Setting up the bios on the Asus motherboard
What is the BIOS
Not to quote wikipedia and to speak in simple words. BIOS is needed for correct operation of the computer hardware and operating system. It is located in the motherboard chip and does not depend on what operating system will be installed. Some manufacturers install multiple copies of BIOS on their motherboards to be able to restore the original software version in case of trouble. The BIOS is rather difficult to disable: it is protected from inexperienced users. However, it often becomes defective during firmware upgrades. But to everything in due time, we will talk about it below.
The BIOS can be useful if you want to overclock your CPU or RAM. Their parameters, such as frequency and voltage cannot be changed with any program. But not all hardware is overclockable. So the most common use of BIOS is to reinstall the operating system. In some cases it is possible to install using the operating system interface, but what to do if the OS shows no signs of life? There is only one way out. BIOS.
But the capabilities of the API are expanding every year. In the past motherboards offered practically no features for the user. Most of the time it came down to a simple monitoring of system indicators. But nowadays the functionality is much wider.
How to enter the BIOS (UEFI) on Asus notebooks
Asus laptops are among the leaders in the market today (good value for money). Since they are in demand there are always lots of questions about them.
In today’s article I want to touch upon one of them. namely, the BIOS (or UEFI on newer devices) login. Most often it is needed to boot from an installation flash (for example to update/install Windows), to disable some devices, to view the model of hardware, etc.д.
Note. : the article abounds with explanatory screenshots. Some of the details you see in the screenshots may be slightly different from yours, depending on the software version of your device (but all steps will be similar for laptops of this brand).
How to enter the BIOS motherboard Asus
In this article I will outline step by step the process of updating the BIOS BIOS for Asus motherboards. How to update the BIOS of the motherboard on your laptop fan (t.е. from a bootable flash drive or. Trouble to enter the BIOS, the Asus motherboard. The motherboard how to enter BIOS. When to enter. Answer@: How to enter the BIOS of your Asus motherboard. Modern motherboards Asus is an implementation of the standard UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which has replaced the conventional system BIOS (if you have an ancient version of the BIOS Annotation on its upgrade in the article. BIOS Update on Asus motherboards fear). Installing the RAM in a 4 Gb Asus laptop In the video shows how to add memory on your own laptop Asus. How to update the BIOS of your motherboard | remontka.pro. One of the visible to the naked eye advantage of UEFI BIOS is support not only keyboard and mouse. How to enter the BIOS on Lenovo? To enter the BIOS on Lenovo need to And enter the BIOS usually can. After rebooting you will see a menu like in the picture above. ?? RETURN MONEY FROM BUYING Into Asus X541N UEFI only BIOS as motherboard BIOS. In it, you can select Use Device if you need to boot from a USB drive or disk and enter the BIOS. Thus, the BIOS interface has become as comfortable as the interfaces of ordinary programs.
As in the classic BIOS to update the firmware is easy enough using the built-in utility Asus EZ Flash 2. One more option how to enter the BIOS on my Lenovo g580 laptop I can’t enter the BIOS is not one of. How to enter the BIOS To enter the BIOS of your Asus laptop: Lethal for the motherboard. Problematic to enter the BIOS, Asus board In order to update the firmware of the motherboard first need to find out its model, you can use standard tools / programs or enter the BIOS / UEFI, pressing the F2 or Del button when booting your computer / laptop and behold the model and version BIOS.
Now go to the official website Asus (I recommend that you log on to the English website Asus because in Russian may not be an update for your motherboard) and use the search to find the model of motherboard, select the tab “Support”. “Driver Tools”, select your own version of the operating system in the “BIOS” and download the latest version of the firmware.
Login to BIOS/UEFI: options
The way to start this article is not with the BIOS setup, but with how to get into it #x1f440;. This is also not so obvious and easy for an inexperienced user.
In general, everything boils down to (usually) immediately after turning on your computer/laptop, as long as you see only the first logo on startup, press the special “BIOS” button. key (preferably a few times). If you have pressed the right key. you will see the cherished BIOS settings window.
The most common keys to enter the BIOS are: F2, Esc, Del. If you have a laptop. it is possible that they should be pressed together with the Fn button (i.e.е., e.g. FnF2). It depends on the keyboard settings in the same BIOS.
The main difficulty is that there is no single key to enter the BIOS! Each manufacturer has. can be their own specials. keys (sometimes a combination of 3 or 4 keys!).
Below I will give some variants of how you can enter BIOS, and give some links to articles where you can find out these cherished keys.
If you have Windows 8/10/11 installed on your computer. You do not need to make guesses about keys at all, you can enter BIOS from the OS interface. This is quite easy to do, see. the manual linked below.
#x1f449; To help you!
How to enter UEFI (BIOS) from the Windows 8, 10/11 interface (without using special tools). keys F2, Del, etc.).
To find out the key to enter the BIOS. You can use the documentation (that came with your device when you bought it) or the special. Tables and specifications (there are a lot of them on the Internet).
I also have some tables and instructions on my blog, maybe you can learn something there.
#x1f449; Instructions!
1) How to enter BIOS or UEFI. see “To enter BIOS or UEFI. instructions
2) Tables with buttons to enter BIOS / Boot Menu for different PC manufacturers.
Note the first screen that appears immediately after you reboot your computer (to see the first screen. Restart the computer, not turn it on. ).
If you don’t have time to see the “first” screen (or read the information on it). Press Pause (Break) key.
If you have time to do it. then the screen will “freeze” and wait for you to press again (t.е. you will be able to read and examine everything).
The screenshot below shows the AMI BIOS welcome screen: F2 or Del are the keys to enter the BIOS settings.to run Setup).
AMI BIOS: Key F2. To enter the BIOS setup.
On some laptops (Lenovo, for example) there is a special way to enter the BIOS. buttons to enter the BIOS (they are usually small, and are located either next to the power button or next to the power jack).
Lenovo B70. The button to enter the BIOS is next to the power input. It is best to press with a pencil or pen
Press them with a pen (or pencil) when the notebook is turned off. After clicking on it, the device will turn on and you will be presented with the boot menu (from which you can go to the BIOS).
Boot Menu / Lenovo (as an example)
The Main Menu section
Let’s start with the MAIN section, which is used to modify the hard drive settings and adjust the timings.
Here you can adjust time and date of your computer by yourself and also make settings of connected hard disks and other drives.
To reformat the HDD operation mode you need to select the hard disk (e.g. “SATA 1” as shown in the picture).
Next, you will be able to make changes to the following items:
- Type. this item specifies the type of the connected hard drive;
- LBA Large Mode. to support drives larger than 504 Mbytes. So the recommended value here is AUTO.
- Block (Multi-Sector Transfer). For faster operation it is recommended to choose AUTO here;
- PIO Mode. turns on the hard drive in legacy mode of data exchange. Here, it will be better to select AUTO;
- DMA Mode. Gives direct access to the memory. To get higher read or write speeds we recommend to choose AUTO;
- Smart monitoring. this technology, based on an analysis of the drive’s performance, is able to warn about the possible failure of the drive in the near future;
- 32 bit Data Transfer. this option determines whether the standard IDE/SATA chipset controller will use 32-bit data transfer mode.
Use “ENTER” and the arrow keys to set the Auto mode everywhere. The exception is the 32 Bit Transfer subsection which needs the Enabled setting to be locked.
Laptop UEFI settings (in pictures): deciphering of basic settings
Good day to all!
In recent years instead of all familiar BIOS on computers and laptops began to appear UEFI (in brief, the usual user does not differ much: the ability to control the mouse, a graphical interface, support for drives over 2 TB, and the need to prepare an installation flash drive in a special way).
Despite the fact that the BIOS and UEFI seem to be similar, but many users (when confronted with them for the first time) get confused. In my articles I also often use various settings from UEFI and the appearance of such a note looks quite logical (there will be a link, where you can specify what this or that parameter means).
Note: the photos and screenshots in the article about UEFI settings are from an Asus laptop (ZenBook line). The main sections and parameters in most devices will be identical (although of course there can be differences, it’s not realistic to give a universal version).
AMI BIOS 2 settings.5x/2.6x on Asus motherboards
AMI BIOS version 2.5x/2.6x is also common on modern Asus motherboards. Main difference from most other vendors modified BIOS Setup utility interface. So it makes sense to consider it separately.
A similar realization of AMI BIOS version 2.5x/2.6x can be found on some other manufacturers’ motherboards. First of all it is of course Asus subsidiary ASRock. But sometimes Biostar uses a similar BIOS Setup interface.
Main Menu
In contrast to the previously discussed versions of AMI BIOS, implementation of AMI BIOS 2.5x/2.6x on Asus motherboards does not have a separate screen with the main menu. The main menu is a line at the top of the screen, allowing you to quickly get to any item.
After calling BIOS Setup, the Main item is activated. With the help of the options of this section you can:
Advanced
Advanced is probably the most configurable part of the BIOS. It consists of several sub-sections that include similar options:
extra features of the motherboard, such as playing music without loading the OS, boot tracking, etc.п.
Power
The Power section focuses on all options responsible for advanced power management and system monitoring:
Boot Boot contains options that determine the boot sequence:
The last section Exit allows you to save your changes and exit BIOS Setup, discard changes you made and finish BIOS Setup, discard changes you made, or load BIOS Setup settings, which guarantees the normal operation of the computer hardware.
Advanced menu items
Almost all modern Asus boards contain a Tools section which groups the options to work with BIOS Setup profiles and to activate the built-in BIOS update utility. This is also where you can find the settings for the motherboard’s advanced features.
Midrange products often feature an Ai Tweaker section, which carries over most of the overclocking related options. On higher level motherboards this section is called Extreme Tweaker which increases the number of available settings.
Controls
In BIOS Setup on Asus mainboards the following conventions are adopted. The selection of one or another main menu item is carried out using the cursor keys left и right. In this case the options specific to this section will be highlighted. Selecting a specific option: arrow keys up и down. If an option contains several values (e.g. date or time), you can switch between the individual fields by pressing the Tab.
To change the option values, use the и – on the extended keyboard. If you want to see all the values available for this option, press Enter : This will bring up a small menu, where the keys up и down you can select the appropriate option.
If there is a triangle symbol to the left of the option name, when you select it and press the Enter you will be taken to a submenu (e.g. Fig. 6 shows the Primary IDE Master submenu of the Main item). Exit to top level key Esc.
If there are too many options in a section or menu and they do not fit on the screen, a vertical scroll bar appears to the right of them, indicating this fact.
the key F10 allows you to save your changes at any time and exit BIOS Setup, Esc, If you are in a top level menu, discard the changes you made and exit BIOS Setup. In the submenus, as already mentioned, Esc allows to go back to the upper level.
BIOS secrets
Your computer BIOS hides a lot of reserves for system optimization. After tuning your PC will run faster, more stable, more power efficient, and quieter. You get extra processor power and save over 1000!
Your computer BIOS hides a lot of potential for system optimization. Once tuned your PC will run faster, more stable, more power efficient and quieter. You get extra processor power and save 1000 dollars!
Hibernate Selecting Timings Auto Restart Setting SATa In this article
- 13 of the most interesting BIOS options
- Flashing: three ways to update your BIOS
- Extreme tuning: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
- EFI: BIOS of the future
A stark blue screen with a low resolution, mysterious designations, obscure technical terms in English. this is how a novice user usually perceives BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). But even professionals are often stumped by this feature. Pressing the “Delete” key (on a desktop) or the “F2” key (on a laptop) immediately after starting the computer will open the BIOS setup menu. To exit it you usually have to press the “Esc” or “F10” key (saving your changes). By accurately adjusting BIOS you will obtain the full potential of your hardware and will achieve such success from your PC, that you probably never dreamed you would have.
In this article we will describe the most important BIOS settings and show you what you can do to speed up (sometimes dramatically) your computer. Note: Some BIOS menu items may differ depending on the model of your motherboard. We mention them as suggested by the leading manufacturers of the boards. Note, however, that even in different versions of the same manufacturer, the names may vary depending on the version of the BIOS and model of the “motherboard. However, if you know English at least a little bit you will certainly understand what inscriptions in your PC BIOS correspond to those mentioned in our article.
(Insert) BIOS: disaster recovery
If the computer does not want to start after making changes in the BIOS configuration, try to reset it to default by undoing all the changes you made (the “Reset” function). To do that, unplug the PC and place the jumper on the motherboard in the “Reset” position (see “Normal Active, Working” on page 48). motherboard manual), and then reset the jumper. You can also remove the battery that powers the BIOS chip for about 30 seconds, and then reinsert it.
Activating Idle Mode
ACPI Suspend Type, ACPI Suspend Mode, Standby Mode The computer may be in different states, depending on whether you are doing something on it, whether you left it unattended a long time ago. The normal active, working state under the operating system is indicated in the BIOS as “SO”. The mode to which the system is put during a short-term halt in operation, and from which it can quickly exit, is called “S1”.
The third option, where all open files are written from the main memory to the hard drive, and power consumption is practically zero, is designated as “S3. By default the BIOS is often set to activate only the S1 mode. In this mode the computer “wakes up” faster, but consumes much more power than in the other modes.
CHIP RECOMMENDED It is better to choose “Auto” or “S1S3”: then the operating system can choose how deep to “sleep” the computer during the transition to the “Standby” mode. The “S3” mode is easy to recognize: in a “sleeping” state all the fans are turned off, and you have to press the “Power” button to “wake up” the computer. In this mode the PC consumes very little electricity.
Automatic regulation of CPU frequency
C1E Support, C1E Function, Cool’n’Quiet, Cool’n’Quiet control Motherboards of latest models with new Intel processors (that support C1E function) and AMD (that use “Cool’n’Quiet” function) are able to automatically reduce CPU clock speed when it is not under heavy load, decreasing multiplier value on the fly. For Core processors this value is set to 6, for AMD64 processors to 5.
CHIP RECOMMENDED to enable it: decreasing the multiplier decreases the voltage supplied to the CPU core, which lowers CPU core heats up, and with it lowers fan speed and noise. In the BIOS of motherboards for AMD processors you need to select “Auto” mode, for Intel. “Enabled”.
WARNING If you have an AMD CPU, you should also select the “Minimum Power Consumption” scheme in Windows.
Manual CPU clock frequency regulation
Ratio CMOS Setting, CPU Multiplier, CPU Frequency Multiple The CPU operating frequency is calculated by multiplying the clock frequency by its multiplier. For example, the Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU working frequency is 200 MHz x 9 = 1800 MHz. Most modern CPUs allow you to reduce the multiplier, in particular, E4300 model. up to six.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If your PC motherboard does not have the most powerful Celeron processor, you can easily overclock it and increase speed by almost 10%. The secret lies in the necessity to reduce the multiplier and increase the system bus frequency (FSB). On the contrary, by reducing the multiplier (at the same FSB frequency) you will reduce the CPU clock frequency, thus reducing the fan noise, as the CPU will consume less power and, consequently, emit less heat.
Flashing BIOS and Installing Windows 10. Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Motherboard
(Insert) Update options: Three ways to update your BIOS
A good old rule of thumb: “If it works, don’t touch it. But sometimes you need to update your motherboard BIOS. Here are some easy ways to do it: Using Windows Utilities. The BIOS is updated using a special utility from the motherboard’s developers (Live Update). These softwares are delivered with your motherboard, on the same disks as the drivers or can be found at the manufacturer’s web site. The advantage of this way of updating is that the program itself detects the correctness of the installed BIOS version.
From BIOS menu. Many motherboards have a flashing command in the BIOS menu itself. just download the appropriate firmware update in advance and set the path to the new firmware file.
The utility written into the motherboard memory will do the rest.
From the media. Make a bootable floppy disk, write on it the utility for flashing and the BIOS image.
Reboot your PC and run this utility from the command line. Modern motherboards (which have BIOSes greater than 2MB) provide a bootable CD or USB drive.
(Insert) BIOS Tuning Utilities.
CrystalCPUID 4.10. Allows you to change CPU clock speed directly from within Windows ClockGen 1.0.5.3.
Utility to match CPU-Z clock speeds (FSB, PCIe, RAM) 1.39. Gives access to all information about the system
(Insert) Special utilities: configure BIOS from Windows
Some BIOS settings can be easily changed using special programs directly from Windows.
CrystalCPUID. This utility adjusts multiplier and voltage of the processor core depending on CPU load. CrystalCPUID works only with newer processors: Intel Pentium 4 (GHz or higher), Core series models, and Athlon. Parameters are set in menu “File/Multiplier Management Setting“. Using “Real Time Clock” menu you can monitor current CPU frequency.
ClockGen. Allows to change CPU frequency without leaving operating system (menu “PLL Control”), also frequencies of other system devices (FSB/RAM), but first the program has to correctly recognize the generator (PLL). Sometimes this is automatic, other times you have to intervene (see also. also www.cpuid.com/clockgen). To check if the frequencies have been successfully selected, click on “Clocks”.
Adjusting the voltage supplied to the CPU
CPU VCore Adjust, CPU Over Voltage Control, CPU Voltage, CPU Vcore Voltage This BIOS menu item is used to adjust the voltage supplied to the CPU. The default setting is “Auto”.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If the computer (usually after overclocking) works with errors and crashes, you can gradually increase the voltage to make the system more stable. However, before setting new values, be sure to find out what the nominal voltage is for your processor. There are some utilities to help you with this, such as CPU-Z (you can find it on the disk enclosed with this issue and on the www.ichip.com.ua/download). Be careful: never increase the voltage by more than 10% of the rated voltage! CAUTION: do not be greedy, because too much voltage will kill your SSP and you will need to buy a new one!
Automatic overclocking
Dynamic Overclocklng, Al Tuning, Overclock Options, Overclock Profile Many leading manufacturers, such as Abit, Asus, Gigabyte and MSI, have enabled their motherboards BIOS to dynamically (automatically overclock depending on the load of the CPU) overclock CPU, video card and RAM components. When this function is active, the motherboard boosts system performance by about 20% when under heavy load.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If you do not want to overclock, set this function to “Disabled” or “Auto”.
If you are interested in trying overclocking for the first time, it is a safe bet, since the risk is minimized when dynamically overclocking.
For Asus motherboards it is necessary to activate AI N mode.O.S. in the “Advanced | JumperFree Configuration | AI Tuning” menu.
MSI boards have several overclocking modes, including Captain, which can speed up your computer by about 5%.
CAUTION As with overclocking in general, when dynamically overclocking a user should be aware that the stability of an overclocked PC is directly related to the quality of the hardware used.
System booting speed up
Quick Boot. Quick Booting The “quick boot” mode cancels the RAM test and the hard drive polling at startup. It saves your system several seconds. CHIP RECOMMENDED If your motherboard BIOS has this feature, we recommend you enable it (“Enabled”).
Turning off unused devices
SATA/PATA Control, Hard Disk Controller, P-ATA Keep Enabled On Expansion motherboards, additional controllers for optical drives and hard drives, SATA RAID and PATA controllers are installed.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If your motherboard does not have extra controllers installed, disable them to speed up booting faster, because the system will not waste its time looking for and detecting unnecessary devices.
Automatic fan speed adjustment!
CPU / Chassis Fan Control. CPU Q. Fan Control. CPU Fan Ratio. CPU Fan Start There are different modes of cooler operation in the BIOS which allow you to adjust the system so that the fans either spin more slowly (and the system runs more quietly) or blow more power to overclocked and overheated components. You can also set the system to automatically select the ventilation mode.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If possible you should always choose the “Enabled” or “Auto” mode for the automatic selection of ventilation intensity. then the computer will be much less noisy, at least during pauses.
In some cases (for example, for Asus P5B motherboard), several profiles are available: in “Performance” mode, the processor cooler runs at full power, but it rarely makes sense. interesting is the “Optimal” mode, when the fan speed depends on the CPU temperature. If your cooler is good and you like quiet, choose “Silent” mode. then the fan will spin even slower.
Cancel LAN test
POST Check LAN Cable, LAN Cable Status When you turn on your computer BIOS checks if the LAN cable is properly connected. If all is well then the BIOS continues to boot the operating system, if not. the booting is paused and the computer waits for the user’s confirmation to continue.
CHIP RECOMMENDED This mode is useful only when a cable must be connected (for example, if the computer is connected to a corporate network). In other cases it is better to choose “Disabled” mode to shorten the booting time.
Computer auto-start
Power On/Resume By RTC Alarm, Power On Source Timer Sometimes it is necessary for the computer to start on a definite day and time.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If you want to record a TV program on your multimedia computer, and you don’t want to leave it turned on. even “asleep”. set this item in the BIOS to “Enabled”, enter the desired date and time. You can even set your computer to turn on daily.
Overclocking RAM
Configure DRAM Timing by SPD, DRAM Timing Setting For the RAM controller to “communicate” correctly with RAM modules it is necessary to choose the proper delay. As a rule, this time is indicated by the abbreviation CAS (Column Address Strobe) and is set by the number of clock cycles. If your RAM is not running at the maximum possible clock speed, reducing the latency can increase your computer’s performance by a few percent.
CHIP RECOMMENDED If you leave this mode set to “Auto” or “Enabled”, the BIOS will automatically adjust the settings. If you want to try to get a performance boost yourself, you can reduce the timing of RAM. With the CPU-Z utility you can control the selected values without leaving Windows, and performance changes can be conveniently evaluated with various software tests, such as the PCMark 05 test we used to prepare this article (www.futuremark.com).
WARNING Changing the timings of RAM sometimes causes the computer to stop booting. In this case it is necessary to restore the BIOS settings to the factory default. After that, if your energy has not yet run out, you can resume your experiments.
(Insert) Glossary: peculiarities of working with hardware through the BIOS
Number of clock cycles required to perform any operation with RAM (read, write, access a cell). The lower the timings, the better. For the memory to work stably, its frequency and timings must change simultaneously. To get the best performance from your PC, you need to experiment with frequency and timings.
A jumper which closes the pins on the motherboard. This jumper is usually needed to adjust or reset the BIOS.
Multiplier. A number equal to the ratio of CPU clock frequency to system bus frequency. With modern CPU models, the user usually cannot change this parameter.
Standby. The state of the PC, in which the processor is almost completely idle and powered off almost all components of the system, but the data in RAM are stored.
BIOS image. A file (usually BIN) that contains the BIOS code for your motherboard model or video adapter. BIOS image is written into the chip using a special program which can be launched from a system floppy disk, CD-ROM, flash drive, or directly from Windows.
Controller. A chip which serves as an intermediary between a peripheral device or communication channel and the CPU, relieving the CPU of direct control over this equipment.
Changing the boot drive selection sequence
Boot Device Priority. Boot Order. Boot Sequency In the boot disc select menu BIOS offers to choose a sequence of drives which should be used for booting the operating system.
CHIP RECOMMENDED To set the first source to be the hard disk with the operating system installed, so that BIOS does not waste its time looking for a boot diskette, CD/DVD, or network disk. Of course, if you often experiment with new operating systems which boot from DVD (e.g. Knoppix-Linux), or reinstall the system every other day, it is more convenient to choose the DVD drive as your first boot drive.
Configuration of SATA hard drives
SATA Configuration, SATA Controller, SATA Mode, SATA Port Speed Settings Modern hard drives with a SATA port on most motherboards can operate in one of three modes: IDE for compatibility with the older PATA standard, in a more efficient AHCI (for second-generation SATA hard drives) and in fast, reliable RAID arrays consisting of several HDDs.
CHIP RECOMMENDED On a computer with an already installed operating system, the smartest solution is to leave this mode unchanged, otherwise there is a danger that the machine will stop starting. The only reason to experiment is when a complete reinstallation is unavoidable. Then you can try the following options.
If computer performance is not so important for you, then choose the simple IDE mode.
If you want to combine multiple hard drives for redundancy (RAID 1) or to speed up your PC (RAID 0) then choose RAID. Just be aware that when installing Windows, you will need to install an extra driver for RAID. it is likely included in the installation package provided with your motherboard.
AHCI hard drive mode also requires a special driver to be installed during the installation of Windows. But it supports “hot plugging” of SATA hard drives (while the system is running) and extended NCQ (this set of instructions sorts access to the hard drive according to the shortest path and can accelerate computer performance by about 10%).
The BIOS of tomorrow: Extensible Firmware Interface
Nine years ago Intel introduced a new development called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). EFI is the successor to the classic BIOS. Although an EFI 2 version is out by now.0, it has not yet found a use on personal computers (despite promises to introduce the “novelty” of nine years ago, at the latest in time for the release of Windows Vista). Nevertheless, since 2005 Microsoft, AMD, Dell, HP, IBM, and BIOS vendors AMI and Phoenix have joined the project. Since this time the new standard is called UEFI (United EFI).
The most important advantages of EFI are the network modules (driverless network access), high resolution graphics support and the operating system’s own boot loader. In addition to this it is possible to integrate directly into EFI the system drivers of devices which allow them to work with any operating system. One more advantage: EFI is fully compatible with the 64-bit operating system without any extra tricks (that one has to resort to in the classic BIOS). Despite the obvious benefits of EFI, in March 2006 Microsoft removed the planned support for EFI from Vista. Apple pioneered the way again, with EFI already working on all IntelMac computers today.
Basic settings
Determine CPU and RAM frequency
To determine if the CPU and RAM are running at optimal speed, install the programs CPU-Z and Prime95. In Prime95 click on “Options | Test Test” to fully load the CPU. Then see what speed CPU-Z displays when you click on “CPU | Clocks | Core Speed” and whether it matches the rated speed listed in the processor specifications.
You can find the current RAM clock frequency in CPU-Z under the “Memory” tab in the “DRAM Frequency” section. On the “SPD” tab you will see the rated operating characteristics of the memory modules.
If the actual CPU and RAM clock speeds seem too low, the next step is to check if you can fix that in the BIOS/UEFI.
Set the clock speed
Reboot your computer and bring up the BIOS/UEFI menu. Find the clock settings. For Asus motherboards, for example, the corresponding submenu is called “Extreme Tweaker”.
In most cases you will achieve a stable work if, if possible, all values here are set to “Auto”. In this case, RAM and CPU work with the standard values supported by them and the motherboard.
Configure the system components
The BIOS/UEFI menu is used to configure other system components. Among them is the disk drive controller, which in computers with BIOS is most often not very well configured by default: so, instead of “IDE” here you should select “AHCI” operating mode.
To do this, go to “Main Menu | Configuration Memory” in BIOS or “Advanced | Configuration SATA” in UEFI. You can disable unnecessary components such as Firewire, COM or LPT connections.
UEFI feature: Secure Boot
On computers sold with Windows 8 installed by default, one UEFI setting most often not only prevents installation of another operating system (such as Windows 7 or Linux), but also booting from the Live DVD.
To fix this obstacle, change the “Launch CSM” option in the UEFI “Boot | CSM” menu to “Enabled”. The “Compatibility Support Module” ensures that when a new operating system is installed, UEFI acts just like BIOS. But the “Secure Boot” security feature, which prevents rootkit attacks, will no longer work.
