R P5A-B
Pentium® Super7 Motherboard
USER’S MANUAL
USER'S NOTICE
No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be repro-
duced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in
any form or by any means, except documentation kept by the purchaser for backup purposes,
without the express written permission of ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (“ASUS”).
ASUS PROVIDES THIS MANUAL “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EI-
THER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PAR-
TICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ASUS, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EM-
PLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS
OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF USE OR DATA, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS AND THE
LIKE), EVEN IF ASUS HAc BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAM-
AGES ARISING FROM ANY DEFECT OR ERROR IN THIS MANUAL OR PRODUCT.
Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modified or
altered, unless such repair, modification of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2)
the serial number of the product is defaced or missing.
Products and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trade-
marks or copyrights of their respective companies, and are used only for identification or
explanation and to the owners’ benefit, without intent to infringe.
• ALi and Aladdin are trademarks of Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi)
• Adobe and Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
• AMD, K6, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Cyrix, M II, and combinations thereof are trademarks of National Semiconductor Corporation.
• IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation.
• Intel, LANDesk, and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.
• Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
The product name and revision number are both printed on the product itself. Manual revi-
sions are released for each product design represented by the digit before and after the period
of the manual revision number. Manual updates are represented by the third digit in the manual
revision number.
For previous or updated manuals, BIOS, drivers, or product release information, contact ASUS
at http://www.asus.com.tw or through any of the means indicated on the following page.
SPECIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MANUAL ARE FUR-
NISHED FOR INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY, AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT
ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COM-
MITMENT BY ASUS. ASUS ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR
ANY ERRORS OR INACCURACIES THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS MANUAL, INCLUD-
ING THE PRODUCTS AND SOFTWARE DESCRIBED IN IT.
Copyright © 1999 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All Rights Reserved.
Product Name:
Manual Revision:
Release Date:
ASUS P5A-B
1.07 E381
April 1999
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ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
ASUS CONTACT INFORMATION
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. (Asia-Pacific)
Marketing
Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
150 Li-Te Road, Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan 112
+886-2-2894-3447
+886-2-2894-3449
info@asus.com.tw
Technical Support
Tel (English): +886-2-2894-3447 ext. 706
Tel (Chinese): +886-2-2894-3447 ext. 111
Fax:
Email:
Newsgroup:
WWW:
FTP:
+886-2-2895-9254
tsd@asus.com.tw
news2.asus.com.tw
www.asus.com.tw
ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS
ASUS COMPUTER INTERNATIONAL (America)
Marketing
Address:
6737 Mowry Avenue, Mowry Business Center, Building 2
Newark, CA 94560, USA
+1-510-608-4555
info-usa@asus.com.tw
Fax:
Email:
Technical Support
Fax:
BBS:
Email:
WWW:
FTP:
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ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS
ASUS COMPUTER GmbH (Europe)
Marketing
Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
Harkort Str. 25, 40880 Ratingen, BRD, Germany
49-2102-445011
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sales@asuscom.de
Technical Support
Hotline:
BBS:
Email:
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FTP:
49-2102-499712
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ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM
ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
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CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 7
How this Manual is Organized ........................................................ 7
Item Checklist .................................................................................. 7
II. FEATURES .................................................................................... 8
ASUS P5A-B Motherboard ............................................................. 8
Introduction to ASUS Smart Series Motherboards .............. 9
Parts of the ASUS P5A-B Motherboard .......................................... 11
III. INSTALLATION .......................................................................... 12
ASUS P5A-B Motherboard Layout ................................................. 12
Installation Steps .............................................................................. 14
1. Jumpers ........................................................................................ 14
Jumper Settings .................................................................... 15
Compatible Cyrix CPU Identification .................................. 18
2. System Memory (DIMM) ............................................................ 19
DIMM Memory Installation Procedures: ............................. 20
3. Central Processing Unit (CPU) ................................................... 21
4. Expansion Cards ......................................................................... 23
Expansion Card Installation Procedure: ............................... 23
Assigning IRQs for Expansion Cards................................... 23
Assigning DMA Channels for ISA Cards ............................. 24
ISA Cards and Hardware Monitor ........................................ 24
Accelerated Graphics Port .................................................... 24
5. External Connectors .................................................................... 25
Power Connection Procedures ................................................... 35
IV. BIOS SOFTWARE ........................................................................ 36
Flash Memory Writer Utility ........................................................... 36
Main Menu ................................................................................. 36
Managing and Updating Your Motherboard’s BIOS.................. 38
6. BIOS Setup ................................................................................. 39
Load Defaults ....................................................................... 40
Standard CMOS Setup ............................................................... 40
Details of Standard CMOS Setup ......................................... 40
BIOS Features Setup .................................................................. 43
Details of BIOS Features Setup ............................................ 43
Chipset Features Setup ............................................................... 45
Details of Chipset Features Setup......................................... 46
Power Management Setup .......................................................... 49
Details of Power Management Setup ................................... 49
PNP and PCI Setup .................................................................... 52
Details of PNP and PCI Setup .............................................. 52
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ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
CONTENTS
Load BIOS Defaults ................................................................... 54
Load Setup Defaults ................................................................... 54
Supervisor Password and User Password .................................. 55
IDE HDD Auto Detection .......................................................... 56
Save & Exit Setup ...................................................................... 57
Exit Without Saving ................................................................... 57
V. SUPPORT SOFTWARE ................................................................ 59
ASUS Smart Motherboard Support CD........................................... 59
Desktop Management Interface (DMI)............................................ 60
Introducing the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility ............... 60
Starting the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility ..................... 60
Using the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility ........................ 61
VI. ASUS CIDB ................................................................................... 63
The ASUS CIDB Chassis Sensor ............................................... 63
Using the ASUS CIDB ......................................................... 63
Setting up the ASUS CIDB .................................................. 64
ASUS CIDB Additional Considerations .............................. 64
VII. ASUS LAN Card ......................................................................... 65
ASUS PCI-L101 Fast Ethernet Card ............................................... 65
Features ............................................................................................ 66
Software Driver Support ............................................................ 66
Question and Answer ................................................................. 66
APPENDIX .......................................................................................... 67
Glossary ........................................................................................... 67
ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
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FCC & DOC COMPLIANCE
Federal Communications Commission Statement
This device complies with FCC Rules Part 15. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions:
• This device may not cause harmful interference, and
• This device must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B
digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to
provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installa-
tion. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if
not installed and used in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions, may cause
harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interfer-
ence by one or more of the following measures:
• Re-orient or relocate the receiving antenna.
•
• Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the
Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
WARNING! The use of shielded cables for connection of the monitor to the
graphics card is required to assure compliance with FCC regulations. Changes
or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for
compliance could void the user’s authority to operate this equipment.
Canadian Department of Communications Statement
This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions
from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian
Department of Communications.
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ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
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I. INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Features
Installation
How this Manual is Organized
I.
II.
III.
IV. BIOS Software
V.
VI. ASUS CIDB
VII. ASUS L101 Card Installation of the ASUS LAN card (optional)
Manual information and checklist
Information and specifications concerning this product
Instructions on setting up the motherboard
Instructions on setting up the BIOS software
Information on the included support software
Installation of the ASUS CIDB Chassis Sensor (optional)
Support Software
APPENDIX
Glossary of Terms
Item Checklist
Check that your package is complete. If you discover damaged or missing items,
contact your retailer.
(1) ASUS Motherboard
(2) 9-pin male serial external connector set
(1) 25-pin female parallel + 6-pin female PS/2 mouse external connector set
(1) IDE ribbon cable for master and slave drives
(1) Ribbon cable for (1) 5.25” and (2) 3.5” floppy disk drives
(1) Bag of spare jumpers
(1) CD disc with support drivers and utilities
(1) User’s Manual
Audio Bracket (only available with ISA audio option)
ASUS CIDB chassis sensor module (optional)
PS/2 Mouse, Infrared, USB1, and USB2 external connector module (optional)
ASUS PCI-L101 Wake-On-LAN 10/100 Ethernet Card (optional)
ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual
7
II. FEATURES
ASUS P5A-B Motherboard
• ALi AGPset: ALi® (Acer Laboratories Inc.) Aladdin V AGPset with support for a
100MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), and all current
Socket-7 processors.
• Multi-Processor/Multi-Speed Support: AMD K6™-III /400 & faster, AMD K6™-
2/266 & faster, AMD K6™/166 & faster, AMD K5™/90–133, IBM®/Cyrix® 6x86MX™/
M II™ (PR166 & faster), IDT WinChip 2™/240 & faster, IBM®/Cyrix® 6x86-PR166+
(Rev 2.7 or later), Intel Pentium® 90–233MHz (P55C-MMX™, P54C/P54CS).
• Level 2 Cache SRAM/Tag RAM: Supports 512KB/1MB pipelined-burst SRAM/L2
memory cache and integrated Tag RAM to make using the 100MHz bus speed possible.
• Enhanced ACPI and Anti-Boot Virus BIOS: Features a programmable BIOS, offer-
ing enhanced ACPI for Windows 98 compatibility, built-in hardware-based virus pro-
tection through Trend ChipAwayVirus, and autodetection of most devices for virtually
automatic setup.
PC100 Memory Support: Equipped with three DIMM sockets to support Intel
PC100-compliant SDRAMs (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, or 256MB) up to 768MB. These
new SDRAMs are necessary to meet the 95MHz/100MHz bus speed requirement.
• AGP Slot: Supports AGP cards for high performance, component level interconnec-
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tion targeted at 3D graphical display applications.
ISA Audio (optional): Features C-Media’s 3D positional sound chip, which pro-
vides such cutting edge features as wavetable music synthesizer, 3D surround audio,
and SPDIF I/O interface in addition to the usual compatibility with games written
for both Windows® 95/98 and DOS®.
• UltraDMA/33 BM IDE: Comes with an onboard PCI Bus Master IDE controller
with two connectors that supports four IDE devices in two channels, supports
UltraDMA/33, PIO Modes 3 and 4 and Bus Master IDE DMA Mode 2, and supports
Enhanced IDE devices, such as Tape Backup and CD-ROM drives. Supports two
drives of either 5.25-inch (360KB or 1.2MB) or 3.5-inch (720KB, 1.44MB, or
2.88MB) disk drives. Supports Japanese “Floppy 3 mode” (3.5-inch disk drive:
1.2MB) and LS-120 floppy disk drives (3.5-inch disk drive: 120 MB, 1.44MB, 720K).
BIOS supports IDE CD-ROM or SCSI device boot-up.
• Wake-On-LAN: Supports Wake-On–LAN activity with special network cards, such
•
•
•
as the ASUS PCI-L101 10/100 Fast Ethernet PCI card.
PC Health Monitoring (optional): Provides a convenient utility to monitor your
system’s vital components/activities, such as fan rotations, voltages, and temperatures.
Super Multi-I/O: Provides two high-speed UART compatible serial ports and one
parallel port with EPP and ECP capabilities. UART2 can also be directed from COM2
to the Infrared Module for wireless connections.
• Desktop Management Interface (DMI): Supports DMI through BIOS, which al-
lows hardware to communicate within a standard protocol creating a higher level of
compatibility. (Requires DMI-enabled components.) (See section V)
• USB, PS/2 Mouse, IrDA Connector: Supports an optional cable and bracket set to
mount the connectors to an unused expansion slot on the system chassis. A second
IrDA connector is available for a standard individual infrared cable set.
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ASUS P5A-B User’s Manual