Time; Date; Diskette Drive A And Diskette Drive B; Fast Video Bios - Dell PowerEdge 4200 Series User Manual

Time

Time resets the time on the computer's internal clock.
Time is kept in a 24-hour format (hours:minutes:
seconds). To change the time, use the plus and minus
keys. If you prefer, you can type numbers in each of the
appropriate fields.
NOTE: If your system is connected to a network, the Time
category may reflect the time maintained by the network
server, depending upon how the network is configured. In this
case, changing the Time category on your system has no
effect.

Date

Date resets the date on the computer's internal calendar.
Your system automatically displays the day of the week
corresponding to the settings in the three fields that fol-
low (month, day-of-the-month, and year).
To change the date, use the plus and minus keys to increase
and decrease the numbers. If you prefer, you can type
numbers in the month, day-of-the-month, and year fields.
NOTE: If your system is connected to a network, the Date
category may reflect the date maintained by the network
server, depending upon how the network is configured. In this
case, changing the Date category on your system has no
effect.

Diskette Drive A and Diskette Drive B

Diskette Drive A and Diskette Drive B identify the type
of diskette drives installed in the drive cage.
The options for both categories are:
•
360 KB, 5.25 Inch
•
1.2 MB, 5.25 Inch
•
720 KB, 3.5 Inch
•
1.44 MB, 3.5 Inch (default for diskette A)
•
Not Installed (default for diskette B)

Fast Video BIOS

Fast Video BIOS offers the options of shadowing and/or
caching the video BIOS for improved performance.
4-4 Dell PowerEdge 4200 Systems User's Guide
For the built-in video controller chip, the Fast Video
BIOS category offers the following options:
•
On and Cached (the default)
•
On
•
Off
If you choose the On option, your system boots and
immediately copies the video BIOS code from the flash
memory chip into write-protected memory locations in
faster random-access memory (RAM). This process is
known as shadowing. If you choose On and Cached (the
default), your system boots and not only shadows the
video BIOS code, but also allows it to be cached. Cach-
ing saves time for the microprocessor(s) by holding
available the most recently accessed data and instructions
in an intermediate storage area of static RAM (SRAM),
which is faster than system RAM. Shadowing and cach-
ing let the system manipulate video display data more
quickly and easily, improving video performance.

Memory Cache

Memory Cache can be set to Enabled (the default) or
Disabled.
Cache memory decreases the average memory cycle time
to boost system performance. You may want to set Mem-
ory Cache to Disabled to aid in troubleshooting software
problems.

Boot Sequence

The Boot Sequence category can be set to A: then C: (the
default), C: then A:, or C: Only.
The term boot refers to the system's start-up procedure.
When turned on, the system "bootstraps" itself into an
operational state by loading into memory a small pro-
gram that in turn loads the necessary operating system.
Boot Sequence tells the system where to look for the files
that it needs to load.
Selecting A: Then C: causes the system to try booting
from drive A first. If it finds a diskette that is not boot-
able in the drive or finds a problem with the drive itself,
the system displays an error message. If it does not find a
diskette in the drive, the system then tries to boot from
the hard-disk drive (drive C).