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System Setup Options: Dell Precision™ WorkStation 620 Systems User's Guide
AC Power Recovery determines what happens when you restore AC power to
the system. When you select Off, the system remains off when AC power is
restored. When you select On, the system starts up when AC power is
restored. When you select Last (the default), the system returns to the
power state (on or off) that it was in when AC power was removed.
Asset Tag displays the customer-programmable asset tag number for the
system if an asset tag number is assigned. You can use the Asset Tag utility, which is
included with your software support utilities, to enter an asset tag number up to ten
characters long into nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM).
Auto Power On allows you to set the time and days of the week to turn
on the computer system automatically. You can set Auto Power On to turn
on the system either every day or every Monday through Friday.
 |
NOTE: This feature does not work if you turn off your system using a power strip or surge protector. |
Time is kept in a 24-hour format (hours:minutes). To change the start-up time,
press the right-arrow key to increase the number in the highlighted field or press the
left-arrow key to decrease the number. If you prefer, you can type numbers in both fields.
The default for Auto Power On is Disabled.
Boot Sequence enables you to set the order of the devices from which the system
attempts to boot.
The term boot refers to the system's start-up procedure. When turned on, the
system "bootstraps" itself into an operational state by loading into memory a
small program, which in turn loads the necessary operating system. Boot Sequence
tells the system where to look for the files that it needs to load.
To set the boot device order, press <Enter> to access the field's pop-up options
menu. Press the up- and down-arrow keys to move through the list of devices. Press the
spacebar to enable or disable a device (enabled devices appear with a check mark). Press
plus (+) or minus (–) to move a selected device up or down the list. The following
subsections describe typical boot devices.
Diskette Drive
Selecting Diskette Drive as the first device causes the system to try booting
from drive A first. If the system finds a diskette that is not bootable in the drive or
finds a problem with the drive itself, it displays an error message. If it does not find a
diskette in the drive, the system tries to boot from the next device in the boot sequence
list.
Hard-Disk Drive
Selecting Hard-Disk Drive causes the system to attempt to boot first from the
hard-disk drive and then from the next device in the boot sequence list.
IDE CD-ROM Device
Selecting IDE CD-ROM Device causes the system to try booting from the IDE CD-ROM
drive first. If it does not find a CD in the drive, the system tries to boot from the next
device in the boot sequence list.
AIC-7899 SCSI CD-ROM Drive
Selecting AIC-7899 SCSI CD-ROM Drive causes the system to try booting
from the SCSI CD-ROM drive first. If it does not find a CD in the drive, the system tries
to boot from the next device in the boot sequence list.
MBA
Selecting MBA causes the system to prompt you to press
<Ctrl><Alt><b> at the Dell logo screen during boot. A menu then appears
that allows you to select PXE, RPL, BootP,
or NetWare as the active boot mode. If a boot routine is not available
from the network server, the system tries to boot from the next device in the boot
sequence list.
CPU Information opens a window that allows you to configure or view
the following properties of the installed microprocessor(s):
CPU Speed allows you to configure the internal clock speed of the
installed processor(s). Set this option to Normal for the rated speed, or
to Compatible for a slower compatibility speed.
Bus Speed displays the front-side bus external speed of the installed
processor(s).
Processor 0 ID displays the processor serial number of processor 0.
Clock Speed (under Processor 0 ID) displays the rated
internal speed of processor 0.
Cache Size (under Processor 0 ID) displays the amount
of level-2 (L2) cache for processor 0.
Processor 1 ID displays the processor serial number of processor 1.
Clock Speed (under Processor 1 ID) displays the rated
internal speed of processor 1.
Cache Size (under Processor 1 ID) displays the amount
of L2 cache for processor 1.
Diskette Drive A and Diskette Drive B identify the
type of diskette drives installed in your computer. With the standard cabling
configuration, Diskette Drive A (the boot diskette drive) is the 3.5-inch
diskette drive installed in the top externally accessible drive bay; Diskette
Drive B is a second diskette drive installed in any of the lower externally
accessible drive bays.
The Diskette Drive A and Diskette Drive B options
have the following possible settings:
- 5.25 Inch, 360 KB
- 5.25 Inch, 1.2 MB
- 3.5 Inch, 720 KB
- 3.5 Inch, 1.44 MB
- Not Installed
|
NOTES: Tape drives are not reflected in the Diskette Drive A and Diskette Drive B options. For example, if you have a
single diskette drive and a tape drive attached to the diskette/tape drive interface
cable, set Diskette Drive A to match the characteristics of the diskette
drive and set Diskette Drive B to Not Installed. If
your system has LS-120 SuperDisk drives installed in place of 1.44-MB diskette drives, set
these options to Not Installed.
If your system has a 1.44 MB diskette drive as Diskette Drive A and you install a
SuperDisk LS-120 diskette drive in one of the lower externally accessible drive bays, the
system will automatically assign drive letter B to it. |
Integrated Devices configures the following devices integrated with the system
board:
Press <Enter> to configure these options as explained in the following
subsections.
Sound determines whether the integrated audio controller is On
or Off. The default is On.
Network Interface Controller determines whether the integrated network interface
controller (NIC) is On, Off, or On w/ MBA.
The default is On w/ MBA, which means that the NIC is enabled and set to boot the
system remotely from a network server. If you select On w/ MBA, you are
prompted to press <Ctrl><Alt><b> at the Dell logo screen during boot. A
menu then appears that allows you to select PXE, RPL, BootP,
or NetWare as the active boot mode.
Mouse Port enables or disables the system's integrated Personal
System/2 (PS/2)-compatible mouse port. Disabling the mouse allows an expansion card to use
interrupt request (IRQ)12.
Serial Port 1 and Serial Port 2 configure the
system's integrated serial ports. You can set these options to Auto (the
default) to automatically configure a port, to a particular designation (COM1
or COM3 for Serial Port 1; COM2 or COM4for
Serial Port 2), or to Off to disable the port.
If you set a serial port to Auto and add an expansion card containing
a port configured to the same designation, the system automatically remaps the integrated
port to the next available port designation that shares the same IRQ setting as follows:
- COM1 (input/output [I/O] address 3F8h), which shares IRQ4 with COM3,
is remapped to COM3 (I/O address 3E8h).
- COM2 (I/O address 2F8h), which shares IRQ3 with COM4,
is remapped to COM4 (I/O address 2E8h).
|
NOTE: When two COM ports share an IRQ setting, you can use
either port as necessary, but you may not be able to use them both at the same time. If
the second port (COM3 or COM4) is also in use, the
integrated port is turned off. |
Parallel Port configures the system's integrated parallel port. Press
<Enter> to configure Parallel Port options as explained in the
following subsections.
- Mode You can set this option to PS/2,
EPP, ECP, AT, or Off
to disable the port.
Set this option according to the type of peripheral device connected to the parallel
port. To determine the correct mode to use, see the documentation that came with the
device.
- I/O Address This option determines the I/O
address used by the parallel port and appears except when Mode is set to Off.
You can set I/O Address to 378h (the default), 278h,
or 3BCh.
|
NOTE: Do not set Parallel Port
to 278h if you have an Extended Capabilities Port (ECP) device connected
to the port. |
- DMA Channel This option determines the direct
memory access (DMA) channel used by the parallel port and appears only when Mode
is set to ECP. The available options are DMA 1, DMA
3, and Off.
IDE Drive Interface enables or disables the system's integrated
enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE) hard-disk drive interface.
With Auto (the default) selected, the system turns off the integrated
EIDE interface when necessary to accommodate a controller card installed in an expansion
slot.
As part of the boot routine, the system first checks for a primary hard-disk drive
controller card installed in an expansion slot. If no card is found, the system enables
the integrated EIDE interface to use IRQ14 and IRQ15.
If a primary controller is detected on the expansion bus, the integrated EIDE interface
is disabled.
Selecting Off disables the integrated EIDE interface.
Diskette Interface controls the operation of the system's integrated
diskette drive controller.
With Auto (the default) selected, the system turns off the integrated
diskette drive controller when necessary to accommodate a controller card installed in an
expansion slot.
With Read Only selected, nothing can be written to any diskette drives
and tape drives using the system's integrated diskette/tape drive controller. (The system
can still read from the drives.) When Read Only is selected, Auto
(whereby the system turns off the integrated diskette drive controller as necessary) is
also in effect.
Selecting Off turns off the integrated diskette/tape drive controller;
this setting is used primarily for troubleshooting purposes.
USB Emulation determines whether the system basic input/output system
(BIOS) controls Universal Serial Bus (USB) keyboards and mice. When On is
selected, the system BIOS controls USB keyboards and mice until a USB driver is loaded by
the operating system. When Off is selected (the default), the system BIOS
does not control USB keyboards and mice, though they are functional during the boot
routine. Set USB Emulation to Off if you are using a
Personal System/2 (PS/2)-compatible keyboard and mouse.
PC Speaker determines whether the integrated speaker is On
(the default) or Off. A change to this option takes effect immediately
(rebooting the system is not required).
|
NOTE: The PC
Speaker option in the System Setup program enables or disables the legacy PC
beep. It does not turn the internal monophonic speaker on or off. The BIOS beep codes are
always audible regardless of this option setting. |
Video DAC Snoop lets you correct video problems that may occur when
you use certain video expansion cards. The default is Off. If you are
using a video expansion card and problems such as incorrect colors or blank windows occur,
set Video DAC Snoop to On.
SCSI Controllers turns the integrated SCSI channels On
or Off (the default).
Keyboard NumLock determines whether your system boots with the Num
Lock mode activated on 101- or 102-key keyboards (it does not apply to 84-key keyboards).
When Num Lock mode is activated, the rightmost bank of keys on your keyboard provides
the mathematical and numeric functions shown at the tops of the keys. When Num Lock mode
is turned off, these keys provide cursor-control functions according to the label on the
bottom of each key.
PCI IRQ Assignment specifies which IRQ lines are assigned to the
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) devices installed in the computer. Press
<Enter> to configure these devices. Then select the device whose IRQ line you want
to change, and press the plus (+) or minus (–) key to scroll through the available
IRQ lines. Normally you do not need to change the IRQ lines assigned to PCI devices unless
a particular device, device driver, or operating system requires a specific IRQ line
already in use by a PCI device.
|
NOTE: Manually assigning a particular IRQ line to a device
may cause a conflict with another device trying to use the same IRQ line, which can cause
one of the devices or the system to become unstable or inoperable. |
Primary Drive n identifies drives attached to the primary EIDE
interface connector (labeled "IDE1") on the system board; Secondary
Drive n identifies drives connected to the secondary EIDE interface
connector (labeled "IDE2"). Use the secondary EIDE interface connector for EIDE
CD-ROM and EIDE tape drives.
|
NOTES: For all devices obtained from Dell that use the
integrated EIDE controller, set the appropriate Drive option to Auto.
You must have an EIDE device connected to the primary EIDE interface if you have
an EIDE device connected to the secondary EIDE interface. |
The following settings identify the type of EIDE devices installed in the computer:
- Auto (use this setting for all EIDE devices from Dell)
- Off
- User 1 or User 2
- A specific drive-type number
To choose a setting for each option, press <Enter> to access the field's pop-up
settings menu. Then type characters from the keyboard or press the left- or right-arrow
key to cycle through the settings.
A drive-type number specifies the parameters of a hard-disk drive, based on a
table recorded in the system's BIOS.
|
NOTE: Operating systems that bypass the system BIOS may not
obtain optimum hard-disk drive performance. |
If the system generates a drive error message the first time you boot your system after
you install an EIDE drive, it may mean that your particular drive does not work with the
automatic drive-type detect feature. If you suspect that your problem is related to drive
type, try entering your drive-type information in one of the following ways:
Use the drive-type number you found in the documentation that came with the drive.
To set the drive-type number in System Setup, highlight the appropriate drive option (Primary
Drive 0 or Primary Drive 1) and type the correct drive-type
number. If you prefer, you can press the right- or left-arrow key to increase or decrease,
respectively, the drive-type number until the correct one is displayed.
The Drive 0 and Drive 1 options display the following
parameters for each drive:
- Drive Type indicates the drive-type number for the selected hard-disk
drive.
- Capacity (automatically calculated by the system) indicates the number
of millions of bytes of storage provided by the drive.
- Cylinders indicates the number of logical cylinders.
- Heads indicates the number of logical heads in the drive.
- Sectors indicates the number of logical sectors per track.
If none of the supported drive types match the parameters of your new drive, you can
enter your own parameters. To do so, highlight the Drive 0 option and
type u to display User 1. You can then
press the right-or left-arrow key to switch between the User 1 and User
2 settings (only two user-defined drive types are allowed). Then press
<Tab> to highlight each of the parameter fields in succession, and enter the
appropriate number for each field.
|
NOTE: You can use the User 1 and User
2 drive types for both the Primary and Secondary Drive 0
and Drive 1 options. However, if you select the User 1
or User 2 drive type, you may not obtain optimum hard-disk drive
performance. Also, you cannot use the User 1 and User 2
drive types for hard-disk drives with a storage capacity that is greater than 528
megabytes (MB). |
Primary Video Controller determines whether the system looks for a
video card in a PCI slot during the boot routine. When Auto is selected,
the system uses any PCI video card it finds during the boot routine. If no PCI video card
is found, the system uses the video card in the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) slot. When
AGP is selected, the system uses the video card in the AGP slot as the
primary video controller. If you have both a PCI and an AGP card, setting this option to Auto
designates the PCI card as primary video; setting it to AGP designates
the AGP card as primary video.
Remote Wake Up allows you to set the Remote Wake Up feature to On
or Off. You must reboot your system before a change takes effect.
Report Keyboard Errors enables or disables reporting of keyboard
errors during the power-on self-test (POST), which is a series of tests that the system
performs on the hardware each time you turn on the system or press the reset button.
This option is useful when applied to self-starting servers or host systems that have
no permanently attached keyboard. In these situations, selecting Do Not Report
suppresses all error messages relating to the keyboard or to the keyboard controller
during POST. This setting does not affect the operation of the keyboard itself if a
keyboard is attached to the computer.
Second Processor enables or disables a second processor for
troubleshooting purposes. If the system is having processor-related problems, you can
disable the second processor to see if the problem is isolated to this processor. This
option appears only if the system has two processors.
The following information about the system is displayed in the system data area of the System
Setup screen:
- The processor type and BIOS level.
- The size of the integrated L2 cache.
- The system's five-character service tag number, which was programmed into NVRAM by Dell
during the manufacturing process. Refer to this number during technical assistance or
service calls. The service tag number is also accessed by certain Dell support software,
including the diagnostics software.
System Date resets the date on the computer's internal calendar.
Your system automatically displays the day of the week corresponding to the settings in
the month, day-of-month, and year
fields.
To change the date, press the left- or right-arrow key to select a field, and then
press plus (+) or minus (–) to increase or decrease the number. If you prefer, you
can type numbers in the month, day-of-month,
and year fields.
System Memory indicates the entire amount of installed memory detected
in your system. After you add memory, check this option to confirm that the new memory is
installed correctly and is recognized by the system.
System Security configures the following password and chassis intrusion options:
Press <Enter> to configure these options as explained in the following
subsections.
System Password displays the current status of your system's password
security feature and allows you to assign and verify a new password. No one can assign a
new password unless the current status is Not Enabled, which is displayed
in bright characters.
The System Password option has the following settings:
- Not Enabled (the default)
- Enabled
- Disabled by Jumper
When Setup Password is set to Enabled, Password
Status allows you to prevent the system password from being changed or disabled
at system start-up.
To lock the system password, you must first assign a setup password in Setup
Password and then change the Password Status option to Locked.
When Setup Password has a password assigned and Password Status
is set to Locked, the system password cannot be changed through the System
Password option and cannot be disabled at system start-up by pressing
<Ctrl><Enter>.
To unlock the system password, you must enter Setup Password and then
change the Password Status option to Unlocked. When the
option is set to Unlocked, you can disable the system password at system
start-up by pressing <Ctrl><Enter>. Then change the password through the System
Password option.
Setup Password lets you restrict access to System Setup in the same
way that you restrict access to your system with the system password feature. The settings
are:
- Not Enabled (the default)
- Enabled
- Disabled by Jumper
Chassis Intrusion displays the status of the system chassis intrusion monitor
and can be set to Enabled, Enabled-Silent, or Disabled. The default is Enabled.
If the computer cover is removed while the intrusion monitor is set to Enabled,
a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) event is generated, the setting changes to Detected,
and the following message appears during the boot routine at the next system start-up:
Alert! Cover was previously removed.
If the computer cover is removed while the intrusion monitor is set to Enabled-Silent,
a DMI event is generated and the setting changes to Detected, but the alert message
does not appear during the boot sequence at the next system start-up.
If the intrusion monitor is set to Disabled, no intrusion monitoring occurs and
no messages appear.
To reset the Detected setting, enter System Setup during the system's POST. In
the Chassis Intrusion option, press the left- or right-arrow key to select Reset,
and then choose Enabled, Enabled-Silent, or Disabled.
|
NOTE: When the setup password is enabled, you must know the
setup password before you can reset the Chassis Intrusion option. |
CPU Serial Number determines whether the processor serial number(s)
(if any) is provided to programs that request it. When Enabled is
selected, the system provides the processor serial number(s) to programs that request it.
When Disabled is selected, the system never provides the processor serial
number(s). The default is Disabled.
System 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,
press the left- or right-arrow key to select a field, and then press plus (+) or minus
(–) to increase or decrease the number. If you prefer, you can type numbers in each
of the fields.
ZIP Floppy Support enables or disables the support of Advanced
Technology Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) ZIP devices by the system BIOS. When Enabled
is selected, ATAPI ZIP devices are supported as diskette drives, and the first ZIP device
is listed as a bootable device under Boot Sequence.
When Disabled is selected, the system BIOS ignores ATAPI ZIP devices,
though the operating system may still support them.
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