Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Accessing and Setting Your Computer's Firmware Interface

When you turn on most computers, you access the firmware interface by pressing the button shown for Setup in the initial display. For example, you might press F2 during the first few seconds of startup to enter the firmware interface. Firmware interfaces have control options that allow you to adjust the functionality of hardware. You can use these controls to perform basic tasks, including:

• Accessing firmware event logs for troubleshooting information
• Adjusting display brightness (on laptop computers)
• Adjusting the hard disk noise level
• Adjusting the number of cores the processor uses and their speed
• Changing the boot sequence for devices
• Changing the motherboard clock's date and time
• Obtaining configuration information for memory, processors, and more
• Restoring the firmware interface to its default (factory) configuration
• Turning on or off modular add-on devices

While you are working with the firmware interface, you may also be able to create supervisor, user, and general passwords that are not accessible from the operating system. When a supervisor password is set, you must provide the password before you can modify the firmware configuration. When a user password is set, you must enter the password during startup before the computer will load the operating system. If you forget these passwords, you might not be able to operate the computer or change firmware settings until you clear the forgotten passwords, which generally also clears any customization you have made to the firmware interface.

The way the firmware interface works depends on the computer you are working with, the type of firmware interface, and the version of the firmware interface. Desktop computers typically have more firmware configuration options than portable computers do.

Most firmware interfaces have several menu pages that provide information and controls. Two important controls you'll see are network boot and boot order. When network booting is enabled, the computer boots from the network. This is something you might want at the office, but you generally don't want this enabled at home. Boot order sets the priority order for your computer's bootable devices. Your computer tries to start the operating system using the highest-priority device first. If this fails, your computer tries the device with the second-highest priority, and so on. Generally, you'll want your computer to look to its primary removable media device first, and its primary hard drive next, before looking to other bootable devices.

Because configuring boot options in firmware isn't necessarily intuitive, I'll provide two examples using computers from different manufacturers. On a Dell desktop computer that I have, you manage boot settings on the Boot Sequence submenu under System in the firmware interface. The boot order is listed as follows (based on the device present in my computer):

1. Onboard or USB CD-ROM Drive
2. Onboard SATA Hard Drive
3. Onboard or USB Floppy Drive (not present)
4. Onboard IDE Hard Drive (not present)
5. Add-in Hard Drive (not present)
6. USB Device (not present)
7. Add-in Hard Drive (not present)

In this example, internal devices are listed as "Onboard." Because you generally want the computer to check its primary CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive for bootable media first and then check its primary hard drive, the computer's primary CD-ROM drive has the highest boot order, and the computer's primary hard drive is listed with the second-highest boot order.

Several options are available for navigating the list. You can use the Up and Down arrow keys to select a device, and then press the U or D key to move the device up or down in the boot order list. You can press the Spacebar to exclude or include a device from the boot list. Press Delete to permanently delete the device if it is not physically present and you no longer want it in the list.

Other important menus in the interface include the following:

• Under Drives in the firmware interface, submenus allow you to enable, disable, and configure drives. Diskette Drive configures floppy drives. Drive 0: SATA-0 enables or disables this specific device. Drive 1: SATA-1 enables or disables this device. SATA Operation sets the hardware RAID configuration.
• Under Onboard Devices, you can use the options on the USB Controller submenu to enable or disable booting from USB storage devices.

For comparison, on an HP laptop of mine, the boot settings are found on the Boot Order and Boot Options submenus on the firmware interface's System Configuration page. On the Boot Order submenu, the boot order is listed as follows:

1. USB Floppy
2. ATAPI CD/DVD ROM Drive
3. Notebook Hard Drive
4. USB Diskette on Key
5. USB Hard Drive
6. Network Adapter

On this computer, you use the Up and Down arrow keys to select a device, and then press F5 or F6 to move the device up or down in the list. The computer distinguishes between USB flash keys (referred to as USB diskettes on keys) and USB drives (referred to as USB hard drives). However, you won't really see a difference between the two.

The Boot Options submenu has these options:

• F10 and F12 Delay (sec) Specifies the amount of time you have to press F10 or F12 before startup begins.
• CD-ROM Boot Controls whether CD-ROM boot during startup is enabled or disabled.
• Floppy Boot Controls whether floppy boot during startup is enabled or disabled.
• Internal Network Adapter Boot Controls whether network boot during startup is enabled or disabled.

Here, the main options for navigating the list are the Up and Down arrow keys. You use these keys to select an option, and then press Enter to view and set the option.

Every firmware interface has an Exit option. The Exit page allows you to exit the firmware interface and resume startup of the computer. Pay particular attention to the related options. Generally, you can either exit the firmware interface and discard your changes or exit the firmware interface and save your changes. Save only when you are certain that you've correctly modified the firmware interface. Incorrectly configuring the firmware interface can make your computer unbootable.

Desktop computers can have a dizzying array of options and suboptions. And because there are few standards and conventions among firmware interface manufacturers, firmware interface options with similar purposes can have very different labels. When you are working with a desktop computer, you'll likely find options that serve similar purposes, and you may want to customize these options for the way in which you want your computer to work.

Your computer's firmware interface is updatable, and you may need to update the firmware to resolve problems or improve efficiency. However, if you are not experiencing problems on a computer and are not aware of any additional functionality in the firmware interface that you need, you might not need to update a computer to the latest version of the firmware interface. Remember that an improper update can harm the computer and prevent it from starting.