Setting up the BIOS.

JellyMonsta · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:06

Well im building a new rig for christmas, and im confident in building one, but the only thing im not sure about is setting up the BIOS just need some help.

1) How easy is it?
2) Do i need anything to do it?
3) What if something goes wrong?

4T5 · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:14

1. **** easy.
2. Eyes & 1 finger.
3. Remove battery & start again, Yayyyyyy.

RJC · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:16

I agree with malc30 there, if in doubt check the manual or ask here

JellyMonsta · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:17

Ahh cheers.

The Halk · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:17

In order to get your PC to work probably the only BIOS setting needed is the boot order if you have more than one hard drive.

Other than that it's optimisation.

JellyMonsta · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:23

So if i get my PC working and the BIOS comes up, shall i just save and install the OS?

The Halk · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:25

The BIOS won't come up, it'll likely just "post" and go looking for the OS. Generally they're set to look to the CD/DVD as the first device in boot order. So if it all works you'll turn it on, stick in the OS CD/DVD and it'll say press a key to boot from CD, and you're in.

RJC · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:27

Before switching the pc on for the first time I tend to do a CMOS reset, start the PC and some information comes regards the BIOS press del to enter and like The Halk mentioned change the boot priorty to DVD drive, put the windows disc in and save, the pc will reboot and should load form the disc.

Nethesem · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:28

Vast majority of the time, you can leave all BIOS settings at their defaults.

There's a few preferences you could set, or some tweaks to change the behaviour, but you're not required to change anything most of the time.

4T5 · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:34

Once you've installed the OS all you will need to do is pop into the Bios & change the boot order & if you have installed a Sound card Disable onboard sound. Run your system for a couple of days & get familair with your System & your Bios @ default. Once you feel confident then Tweak & drop back to your familiar/default settings when things go **** up.
Simple as that really.

The Halk · 15 Dec 2008 at 19:40

If I was in your position the first thing I would do before installing the OS is go into the BIOS and disable every function that I won't be using.

Firewire, serial port, RAID (if I'm not using it), onboard sound, onboard graphics, etc etc.

The reason for this is it means Windows will never install drivers for them, as they won't be found as present.

It's not required, it's just something I do to stop a cluttered Windows install.

If you really want to go the whole distance, then you can look at nLite and getting rid of a lot of Windows stuff that isn't needed.

But just to repeat - you don't need to do anything