same designation is added, the system automatically remaps the built-in port to the next available port designation that shares the same IRQ setting. That is, COM1 is remapped to COM3; COM2 is remapped to COM4. Note that when 2 COM ports share an IRQ setting, either port can be used as necessary, but both may not be able to be used at the same time. If the alternate port address (COM3 or COM4) is also in use, the built-in port is turned off.

Parallel Port

PARALLEL PORT configures the system's built-in parallel port. This category can be set to 378H, 278H, 3BCH, or to OFF to disable the port.

Parallel Mode

PARALLEL MODE controls the mode used by the system's built-in parallel port.

Options:

• AT (default) (unidirectional)
• PS/2 (bidirectional)

Hard Disk

HARD DISK enables or disables the system's built-in IDE interface.

Selecting AUTO (default) allows the system to turn off the built-in IDE interface as necessary to accommodate a controller card installed in an expansion slot. During the boot routine, the system checks for a primary hard-disk drive controller card installed in an expansion slot. If no card is found, the built-in IDE interface is enabled, and the controller on the master IDE drive is designated as the primary controller using IRQ14.

If a primary controller is found, the built-in IDE interface is disabled.

Selecting OFF disables the built-in ISA IDE interface.

Diskette

DISKETTE controls the operation of the system's built-in diskette drive controller.

With AUTO (default) selected, the system turns off the built-in diskette drive controller as necessary to accommodate a controller card installed in an expansion slot.

With WRITE-PROTECT selected, nothing can be written to diskette drives and tape drives using the system's built-in diskette drive controller. (The system can still read from the drives.)

Selecting OFF turns off the built-in diskette drive controller. This option is used primarily for troubleshooting purposes.

System Data Categories

The following categories (not selectable) display information about the system:

• MICROPROCESSOR displays the type of microprocessor installed in the computer.
• EXTERNAL CACHE displays the amount of external cache memory (128 KB).   NOT INSTALLED is displayed if no
    external cache is installed.
• SYSTEM MEMORY indicates the entire amount of installed memory detected in the system, except for memory
    on EMS expansion cards.
  
  After adding memory, check this category to confirm that the new memory is installed correctly and is  
    recognized by the system.
• SERVICE TAG displays the system's 5-character service tag number, which Dell programmed into NVRAM     
    during the manufacturing process.
• ASSET TAG displays the customer-programmable asset tag number if one has been assigned.