A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

[Groonx2]

Hi,

I've been looking around here in these forums, and I see there is good advice for various mobo BIOS settings. I haven't found my own GA-MA78GM-S2H ver 1.1DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 Dual; previous the BIOS showed this as CMOS base memory 640K, extended memory 7934Mvideo card (yet). I want to see how well the 780G chipset's well-rated integrated Radeon HD3200 graphics unit works first. (No gaming; lots of multitasking; lots of looking at quite a few thousand .JPGs.)

For the time being, no passwords are needed. No kids; secure location; no business applications.

I do like the idea of setting up some profiles. (Such as Safe, Best Now, and Work in Progress.)

Later I'll be looking for much more detailed info for a much more refined BIOS. But what is recommended to let me get XP 64 on?

Oh. And one very easy question: I hate holding in the Power Button for 4 seconds. When I'm working on things, I prefer to use the rear On/Off button at the back of the PSU. There is nothing wrong with doing things this way until I have an OS on, is there?

Thanks for any ideas.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Well, I dont know much about AMD at all, but I would say for 8Gb you need to add some memory controller voltage and set refresh to act delay (tRFC or ? Not sure in AMD) to 195ns or 327NS, you will know which it is as it is likely set to 127ns now.

As for your power button question, first off it is Very important that you use the windows Power off button in the system to shut down. Shutting down with your PSU Switch or Case power button shuts the system of while it is in the middle of doing things and will corrupt your data for sure eventually. Ohh sorry, I reply AS I read! Ya, you can do that with no system... Silly me

Or you can change a BIOS setting (Suggested as flipping your PSU Switch often is likely not too god for it?) The BIOS setting would be in the Power Management page, set this >>>

Sort-Off By PWR-BTTN .... Instant-Off

Ya, profiles are nice, for sure take advantage of that!

If you need some specific help, like I said I do not know AMD Very well but Post your issue and I will try to help

[Groonx2]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Well, today I installed XP 64 on my system, and I had it there for half an hour or maybe longer. So I'm doing okay.

I have my own system for setting up Windows. I use a lot of partitions, most of which I create in XP's Disk Management. For a few years now I've built systems (usually multi-boot systems) on discrete partitions for (C:) System (meaning just the boot files and MBR data), (D:) Boot (meaning the OS), and (E:) Programs. You can actually extend those three into quite a few more, although I usually keep my programs to just one partition.

So it doesn't matter too much to me if I want to redo a Windows OS. In a multiboot box, I simply go to a different Windows and reformat the unwanted Windows partition. I do pretty thorough formats. Afterwards, when the replacement OS is on, the program files are all still ready and waiting. I could retain the registry with NTRegOpt and ERUNT, but although I use them all the time, I just rebuild things the slow way. If there was a problem that merited replacing the OS, I'm pretty fussy about what I import into the new system.

This XP 64 I've been working with today has been pretty growly and stubborn about things, almost as growly and stubborn as I am. Everything worked, but I had an issue about a file that seemed to be keeping the system from getting onto the internet, and that was the beginning of the end of that Windows.

I have a feeling my lightweight, superficial BIOS tweaking was making my OS unstable.

Well, if I get things going tomorrow, November 30th, that's not too bad. I started this project about March 30th: a mere 8 months ago.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Well you methods sound pretty good, safe way to go about things for sure.

Ya x64 XP does have some issues still, is MS still releasing new updates for it?

So how are you getting along now?

[Groonx2]

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Sounds like a lotta work for a OS!!!

With all that setup you should be making mirrors of the system once configured to you liking that way you can restore that exact image anytime or on another system

So you want to Go to AHCI Without a reinstall right? Not sure about AMD, but I can look around for some methods for you if you want to try it out

[Groonx2]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Thanks, Lsdmeasap. I've started a new thread about AHCI. Not just for myself, but because there are a LOT of folks trying to do the same thing.

Apparently some of the methods simply fail a lot. That leaves non-tech folk in the lurch. So a lot of people research this thing quite a bit before chancing their OS on a failed bid for AHCI. The question has been raised: "Why is AMD [or Gigabyte] doing this to its patrons?" :)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: A Nice, SAFE, Initial BIOS for GA-MA78GM-S2H ?

Ya, it is best to just do a clean install to AHCI instead of trying to use a workaround