ABIT KT7A BIOS Settings

The table below shows the BIOS settings I am using on the ABIT KT7A motherboard. My ABIT KT7A BIOS version is 65, dated 11/7/2001. Italics indicate values that are not updateable, although they might be under different BIOS settings.

A description for the settings used in the ABIT KT7A BIOS can be found in
This BIOS settings reference available from WickedCases is an excellent source of additional information.
This BIOS optimization guide available from Adrian's Rojak Pot is another outstanding source.
This unofficial ABIT KT7 FAQ reference from Paul Howland is a wonderful source of information about the ABIT KT7/KT7A motherboards, including the BIOS.

SoftMenu III

Parameter	Setting	Comments
CPU Operating Speed	1800+(133)
Multiplier Factor	x11.5
CPU FSB/PCI Clock	133/33MHz
CPU FSB Plus (MHz)	0
Speed Error Hold	Disabled
CPU Power Supply	CPU Default
Core Voltage	1.750v
I/O Voltage	3.40v	Interesting, since this value defaulted to 3.30v on the ABit KT7 with BIOS version UL. Increasing this voltage is a possible solution for the dreaded "No Video Card Found" BIOS error (one-long-beep-then-two-short-beeps). Looks like ABit has been paying attention to those trouble reports!
Fast CPU Command Decode	Fast
Output Drive Control	Manual	Allows the next value to be set.
-Output Drive Strength	2	A setting of 2 is best for system stability, but a setting of 3 may boost performance at the risk of introducing instability.
Enhance Chip Performance	Enabled	Aggressive CPU scheduling.
Force 4-way interleave	Enabled	The description of this BIOS setting in the WickedCases reference above shows how to use SiSoft Sandra Standard to tell if you have this or not.
Enable DRAM 4K page mode	Enabled	Improve memory bandwidth.
DRAM clock	Host CLK	Use this setting with a 266FSB processor.

Standard CMOS Features

Parameter	Setting	Comments
IDE Primary Master	IC35L080AVVA07-0	The hard drive and CD-ROM should not be on the same IDE since doing so will cause them both to run at the speed of the slower device. The CD-ROM is much slower than the hard drive. Placing them on separate IDEs allows them to both run at their maximum speeds.
IDE Primary Slave	None
IDE Secondary Master	40X CD-ROM
IDE Secondary Slave	None
Drive A	1.44M, 3.5 in
Drive B	None
Floppy 3 Mode Support	Disabled	Floppy 3 is the Japanese standard floppy drive mode. It stores 1.2MB on a 3.5" diskette instead of 1.44MB.
Video	EGA/VGA
Halt On	All, But Keyboard	Halt on all errors except Keyboard Absent error. This enables the machine to boot without the keyboard plugged in.
Base Memory	640K	DOS device drivers, TSRs and any programs to be run, plus their data.
Extended Memory	523264K	Memory above 1 MB is known as extended memory, and is not normally usable under DOS.
Total Memory	524288K	Base + Upper + Extended = Total Memory.

Advanced BIOS Features

Parameter	Setting	Comments
Virus warning	Disabled	Symantec Norton Antivirus protects My Super PC.
Quick Power On Self Test	Enabled	Skip Power On Self-Tests for faster boot.
First Boot Device	HDD-0	Skipping the floppy saves a bit of boot time. Set back to Floppy for disaster recovery procedures.
Second Boot Device	HDD-0	If the First Boot Device didn't do the trick then it's big trouble.
Third Boot Device	HDD-0	Ditto.
Boot Other Device	Disabled	Gives the "ok" for the BIOS to try the Second Boot Device and Third Boot Device if the First Boot Device is a "no-go", but My Super PC just boots from the hard drive so - Disabled.
Swap Floppy Drive	Disabled	I've only got one floppy drive, so it's going to be A:.
Boot Up Floppy Seek	Disabled	Skipping this check makes the boot go a bit faster.
Boot Up NumLock Status	Off	This item is a matter of personal taste.
Typematic Rate Setting	Enabled
Typematic Rate (Chars/Sec)	30	6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30
Typematic Rate Delay (Msec)	250	250, 500, 750, 1000. This is the delay, in milliseconds, before the keyboard automatically repeats the keystroke that you have pressed continuously.
Security Option	Setup	If you have set a password, select whether the password is required every time the System boots, or only when you enter Setup. I don't even have a password set, so it's a moot point.
OS Select For DRAM > 64MB	Non-OS2	IBM's relic.
Video BIOS Shadow	Disabled	Your system will perform better with this setting at Disabled. As you can read in the MS Knowledge base, shadowing is not an advantage. Only enable this if you still use DOS mode a lot, where it can improve performance as it will speed up VGA BIOS (C0000-C7FFF) accesses.
C8000-CBFFF Shadow	Disabled	16K expansion card (such as network adapters) BIOS blocks, not system or video BIOS. Turning on shadowing would speed these adapters up in the same way that shadowing the system BIOS speeds up the system BIOS code. However, things are much more tricky here, because some adapters use RAM as well as ROM. If they do, and you enable shadowing, the adapter will malfunction because shadowing write-protects the RAM it uses.
CC000-CFFFF Shadow	Disabled	Ditto.
D0000-D3FFF Shadow	Disabled	Ditto.
D4000-D7FFF Shadow	Disabled	Ditto.
D8000-DBFFF Shadow	Disabled	Ditto.
DC000-DFFFF Shadow	Disabled	Ditto.
Delay for IDE Initial (Secs)	0	Certain hard disk drives require some extra time to spin up in a cold boot. If the system does not start after the memory test, try adding time in this field.

Advanced Chipset Features

Parameter	Setting	Comments
Bank 0/1 DRAM Timing	Turbo	Turbo setting will work with good name-brand PC133 SDRAM, like Crucial.
Bank 2/3 DRAM Timing	Turbo	Ditto.
Bank 4/5 DRAM Timing	Turbo	Ditto.
DRAM Bank Interleave	4-way	Check the description of this BIOS setting in the WickedCases reference to determine the best value for your system.
Delay DRAM Read Latch	NO Delay	Delay DRAM Read Latch sets the time required to catch DRAM data. If the DRAM load is heavy, such that you had three double sided DRAM modules installed, you may need to choose a longer delay time for data reading.
MD Driving Strength	Hi	Set this to Hi for added stability, especially with multiple DIMM's in use.
SDRAM Cycle Length	2	My Super PC uses CAS 2 memory.
Memory Hole	Disabled	Some special ISA cards require this area of memory for them to work properly. Enabling this function reserves the memory area for the card's use. It will also prevent the system from accessing memory above 16MB. This means that if you enable this function, your OS can only use up to 15MB of RAM, irrespective of how much RAM your system actually has. So, always disable this function unless your ISA card absolutely requires this memory area to work properly.
PCI Master Pipeline Req	Enabled
P2C/C2P Concurrency	Enabled	Set to Enabled if you have a SoundBlaster Live! card, and who doesn't?
Fast R-W Turn Around	Enabled	I'll leave it set this way since it sounds faster, but my 3DMark2000 scores don't really change if this is set to Disabled.
System BIOS Cacheable	Disabled	This feature is only valid when the system BIOS (F0000-FFFFF) is shadowed. It greatly speeds up accesses to the system BIOS. However, this does not translate into much better system performance because the OS does not need to access the system BIOS much. As such, it would be a waste of L2 cache bandwidth to cache the system BIOS instead of data that are more critical to the system's performance. In addition, if any program writes into this memory area, it will result in a system crash.
Video RAM Cacheable	Disabled	Set to Disabled for all nVidia based cards.
AGP Aperture Size	64MB	The BIOS optimization guide reference from Adrian's Rojak Pot above provides a great description of how this should be set and why. A value of 64MB is best for most configurations.
AGP-4X Mode	Enabled
AGP Driving Control	Auto	Setting to Manual may destabilizes the video card.
AGP Driving Value	DA	Depends on video card, 0xDA to 0xEA is claimed to be OK by Abit.
Fast Write Supported	Supported	I'll leave it set this way since it sounds faster, but my 3DMark2000 scores don't really change if this is set to Not Supported.
CPU to PCI Write Buffer	Enabled	The faster setting is Enabled since the CPU can buffer data and minimize the time it has to wait on the slower PCI bus to be ready.
PCI Dynamic Bursting	Enabled	Block store instructions in memory, then send to PCI device en masse.
PCI Master 0 WS Write	Enabled	Performance is better when set to Enabled. But set to Disabled if you're overclocking the PCI bus and things are unstable.
PCI Delay Transaction	Enabled	This option should be enabled for better performance and to meet PCI 2.1 specifications. Disable it only if your PCI cards cannot work properly or if you are using an ISA card that is not PCI 2.1 compliant.
Delay Transaction	Enabled
PCI Master Read Caching	Enabled	Recommended to set Enabled for AMD Athlon Thunderbird and Disabled for AMD Duron. The main reason for this recommendation is that the Duron's Level 2 cache is only half that of the Athlon Thunderbird. Therefore, the Athlon Thunderbird can afford to cache the PCI master reads and possibly gain some performance points while in the Duron the same feature might actually result in a performance hit caused by cache overflow.
PCI#2 Access #1 Retry	Disabled	For optimal performance.
AGP Master 1 WS Write	Enabled	By default, the AGP busmastering device waits for at least 2 wait states before it starts a write transaction. This option sets the delay to 1 wait state. This setting works fine with the motherboard and video card I have in My Super PC. But if you see anything strange with your graphics then set back to Disable and see if it clears up.
AGP Master 1 WS Read	Enabled	Default is at least 2 wait states. The Comments under AGP Master 1 WS Write apply.
PCI Master Bus Time-out	1

Integrated Peripherals

Parameter	Setting	Comments
Onboard IDE 1 Controller	Enabled	These are the ATA/100 IDE controllers.
Onboard IDE 2 Controller	Enabled	Ditto.
Master Drive PIO Mode	Auto	Set all of these to Auto and let the BIOS determine if each drive is capable of DMA support, and its respective PIO mode.
Slave Drive PIO Mode	Auto	Ditto.
Master Drive Ultra DMA	Auto	Ditto.
Slave Drive Ultra DMA	Auto	Ditto.
IDE Prefetch Mode	Enabled	For best performance.
Init Display First	AGP	Set to AGP if your primary display is your AGP adapter, or to PCI if the primary display is a PCI video card.
USB Controller	Enabled
USB Keyboard Support	BIOS
IDE HDD Block Mode	Enabled	Enable this to allow the BIOS to determine the optimum block sizes for best performance.
Onboard FDD Controller	Enabled	I do have floppy.
Onboard Serial Port 1	3F8/IRQ4	Standard.
Onboard Serial Port 2	2F8/IRQ3	Standard.
- Onboard IR Function	Disabled	No Infra-Red devices.
- IR Function Duplex	Half
Onboard Parallel Port	378/IRQ7	Standard.
Onboard Parallel Mode	Normal	Set this to Normal unless you have a device or printer that specifically requires use of ECP/EPP modes such as a parallel port scanner, zip drive, etc.
- ECP Mode Use DMA	3
- Parallel Port EPP Type	EPP1.9

Power Management Setup

Parameter	Setting	Comments
ACPI Suspend Type	S1(POS)
PM Control by APM	Yes	If you're using Windows (and who doesn't?), set this to Yes.
Video Off Option	Suspend -> Off	Screen off when system is in SUSPEND mode.
Video Off Method	DPMS Support	Set this to DPMS if you have a PnP capable monitor.
Modem Use IRQ	NA	Manually assigning the IRQ is not needed.
Soft-Off By PWRBTN	Instant-Off	You don't want slow death.
State After Power Failure	Off

PnP/PCI Configurations

Parameter	Setting	Comments
PNP OS Installed	Yes	If you're using Windows (and who isn't?), set this to Yes.
Force Update ESCD	Disabled	Normally leave this Disabled. But if, for example, you add a new card and the subsequent system reconfiguration causes a serious conflict of resources (maybe the OS won't boot) then setting this to Enabled is a solution to be considered.
Resources Controlled By	Auto (ESCD)	Let the BIOS figure out IRQ's and DMA channels.
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop	Disabled	The VGA "palette" is the set of colors that are in use by the videocard when it is in 256-color mode. Since there are thousands of colors and only 256 can be used in that mode, a palette containing the current colors is used. Some special VGA cards, high-end hardware MPEG decoders etc. need to be able to look at the video card's VGA palette to determine what colors are currently in use. Enabling this feature turns on this palette "snoop". This option is only very rarely needed. It should be left at "Disabled" unless a video device specifically requires the setting enabled upon installation.
Assign IRQ for VGA	Enabled	Set to Yes if you are using an AGP video card.
Assign IRQ for USB	Enabled	Set to Yes if you are using an USB device.
PIRQ-0 Use IRQ No.	Auto	The more the BIOS automatically figures out the IRQ settings the better I like it.
PIRQ-1 Use IRQ No.	Auto	Ditto.
PIRQ-2 Use IRQ No.	Auto	Ditto.
PIRQ-3 Use IRQ No.	Auto	Ditto.

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