System BIOS: Dell Dimension P133v, P166v, and P200v
System BIOS: Dell™ Dimension™ P133v, P166v, and P200v
Dell System
Identifier String | Dell
System ID Bytes | BIOS Build Date
| POST Messages | Special Keystroke
Combination | Password
The system BIOS is based on an AMI core and is PCI BIOS
2.1-compliant. The BIOS supports large memory via the E8XX
extensions (E820 for the Microsoft� Windows NT� operating
system, E801 for the Microsoft Windows� 95 operating system,
and Int 88 for MS-DOS�). Intel Plug and Play 2.01 and PCI-to-PCI
bridge support are also supported.
The system BIOS resides in a 1-Mb or 2-Mb Flash memory. The
Intel Flash memory has a sectored architecture such that
individual sectors can be erased and reprogrammed without erasing
the contents of the entire chip.
The system BIOS is always shadowed and cached (if supported
through the chip set). The video BIOS on the expansion card can
be set to either On and Cached (shadowed and cached) or Off
(neither shadowed nor cached) via a setup field. The video text
memory block from B0000 to BFFFF is not cached.
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The memory region between
C8000-EFFFF should not be
shadowed except when requested by a PCI card during
configuration for option ROM shadowing. |
Dell System
Identifier String
Every Dell system includes an identifier string ("Dell
System< >CR< LF>< NULL>") located at
F000:E076. This string maintains compatibility with various
software utilities and the Dell UNIX� operating system. The
identifier string is located at address F000:E076:
44 65 6C 6C 20 53 79 73 74 65 6D 0D 0A 00
Dell System ID Bytes
Every Dell system has unique ID bytes located at
F000:E845-E847. The first byte, at E845, is a system identifier.
It is unique to the system type. The second is the hardware
revision level, which changes only when the hardware changes. The
third byte is a checksum byte, which makes the 3 bytes sum to
zero (0). The particular bytes for the Pxxxv are as
follows:
| F000:E845 |
6Ah (= -96h) |
| F000:E846 |
00h |
| F000:E847 |
96h (= -6Ah ) |
Eight ASCII characters representing the BIOS build date are
located at F000:FFF5. The date string takes the form MM/DD/YY.
This build date changes with each release, either production or
otherwise.
POST Messages
AMIBIOS (C) 1992 American Megatrends, Inc,
Copyright (c) 1993 Dell Computer Corp.
All Rights Reserved.
Press <Del> during POST to enter the system setup
program.
Password
For information on using the password feature see
"Securing Your Computer" in the online System User's
Guide.
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