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 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 COM4 for 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 follows:
- 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 Enhanced 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).
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 and ignores any video cards installed in PCI slots. If you have multiple video
cards installed and you are running the Microsoft® Windows® 98 operating system, you can
use this option to set the primary video card.
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.
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)
- 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, or if the drive was
installed by Dell when you purchased your system, access the Manufacturing Test Report
from the Dell Accessories folder.
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 is 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 is the number of
logical cylinders.
- Heads indicates the number
of logical heads in the drive.
- Sectors is 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). |
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 microprocessor for troubleshooting purposes. If the system is having
microprocessor-related problems, you can disable the second microprocessor to see if the
problem is isolated to this microprocessor.
|
NOTE: This
option appears only if the system has two microprocessors. |
The following information about the system
is displayed in the system data area of the System Setup screen:
- The microprocessor type and BIOS level.
- The size of the integrated level 2 (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 Memory also
indicates the number of memory devices installed in the system. To display this
information, highlight System Memory and press <Enter>. Your system
supports a maximum of 32 memory devices. For example, if your system has two Rambus
in-line memory modules (RIMMs) with 16 memory devices each, you cannot install a third
RIMM.
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)
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 the setup password in 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)
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. |
Remote System Alert determines whether the system sends alert
information (such as a chassis intrusion alert when the computer cover has been removed)
over the network to a Dell OpenManage™ server. When Enabled is
selected, the system sends alert information. When Disabled is selected,
the system does not send alert information.
When your system is turned off, it does not send remote system alert information until
the next time the system is turned on.
CPU Serial Number determines whether the microprocessor serial
number(s) (if any) is provided to programs that request it. When Enabled
is selected, the system provides the microprocessor serial number(s) to programs that
request it. When Disabled is selected, the system never provides the
microprocessor 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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