User manual ASUS A8N-VM

[. . . ] Motherboard A8N-VM E2295 Revised Edition V2 October 2005 Copyright © 2005 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes, without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modified or altered, unless such repair, modification of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the product is defaced or missing. ASUS PROVIDES THIS MANUAL "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. [. . . ] Reset button (Blue 2-pin RESET) This 2-pin connector is for the chassis-mounted reset button for system reboot without turning off the system power. · 1-28 Chapter 1: Product introduction Reset Ground PWR Ground This chapter tells how to change the system settings through the BIOS Setup menus. Detailed descriptions of the BIOS parameters are also provided. BIOS setup 2 2. 1 Managing and updating your BIOS The following utilities allow you to manage and update the motherboard Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) setup. ASUS floppy ASUS A F U D O S (Updates the BIOS in DOS mode using a bootable disk. ) E Z F l a s h (Updates the BIOS using a floppy disk during POST. ) A S U S C r a s h F r e e B I O S 2 (Updates the BIOS using a bootable floppy disk or the motherboard support CD when the BIOS file fails or gets corrupted. ) A S U S U p d a t e (Updates the BIOS in Windows® environment. ) 4. Refer to the corresponding sections for details on these utilities. Save a copy of the original motherboard BIOS file to a bootable floppy disk in case you need to restore the BIOS in the future. Copy the original motherboard BIOS using the ASUS Update or AFUDOS utilities. 2. 1. 1 1. Creating a bootable floppy disk Do either one of the following to create a bootable floppy disk. DOS environment a. At the DOS prompt, type format A:/S then press <Enter>. Windows® XP environment a. Click F i l e from the menu, then select F o r m a t A F o r m a t 3 1 / 2 F l o p p y D i s k window appears. Select C r e a t e a n M S - D O S s t a r t u p d i s k from the format options field, then click S t a r t t. Windows® 2000 environment To create a set of boot disks for Windows® 2000: a. Click S t a r t then select R u n t, n. 2-2 Chapter 2: BIOS setup d. From the Open field, type D:\bootdisk\makeboot a: assuming that D: is your optical drive. Copy the original or the latest motherboard BIOS file to the bootable floppy disk. 2. 1. 2 ASUS EZ Flash utility The ASUS EZ Flash feature allows you to update the BIOS without having to go through the long process of booting from a floppy disk and using a DOS-based utility. The EZ Flash utility is built-in the BIOS chip so it is accessible by pressing <Alt> + <F2> during the Power-On Self Tests (POST). Visit the ASUS website (www. asus. com) to download the latest BIOS file for the motherboard and rename the same to A 8 N V M . Press <Alt> + <F2> during POST to display the following. EZFlash starting BIOS update Checking for floppy. . . 4. Insert the floppy disk that contains the BIOS file to the floppy disk drive. When the correct BIOS file is found, EZ Flash performs the BIOS update process and automatically reboots the system when done. EZFlash starting BIOS update Checking for floppy. . . Rebooting. · · Do not shut down or reset the system while updating the BIOS to prevent system boot failure!A "Floppy not found!" error message appears if there is no floppy disk in the drive. A "A8NVM. ROM not found!" error message appears if the correct BIOS file is not found in the floppy disk. Make sure that you rename the BIOS file to A8NVM. ROM. ASUS A8N-VM 2-3 2. 1. 3 AFUDOS utility The AFUDOS utility allows you to update the BIOS file in DOS environment using a bootable floppy disk with the updated BIOS file. This utility also allows you to copy the current BIOS file that you can use as backup when the BIOS fails or gets corrupted during the updating process. Copying the current BIOS To copy the current BIOS file using the AFUDOS utility: · · Make sure that the floppy disk is not write-protected and has at least 600 KB free space to save the file. The actual BIOS screen displays may not be exactly the same as shown. 1. 2. Copy the AFUDOS utility (afudos. exe) from the motherboard support CD to the bootable floppy disk you created earlier. Boot the system in DOS mode, then at the prompt type: afudos /o[filename] where the [filename] is any user-assigned filename not more than eight alphanumeric characters for the main filename and three alphanumeric characters for the extension name. A:\>afudos /oOLDBIOS1. ROM Main filename Extension name 3. Press <Enter>. [. . . ] Select one of the options from this menu or <F10> from the legend bar to exit. 2-38 Chapter 2: BIOS setup Exit & Save Changes Once you are finished making your selections, choose this option from the Exit menu to ensure the values you selected are saved to the CMOS RAM. An onboard backup battery sustains the CMOS RAM so it stays on even when the PC is turned off. Select [ O k ] to save changes and exit. If you attempt to exit the Setup program without saving your changes, the program prompts you with a message asking if you want to save your changes before exiting. Press <Enter> to save the changes while exiting. Exit & Discard Changes Select this option only if you do not want to save the changes that you made to the Setup program. [. . . ]