Number 205 - June 2000

Do You Know What Your BIOS Is?
By Tom Lassiter, Houston Area League of PC Users HAL Editor comment: We often hear the advice to write down our BIOS setup so that it could be recovered if necessary. However, most people don't because the computer only flashes the information at them for such a short time. Tom's tip on how to printout the information makes this task simple for everyone.
Printout Your BIOS Setup     The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of your PC is a set of instructions encoded in read-only memory (ROM) on the motherboard that handles the startup operations and some basic control of disk drives, keyboard and monitor. The following technique works on most systems to print-out the system BIOS setup of your computer.     As the system is booting (when you first turn it on and just after all those funny numbers whiz like a speedometer counting all the RAM you have) there will appear on your screen instructions as to what key to press to enter Setup mode. Normally it states, "Press DELete to enter setup." It could also state to press the Fl F2 F8 DEL or some other key. Press whatever key is indicated.	At the first Setup screen press the Printscreen key on the keyboard. (If the PC has already booted into Win95 it's too late. Click on the re-start option so you can get to this area of startup.)     Since Win95 hasn't "started" the computer will send the information straight to the printer. If necessary, press the printer page feed button to complete the printing of the first page. Then go to the next setup screens and continue to print the screen by pressing the PrintScreen key.     Once you have all the screens printed exit from the Setup area with-out saving-just in case you changed something. Put the printouts in the box where your Windows 95 software came packaged in or wherever you save your program software.
Number 205 - June 2000