Upgrading & Fixing Laptops DUMmIES

(continued)

MainScreen

System Time: [14:22:25]

System Date: [08/31/2005]

Hard Disk: XXXXXXXX-XXX

Quiet Boot: [Enabled]

[Disabled]

Power on

display:

[Auto-Selected]

[Simultaneous]

Option Setting Explanation

Set the clock for the computer;

the internal rechargeable

battery will take over from

there and modern versions of

Windows will automatically

adjust for Daylight Savings

Time and Standard Time. The

clock is pretty accurate but

can sometimes run a few seconds

slower or faster than another

machine. Under Windows you can

also enable a utility to syn-

chronize your laptop’s time

with another computer or with a

time server out on the Internet

such as Microsoft’s

time.windows.com or the federal

government’s time.nist.gov.

Today’s date,as tracked and

maintained by the internal

rechargeable battery.

The BIOS of a modern machine

will automatically identify the

make, model number, and serial

number of the internal hard

disk drive.

In this particular BIOS, if

Quiet Boot is enabled (the

default setting) the machine

will go from power-on to Win-

dows as quickly as possible and

not bother to go through pre-

boot diagnostics. If Quiet Boot

is disabled you’ll see the

diagnostics zip by.

In the default setting of

Auto-Selected, if the laptop

detects a powered-on external

display connected to a CRT

port, it will send the display

signal only to the CRT; other-

wise it will use only the LCD.

If Simultaneous is selected,

the video display adapter will

send a signal to both the LCD

and any attached CRT.

Figure 6-5:
Sections of
a Phoenix
BIOS.

Chapter 6: Brain Matters: Memory, Microprocessors, and BIOS 103