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Award BIOS Setup
Notice
The informa tion in this guide is subject to cha nge without notice.
The softwa re described in this guide is furnished under a license a greement a nd
ma y be used or copied only in a ccorda nce with the terms of the a greement.
Awa rd Softwa re, Inc. sha ll not be lia ble for technica l or editoria l omissions ma de
herein; nor for incidenta l or consequentia l da mages resulting from the furnishing,
performa nce, or use of this ma teria l.
This guide conta ins informa tion protected by copyright. No pa rt of this guide
ma y be photocopied or reproduced in a ny form without prior written consent
from Awa rd Softwa re, Inc.
Introduction
This section discusses Awa rd's Setup progra m built into the ROM BIOS. The
Setup progra m a llows users to modify the ba sic system configura tion. This
specia l informa tion is then stored in ba ttery-ba cked RAM so tha t it reta ins the
Setup informa tion when the power is turned off.
The Awa rd BIOS insta lled in your computer system ROM (Rea d Only Memory)
is a custom version of a n industry sta nda rd BIOS. This mea ns tha t it supports
Intel/ Cyrix/ AMD processors in a sta nda rd IBM-AT compa tible input/output
system. The BIOS provides critica l low-level support for sta nda rd devices such
a s disk drives a nd seria l a nd pa ra llel ports.
The Awa rd BIOS ha s been customized by a dding importa nt, but non -sta nda rd,
fea tures such a s virus a nd pa ssword protection a s well a s specia l support for
deta iled fine-tuning of the chipset controlling the entire system.
The rest of this ma nual is intended to guide you through the process of
configuring your system using Setup.
Starting Setup
The Awa rd BIOS is immedia tely a ctiva ted when you first power on the computer.
The BIOS rea ds the system informa tion conta ined in the CMOS a nd begins the
process of checking out the system a nd configuring it. When it finishes, the
BIOS will seek a n opera ting system on one of the disks a nd then la unch a nd turn
control over to the opera ting system.
While the BIOS is in control, the Setup progra m ca n be a ctiva ted in one of two
wa ys: