MSI KT4V-L Mainboard

Standard CMOS Features

System Time: Set correctly upon first Post and after each BIOS Flash
System Date: Set correctly upon first Post and after each BIOS Flash

Primary IDE Master: Type AUTO, 32Bit transfer Mode ON (40 GB Maxtor 7200 HDD)

Primary IDE Slave: Type AUTO, 32 Bit Transfer Mode ON (Sony 16x DVD (DDU 1621)

Secondary IDE Master: Type **CDROM ** (If using a HDD or no drive set to AUTO If using a CD/DVD drive set to CDROM), 32 Bit Transfer Mode ON (LITEON 52x32x52 CD-RW)

Secondary IDE Slave: Type AUTO, 32 Bit Transfer Mode ON (Western Digital 120GB 7200 RPM HDD)

Floppy Drive A: Set Appropriately
Floppy Drive B: Not Installed (for most people)

Boot Sector Virus Protection: Disabled –– If you really want to use this feature make sure its at least disabled during partitioning, formatting and loading of the OS

Advanced BIOS Features

Quick Boot: Enabled
Full Screen Logo Show: Disabled

Boot Sequence:

1st Boot Device: IDE1 (The HDD with your OS)
2nd Boot Device: CD-rom/DVD whatever you use
3rd Boot Device: Floppy Disk
Try Other Boot Devices: Yes

I like to boot from my OS hard drive first. WIN XP allows you to choose a different boot device by pressing the F11 Key. It then gives you a menu of all bootable devices.

S.M.A.R.T. for Hard Disks: Enabled
BootUp Num-Lock: On or Off (Your preference)
Floppy Drive Swap: Disabled
Floppy Drive Seek: Disabled
Primary Display: VGA/EGA
Password Check: Setup
Boot to OS/2: No
Internal Cache: WriteBack
System BIOS Cacheable: Enabled
C000,32k Shadow: Cached
APIC Function: Enabled

APIC Function: "Enabled" functions well on this board under Windows 2000 and XP and with most newer hardware PCI cards and drivers. If you are using Windows 9x/Me or TV tuner cards or winmodems or extremely old PCI cards/drivers set to "Disabled". If you change this setting after Windows has been loaded you may need to reinstall the OS.

MPS Table Version: 1.4

Advanced Chipset Features

**DRAM Timing Control**

Current Host Clock: Displays current CPU Frequency
Configure SDRAM Timing By: SPD

SDRAM frequency: Auto
SDRAM CAS# Latency: Auto
Row Precharge Time: Auto
RAS Pulse Width: Auto
RAS to CAS Delay: Auto
Bank Interleave: Auto

SDRAM Burst Length: 4QW
SDRAM 1T Command: Disabled
Fast Command: Normal
Fast R-2-R Turnaround: Disabled

I don't recommend messing with DRAM Timing Control settings.

**AGP timing Control**

AGP Mode: 4x
AGP Fast Write: Enabled
AGP Aperture Size: 256 MB
AGP Master 1 W/S Write: Enabled
AGP Master 1 W/S Read: Enabled
AGP Read Synchronization: Disabled
PCI Delay Transaction: Enabled

I have a MSI FX5200 8X128MB DDR card.
I set my AGP Aperture Size (AAS) to 256 MB because I have 1GB of mixed PC2100/PC2700 DDR RAM. If you only have 256 MB of RAM I'd set it to 128. I can't see any difference in my system performance if I set AAS to 128....so I left it at 256....
A rule of thumb is that you should always set AAS to either be less than or equal to your total system memory, as you cannot use memory you do not have in the first place.
Tweak 3D AGP Aperture Size Examined

Power Management Features

IPCA Function: Yes
ACPI Standby State: S1/POS
Call VGA at S3 Resuming: Disabled
USB Wakeup From S3: Enabled
Power Management/APM: Enabled
Power/Sleep LED: Single LED
Suspend Time Out (Minute): Disabled
Display Activity: Ignore
CPU Critical temperature: Disabled
CPU HALT Command Detection: Disabled
Power Button Function: On/Off
After AC Power Loss: Power Off

Set WakeUp Events:

Wake Up on Ring: Disabled
Wake Up on PME: Disabled
Resume On KBC: Disabled
Wake Up Key: Any Key
Wake Up Password: N/A

Resume on PS/2 Mouse: Disabled
Resume By Alarm: Disabled
Alarm Date: 15
Alarm Hour: 12
Alarm Minute: 30
Alarm Second: 30

PnP/PCI Configurations

Plug and Play Aware O/S: No (Windows 2000/Windows XP); Yes (Windows 98/ME)
Clear NVRAM: No

NVRAM is where Bios stores resource information for PNP and non-PNP devices. Whenever you add new hardware or move a PCI card you need to set this to Yes. Thereafter once the PC is restarted it will revert back to "No". If you ever had trouble with this board not recognizing new hardware this is the reason!

PCI Latency Timer: 64
PCI IDE BusMaster: Enabled
Primary Graphics Adapter: AGP for AGP card/PCI for PCI video card

"Primary Graphics Adapter" appears to be very important. I had "No Signal" on my monitor a few times and this was the culprit. Set it correctly before installing a new monitor. I believe the mainboard will only give you one chance to get it right.

If you boot your PC and get a black screen you will have to clear your CMOS by manually using the jumper on your mainboard.

Clearing CMOS

Clearing CMOS will reset your Bios to the default. The CMOS RAM on your mainboard is powered by the battery to the left of PCI slots 5 & 6. I know of two ways to clear CMOS. One is quick and one takes a bit longer. CMOS is controlled by JBAT1.

JBAT1

JBAT1 has two settings:

Pins 1-2: Keep Data
Pins 2-3: Clear Data

Quick reset:

1. Turn off your PC.
2. Unplug the power cord; remove case cover.
3. Touch the power supply (to clear body static)
4. Remove jumper from JBAT1 (Pins 1-2)
5. Place jumper on JBAT1 Pins 2-3.
6. Wait 30 seconds
7. Place jumper back on JBAT1 Pins 1-2.
8. Replace case cover and power cord.
9. Boot and reset Bios settings as appropriate.

Longer reset:

1. Turn off your PC.
2. Unplug the power cord; remove case cover.
3. Touch the power supply (to clear body static)
4. Remove CMOS battery from mainboard.
5. Cycle power supply (on/off)
6. Remove jumper from JBAT1 (Pins 1-2)
7. Place jumper on JBAT1 Pins 2-3.
8. Wait at least 10 minutes.
9. Place jumper back on JBAT1 Pins 1-2.
10. Replace CMOS battery on mainboard.
11. Replace case cover and power cord.
12. Boot and reset Bios settings as appropriate.

PCI Slot 1 IRQ: Auto*
PCI Slot 2/5 IRQ: Auto*
PCI Slot 3/6 IRQ: Auto*
PCI Slot 4 IRQ: Auto*

* Selecting Auto allows BIOS to automatically determine the IRQ line for each PCI slot.

Integrated Peripherals

Floppy Disk Controller: Auto
Serial Port 1: Disabled
Serial Port 2: Disabled

Port 2 Mode: Normal
IR Pin Select: IRRX/IRTX

Parallel Port: Disabled

Port Mode: N/A
EPP version: N/A
Port IRQ: N/A
Port DMA: N/A

OnChip IDE Controller: Both
OnBoard LAN: Enabled

OnBoard LAN P.M.E.: Enabled
Call LAN BIOS: Enabled

AC’97 Audio: Enabled
MC’97 Modem: Disabled
OnChip USB Controller: 6 USB Ports

USB Legacy Support: Disabled (some people with legacy USB devices may need to enable)
Port 64/60 Emulation: Disabled

As you can see above I've disabled some of my Integrated Peripherals. I don't have any Serial Port or Parallel Port devices installed. This also clears IRQs.

PC Health Status

Chassis Intrusion: Disabled
CPU Fan Detect: Enabled (set to disabled BEFORE shutting down to install any PSU powered CPU fan)

The remainder of the settings here are fully auto (I haven't listed them all)

The data/information here is concerning your PC/CPU Temperature is very important. After installing a new CPU you should monitor this for a while to ensure your PC/CPU is not overheating. Overheating causes all sorts of weird things to happen. The worst being a fried CPU!

CPU Temperature: Bios says 31c. PCAlert4 says 37c. If you want to see how I went from 61c to 37c go to my photo section. Bios Version 1.9 lowered my CPU temp by about 4c.

Frequency/Voltage Control

Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU FSB Clock: 133 (Depends on your CPU speed). 100 is the default. Must be manually reset each time you clear Bios.

CPU FSB Clock

Here is a chart for setting your AMD XP Processor CPU FSB Clock speed. Just take your CPU's FSB speed....divide it in two and that is what you use.

AMD Processor	FSB	Set
XP 1700 1.47 GHz	266	133
XP 1800 1.53 GHz	266	133
XP 1900 1.60 GHz	266	133
XP 2000 1.66 GHz	266	133
XP 2100 1.73 GHz	266	133
XP 2200 1.80 GHz	266	133
XP 2400 2.00 GHz	266	133
XP 2600 2.13 GHz	266	133
XP 2700 2.17 GHz	333	166
XP 2800 2.25 GHz	333	166

CPU Ratio: Auto
CPU Vcore (V): Auto
DDR Voltage (V): Auto
Termination Voltage(V): Auto
AGP Voltage (V): Auto

WARNING:

The only settings an average user should change here is "CPU FSB Clock". All other settings are for overclockers. You may burn something up if your mess with these!