============================================== BIOS setup for eComStation 2.x 2009/02 ============================================== 1. ACPI settings: * ACPI APIC - enable APIC -- allow usage of high IRQ Enable it on SMP machines with SMP kernel * ACPI enable: * ACPI Feature: Y/N -- YES * Enable ACPI 3.0 -- YES (if no 3.0 then Enable ACPI 2.0 -- YES) * APIC Mode: Disabled/Off/No. -- APIC is supported for SMP kernel and multi-core CPU. * HyperThreading -- disable it, it is not stable. 2. USB Legacy * Please disable USB Legacy. It's very critical for ACPI. 3. Suspend/resume Important for suspend/resume: * "Init video BIOS after S3" - yes * suspend "S1&S3" -- enable 4. Power management: * Power Managment -- turn off * Make BIOS controller the coolers, don't ask eComStation do this. * Turn off all wakeups from external events. wakeup at modem = off wakeup at netcard = off 5. SATA controller: * Set SATA controller mode / operation to "Serial ATA" / "Compatible" Never keep AUTO / "Automatic" / "Enhanced" 6. IRQs: * Before ACPI installation go to BIOS Setup and switch IRQ 3,5,7 to Legacy (= Reserved, = ISA) Else some PCI devices may occupy low IRQs and bring troubles * manual/auto PCI resource = manual ============================================== // This recommendations may conflict with new recommendations. BIOS recommendations for eCS v1.2.x / also applies to eComStation 2.0 beta 2 By Nick Morrow, 14 Oct 2005 ============================================== Warning: It is recommended that you make a backup of your hard disk before changing BIOS settings. Warning: It is recommended that only users who really understand what they are doing change advanced BIOS settings. Changing advanced settings can lead to system instability and data loss. Proceed at your own risk. Enter your BIOS setup by pressing the appropriate key (usually Del, Esc, F1, F2 or Ctrl+Alt+S) specified in your computer/motherboard manual during the bootup POST (Power On Self Test) screen. Once at the initial BIOS setup screen you may need to navigate to additional screens to find the specific items shown below. The recommended settings shown below are based on actually experience and reports from numerous users. It is thought that these settings are best in most situations, however, the complexity of the PC platform is such that it might be necessary to try different settings to discover what works best for you: Hyper-Threading Technology: Disabled/Off/No. eCS will perform at its maximum capability with this item set to Disabled. The setting may remain Enabled with a slight decrease in performance as the only adverse effect. APIC Mode: Disabled/Off/No. eCS does not support IRQ values above 15. OS Select for DRAM > 64MB: Non-OS/2. eCS, while based on an OS/2 core, does not require this item to be set to OS/2. Only very old versions of OS/2 require this item to be set to OS/2. Plug and Play Aware OS: Disabled/Off/No. There have been reports of problems fixed if this setting is set to Yes so as a general rule use No for this setting but you may need to try Yes if specific problems remain unfixed. Resources Controlled By: AUTO(ESCD) unless you have a non-PnP ISA card installed. This setting tells the computer to either set IRQs automatically or to allow for all devices to be assigned IRQs manually. Manual IRQ selection should only be necessary if you have an old non-PnP ISA card installed. If this is the case then you should use the Manual setting and additionally set the IRQ used by the card as not available. Examples of old ISA cards: - Adaptec 152x series SCSI adapter. This card was included with many scanners over the years. The IRQ is set on these cards via jumper and is commonly set to IRQ 11. - Sound blaster sound card. Many models of this series of cards predate PnP capability. The IRQ is set on these cards via jumper and is commonly set to IRQ 5. USB Controller: Enabled/On/Yes. Reports from users with certain motherboards indicate that when adding a PCI USB 2.0 add-in card if the onboard USB controller is Disabled in the BIOS the add-in card will not function. USB 2.0 Controller: Enabled/On/Yes. Legacy USB support: Disabled/Off/No. This setting is known to cause problems if set to YES on operating systems, including eCS, that include USB support. USB Mouse Support: Disabled/Off/No. Same as Legacy USB support. USB Keyboard Support: Disabled/Off/No. Same as Legacy USB support. Reset Configuration Data: Enabled/On/Yes. If you have changed hardware or are experiencing hardware related problems you should set this setting to Enabled to allow the system to attempt to reset configuration data. The setting should automatically revert to Disabled during a reboot. Boot Virus Detection: Disabled/Off/No. Some systems may not handle the eCS boot code well if this setting is enabled. CPU Level 1 Cache: Enabled/On/Yes. CPU Level 2 Cache: Enabled/On/Yes. System BIOS Cacheable: Disabled/Off/No. This is a great feature to enable for those still using DOS but it provides little benefit when used with eCS. Video RAM Cacheable: Disabled/Off/No. Same as System BIOS Cacheable. Onboard Serial Port 1: 3F8/IRQ4. Do not use AUTO. If you do not use this serial port, disable it and free up the resources. On the other hand, if you do use this serial port, then this option should be set to 3F8/IRQ4. Onboard Serial Port 2: 2F8/IRQ3. Do not use AUTO. If you do not use this serial port, disable it and free up the resources. On the other hand, if you do use this serial port, then this option should be set to 2F8/IRQ3. Onboard Parallel Port: 378/IRQ7. Do not use AUTO. This setting lets you decide whether to select parallel port resources or disable the parallel port completely. If you have nothing plugged into the parallel port, disabling it will free up valuable system resources. But if you use the parallel port, then it is recommended that you set it to 378/IRQ7. Parallel Port Mode: EPP. If the parallel port is enabled, you should configure it to run in EPP (enhanced parallel port) or ECP (enhanced capabilities port) mode. EPP mode is recommended if the system has just one device, such as a printer, plugged into its parallel port. Select ECP if you have daisy-chained more than one device -- such as an external Zip drive and a printer. To take full advantage of these settings, make sure you're using IEEE-1284-compliant parallel cables. ACPI Suspend to RAM: S1/POS. ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface - not to be confused with APIC or IPCA, which some people may find as options in their BIOS setup programs. The Suspend to RAM feature, sometimes referred to as S3/STR, is not supported by eCS at this point therefore it is recommended to set S1/POS. An ACPI driver is in testing at this point but it is not known what power saving features will be in the final version at this point and this driver has yet to be included in any version of eCS as of the date of this document. Video Off Method: DPMS. The DPMS (Display Power Management System) option allows the BIOS to control the video display card if it supports the DPMS feature. The Blank Screen option simply blanks the screen -- use this for monitors without either power-management or "green" features. The V/H SYNC Blank option blanks the screen and turns off vertical and horizontal scanning. If your and monitor supports DPMS then it is recommended to DPMS. The preferred method of using DPMS support is to use the DDSAVER Screen Saver as it has excellent DPMS support that is easy to configure directly from the operating system.. HDD Down In Suspend: Disabled/Off/No. A better alternative to power managing your hard drives is to set the /IT:? parameter on the DANIS506.ADD driver. Speeding up your boot: On most systems on the page where you set the date and time you can define the specifics of your hard drives and other storage devices installed in the PC. Each time the PC boots, it most likely has to auto-detect and determine what storage devices are installed on the system. While this takes only a small amount of time, if you define the specifics rather than use auto-detection, your boot-up will be that quicker. Highlight the drive you wish to configure and press Enter. Then write down the numbers currently displayed for the Cylinders, Heads, Sectors, and LBA. On some BIOSes, you'll also have options for Block Mode as well as 32-Bit Transfer Mode. Change the drive type from AUTO to USER/MANUAL. Then key the numbers and options in exactly as they were displayed. On most modern computers, you will want LBA Mode, Block Mode, and 32-bit Transfer Mode all turned ON for your hard disk drive, even if they weren't before. If there is no device attached to any one of the four possible drive location combinations, select NONE. For example, if you have one hard drive configured as a Primary Master and one CD-RW configured as a Secondary Master, be sure to set both the Primary and Secondary Slave options to NONE. If you leave the AUTO setting where there is no device, the computer will always look to see if a device is plugged in at that location each time the computer boots. By changing this setting to NONE, the computer will boot slightly faster. Quick Power On Self Test: Enabled. This will skip the repetitive memory check that occurs when you turn on your PC; chances are that if you really do have bad memory, this basic test probably won't catch it anyway. [EOF]