EPoX Computer EP-6VBA manual

TRADEMARK All products and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. These specifications are subject to change without notice. Manual Revision 4.2 May 25, 1999 EP-6VB EP-6VB EP-6VB EP-6VB EP-6VB A A A A A A P A P A P A P A P entium entium entium entium entium ® ® ® ® ® II or P II or P II or P II or P I[...]

EP-6VBA T echnical Suppor t Ser vices If you need additional information, help during installation or normal use of this product, please contact your retailer. If your retailer can not help, you may E- Mail us with any questions at the following address tech@epox.com Record your serial number before installing your EP-6VBA mainboard. (the serial nu[...]

EP-6VBA User Notice No part of this product, including the product and software may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form by any means without the express written permission of EPoX Computer Company (here in after referred to as EPoX) except documenta- tion kept by the pur[...]

EP-6VBA T able of Contents Section 1 Introduction Components Checklist ....................................... 1-1 Overview Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Processor ............... 1-2 S.E.C. Cartridge T erminology ........................... 1-3 Accelerated Graphics Port ................................ 1-4 Hardware Monitoring ...................[...]

EP-6VBA Power Management Setup ................................. 4-1 1 PNP/PCI Configuration ..................................... 4-15 Load Setup Defaults .......................................... 4-17 Integrated Peripherals ........................................ 4-17 Sensor and CPU Speed Setup ............................ 4-22 Change Superviso[...]

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Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-1 Section 1 INTRODUCTION Components Checklist ü ü ü ü ü A . (1) EP-6VBA mainboard ü ü ü ü ü B. (1) EP-6VBA user’ s manual ü ü ü ü ü C. (1) Floppy ribbon cable ü ü ü ü ü D. (1) Hard drive ribbon cables ü ü ü ü ü E. (1) Foldable Retention Module F. (1) Heatsink Support Unit (Optional) G. (1 ) PS/[...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-2 Ov er view Pentium ® II or P entium ® III Processor The Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Processor is the follow-on to the Pentium ® Processor. The Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Processor, like the Pentium ® Pro processor, implements a Dynamic Execution micro-architecture -- a unique combination of multiple branch[...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-3 The entire enclosed product is called the Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Processor. The packaging technology and each of the physical elements of the product are referred to using accurate technical descriptions. This allows clear reference to the products as just a processor. This is the model used in past packaging [...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-4 The L2 cache (T agRAM, PBSRAM) components keep standard industry names. The Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Processor is the first product to utilize the S.E. C. cartridge technology and Slot 1 connector. Unless otherwise noted, any references to “Pentium ® II Processor,” “Pentium ® II or Pentium ® III Process[...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-5 EP-6VBA F or m-Factor The EP-6VBA is designed with A TX form factor - the new industry standard of chassis. A TX form factor is essentially a Baby-A T baseboard rotated 90 degrees within the chassis enclosure and a new mounting configuration for the power supply . W ith these changes the processor is relocated away fro[...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-6 EP-6VBA Board P ower-On/Off (Remote) The EP-6VBA has a single 20-pin connector for A TX power supplies. For A TX power supplies that support the Remote On/Off feature, this should be connected to the systems front panel for system Power On/Off button. The systems power On/Off button should be a momentary button that is[...]

Introduction EP-6VBA Page 1-7 Figure 5: System Block Diagram System Block Diagram PA C PCI Br idge and memor y contr oller VT82C693 100/66MHz 100/66MHz 66MHz P entium II or Pro c e ss or P entium III VT82 C686A I/O Bridge AC 97 USB 0,1 USB 2,3 AMR S lot[...]

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Features EP-6VBA Page 2-1 Section 2 FEA TURES EP-6VBA F eatur es: • EP-6VBA is based on the Pentium ® II/III Processor operating at 266 ~ 550MHz on Slot1. The board is configured by an ESSJ (Easy-Setting- Single-Jumper) to match your CPU clock speed. • Designed with VIA Apollo Pro PCIset. • Supports up to 768MB of DRAM (minimum of 8 MB) on b[...]

Features EP-6VBA Page 2-2 • Supports the (4) Universal Serial Bus (USB) Ports. The onboard VT82C686A chip provides the means for connecting PC peripherals such as; keyboards, joysticks, telephones, and modems. • Built-in A TX 20-pin power supply connector . • Software power-down when using W indows ® 95/98. • Supports ring-in feature (remo[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-1 Section 3 INST ALLA TION[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-2 Figure 1 EP-6VBA Detailed Layout[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-3 Easy Installation Procedur e Easy Installation Procedur e The following must be completed before powering on your new system: 3-1. Configure DIP Switch and Jumper to match your hardware 3-2. System memory Configuration 3-3. Install Pentium II or Pentium III Processor 3-4. Device Connectors 3-5 External Modem Ring-in Po[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-4 Section 3-2 System Memor y Configur a tion Memor y Layout The EP-6VBA supports (3) 168-pin DIMMs (Dual In-line Memory Module). The DIMMs can be either EDO (Enhanced Data Out) or SDRAM (Synchronized DRAM). • DIMM SDRAM may be 83MHz (12ns), 100MHz (10ns) or 125MHz (8ns) bus speed. • If you use both 50ns and 60ns memo[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-5 DIMM Module Installation Figure 3 displays the notch marks and what they should look like on your DIMM memory module. DIMMs have 168-pins and two notches that will match with the onboard DIMM socket. DIMM modules are installed by placing the chip firmly into the socket at a 90 degree angle and pressing straight down (f[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-6 Figure 5 DIMM Module clip after installation To remove the DIMM module simply press down both of the white clips on either side and the module will be released from the socket.[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-7 Section 3-3 Installing a P entium II or Pentium III Pr ocessor The EP-6VBA uses the Single Edge Contact (SEC) slot for a Pentium ® II processor packaged in an SEC cartridge. The SEC slot is not compatible with other non-Pentium II processors. Please have ready the following list of components so that we may install th[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-8 Now we need to secure the heatsink with the top half of the support (figure 9). Take the top piece of the support and slide it into the bottom fin (figure 9) on the heatsink and then push forward until it clips into the bottom base (figure 7) that is already there (figure 9). Figure 8 Figure 7 shows the layout of Slot [...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-9 Section 3-4 De vice Connector s Please install the motherboard into the chassis. Now that your motherboard is installed you are ready to connect all your connections (figure 10). J2: Chassis Panel Connector • Power LED, Speaker, Reset J3: Turbo LED, HDD LED, IR Conn., Sleep/Power_ON J4: CPU Fan Power • A plug-in fo[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-10 De vice Connector s (continued) J2 Speaker - Connect to the system's speaker for beeping 1. Speaker 3. GND 2. N/C 4. GND Reset - Closed to restart system. Power LED - Power LED connector 1. Power LED(+) 4. NC 2. N/C 5. GND 3. GND 1 1 1 (This is connected to the power button on the case. Using the Soft-Off by Pwr-[...]

Installation EP-6VBA Page 3-11 Section 3-5 Exter nal Modem Ring-in Po wer ON and K eyboar d P ow er ON Functions (KBPO) On the basis of bounded functions in I/O chipset, the two serial ports are able to support the External Modem Ring-in Power ON function. Once users connect the external modem to COM1 or COM2, the EP-6VBA mainboard allows users to [...]

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BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-1 Section 4 AWARD BIOS SETUP BIOS Instr uctions A ward’ s ROM BIOS provides a built-in Setup program which allows user to modify the basic system configuration and hardware parameters. The modified data will be stored in a battery-backed CMOS, so that data will be retained even when the power is turned off. In general, the inf[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-2 The menu displays all the major selection items. Select the item you need to reconfigure. The selection is made by moving the cursor (press any direction key ) to the item and pressing the ‘Enter ’ key . An on-line help message is displayed at the bottom of the screen as the cursor is moved to various items which provides [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-3 Virus Warning : Disabled CPU Internal Cache : Enabled External Cache : Enabled CPU L2 Cache ECC Checking : Disabled Quick Power On Self Test : Enabled Boot Sequence : A, C, SCSI Swap Floppy Drive : Disabled Boot Up Floppy Seek : Enabled Boot Up NumLock Status : On IDE HDD Block Mode : Enabled Gate A20 option : Fast Memory Pari[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-4 Enabled : Activates automatically when the system boots up causing a warning message to appear when anything attempts to access the boot sector. Disabled : No warning message will appear when anything attempts to access the boot sector. Note: Many disk diagnostic programs that access the boot sector table can trigger the virus[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-5 Boot Sequence : This category determines which drive is searched first by the O/S (Operating System). The default is A,C,SCSI. The following is your list of options: [A, C, SCSI] - [C, A, SCSI] - [C, CD-ROM, A] - [CD-ROM, C, A] [D, A,CD-ROM],[E, A, CD-ROM] - [F, A, CD-ROM] - [SCSI, A, C] [SCSI C, A] - [C Only] Swap Floppy Driv[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-6 IDE HDD Block Mode : IDE Block Mode allows the controller to access blocks of sectors rather than a single sector at a time. The default is Enabled. Enabled : Enabled IDE HDD Block Mode. Pr ovides higher HDD transfer rates. Disabled : Disable IDE HDD Block Mode. Gate A20 Option : This refers to the way the system addresses mem[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-7 The default is 250. 250 : 250 msec. 500 : 500 msec. 750 : 750 msec. 1000 : 1000 msec. Security Option : This category allows you to limit access to the System and Setup, or just to Setup. The default is Setup. System : The system will not boot and the access to Setup will be denied if the corr ect password is not enter ed at t[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-8 C8000 - CBFFF Shadow : CC000 - CFFFF Shadow : D0000 - D3FFF Shadow : D4000 - D7FFF Shadow : D8000 - DBFFF Shadow : DC000 - DFFFF Shadow : These categories determine whether ROMs from option cards will be copied into RAM. This will be in 16K byte or 32K byte units, and the size will depend on chipset of the option card. Enabled[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-9 Bank 0/1, 2/3, 4/5 DRAM Timing : This value in this field is set by the system board manufacturer, depending on whether the board has paged DRAMs or EDO (extended data output) DRAMs. The Choice: Bank 0/1, 2/3, 4/5. SDRAM Cycle length : This setting defines the CAS timing parameter of the SDRAM in terms of clocks. The default i[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-10 Read Around write: DRAM optimization feature: If a memory read is addressed to a location whose latest write is being held in a buffer contents, and the read is not sent to the DRAM. The Choice: Enabled, Disabled Concurrent PCI/Host: When disabled, CPU bus will be occupied during the entire PCI operation period. The Choice: E[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-11 OnChip USB : Select Enabled if your system contains a Universal Serial Bus(USB) controller and you have a USB peripheral. USB Keyboard Support : This controls the activation status of an optional USB keyboard that may be attached. The default is disabled. Enabled : Enable USB keyboar d support. Disabled : Disable USB keyboar [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-12 Y ou can only change the content of Doze Mode, Standby Mode, and Suspend Mode when the Power Management is set to ‘User Define’. Power Management : Use this to select your Power Management selection. The default is User define. Disabled : The system operates in NORMAL conditions (Non-GREEN), and the Power Management funct[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-13 MODEM Use IRQ : Name the interrupt request (IRQ) line assigned to the modem (if any) on your system. Activity of the selected IRQ always awakens the system. Default is IRQ 3. N/A : No IRQ is used. 3 : IRQ 3 4 : IRQ 4 5 : IRQ 5 7 : IRQ 7 9 : IRQ 9 10 : IRQ 10 11 : IRQ 1 1 The EP-6VBA supports HDD Power Down, Doze and Standby p[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-14 VGA: When set to On (default), any event occurring at a VGA port will awaken a system which has been powered down. LPT & COM: When set to On (default), any event occurring at a COM(serial)/LPT (printer) port will awaken a system which has been powered down. HDD & FDD : When set to On (default), any event occurring at [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-15 4-5 PNP/PCI Configuration The PNP/PCI configuration program is for the user to modify the PCI/ISA IRQ signals when various PCI/ISA cards are inserted in the PCI or ISA slots. W ARNING: Conflicting IRQ’ s may cause the system to not find certain devices. Figur e 6: PNP/PCI Configuration Setup PNP OS Installed : Do you have a[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-16 Reset Configuration Data : This setting allows you to clear ESCD data.. The default is Disabled. Disabled : Normal Setting. Enabled : If you have plugged in some Legacy car ds to the system and they wer e r ecorded into ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data), you can set this field to Enabled in or der to clear ESCD. CPU t[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-17 4-6 Load Setup Defaults The “LOAD SETUP DEF AUL TS” function loads the system default data directly from ROM and initializes the associated hardware properly. This function will be necessary only when the system CMOS data is corrupted. 4-7 Inte gr a ted Peripherals Figur e 8: Integrated Peripherals Note: If you do not use[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-18 Onchip IDE Channel : The default value is Enabled. Enabled : Enables Onboar d IDE primary port. Disabled : Disables Onboar d IDE primary port. Onchip IDE Channel : The default is Enabled. Enabled : Enables Onboar d IDE secondary port. Disabled : Disables Onboard IDE secondary port. Primary Master PIO: The default is Auto. Aut[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-19 Primary Slave UDMA : This allows you to select the mode of operation for the hard drive. The default is Auto. Auto : The computer will select the optimal setting. Disabled : The har d drive will run in normal mode. Secondary Master UDMA : This allows you to select the mode of operation for the hard drive. The default is Auto.[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-20 COM4 : Enable Onboar d Serial port 1 and address is 2E8H/IRQ3. Disabled : Disable Onboar d Serial port 1. Onboard Serial Port 2 : This field allows the user to configure the 2nd serial port. The default is Auto. AUT O : Enable Onboar d Serial port 2 and addr ess is Auto adjusted COM1 : Enable Onboar d Serial port 2 and addres[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-21 Onboard Parallel Mode : This field allows the user to select the parallel port mode. The default is ECP+EPP. Normal : Standar d mode. IBM PC/A T Compatible bidir ectional parallel port. EPP : Enhanced Parallel Port mode. ECP : Extended Capabilities Port mode. EPP+ECP : ECP Mode & EPP Mode. ECP Mode USE DMA : This field al[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-22 FM Port (388-38BH): Frequency modulation port at I/O port 388-38BH enabled/disabled. Game Port (200-207H): Built-in joystick port support disabled/enabled(default). 4-8 SENSOR AND CPU SPEED SETUP Figur e 9: Sensor And CPU Speed Setup Auto Detect DIMM/PCI Clk : When enabled the motherboard will automatically disable the clock [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-23 CPU Host Clock (CPU/PCI): Allows the external clock to be modified depending upon what FSB has been selected. Should not be used to clock processor faster than it was designed for. (See page A-1 1). The default is Default. 66MHz FSB options: Default, 66.8, 68.5, 75, and 83MHz. 100MHz FSB options: Default, 100, 103, 1 12, and [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-24 4-9 Change Super visor or User Pass wor d T o change the password, choose the “SUPER VISOR P ASSWORD or USER P ASSWORD” option from the CMOS SETUP UTILITY menu and press [Enter]. NOTE: Either “Setup” or “System” must be selected in the “Security Option” of the BIOS FEA TURES SETUP menu. 1. If CMOS is corrupted[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-25 4-10 IDE HDD Auto Detection The “IDE HDD auto detection” utility is a very useful tool, especially when you do not know which kind of hard disk type you are using. Y ou can use this utility to detect the correct disk type installed in the system automatically. But now you can set HARD DISK TYPE to Auto in the ST ANDARD CM[...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-26 If user set his HDD to NORMAL mode, the maximum accessible HDD size will be 528 Megabytes even though its physical size may be greater than that! LBA (Logical Block Addressing) mode : A new HDD accessing method to overcome the 528 Megabyte bottleneck. The number of cylinders, heads & sectors shown in setup may not be the [...]

BIOS EP-6VBA Page 4-27 Note: T o support LBA or LARGE mode of HDDs, there must be some software involved. All the software is located in the A ward HDD Service Routine (INT 13h). It may fail to access a HDD with LBA (LARGE) mode selected if you are running under an Operating System which replaces the whole INT 13h. UNIX operating systems do not sup[...]

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Appendix EP-6VBA A-1 Appendix A A-1 MEMOR Y MAP Address Range Size Description [00000-7FFFF] 512K Conventional memory [80000-9FBFF] 127K Extended Conventional memory [9FC00-9FFFF] 1 K Extended BIOS data area if PS/2 mouse is installed [A0000-C7FFF] 160K A vailable for Hi DOS memory [C8000-DFFFF] 9 6 K A vailable for Hi DOS memory and adapter ROMs [[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-2 [3B0-3BF] MONOCHROME & P ARALLEL port adapter . [3C0-3CF] EGA adapter. [3D0-3DF] CGA adapter. [3F0-3F7] FLOPPY DISK controller. [3F8-3FF] SERIAL port 1. A-3 TIMER & DMA CHANNELS MAP TIMER MAP: TIMER C hannel 0 System timer interrupt. TIMER C hannel 1 DRAM REFRESH request. TIMER C hannel 2 SPEAKER tone generator. DMA CHA[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-3 1 2 PS/2 Mouse. 1 3 MA TH coprocessor . 1 4 Onboard HARD DISK (IDE1) channel. 1 5 Onboard HARD DISK (IDE1) channel. A-5 RT C & CMOS RAM MAP R TC & CMOS: 0 0 Seconds. 0 1 Second alarm. 0 2 Minutes. 0 3 Minutes alarm. 0 4 Hours. 0 5 Hours alarm. 0 6 Day of week. 0 7 Day of month. 0 8 Month. 0 9 Y ear . 0 A Status register[...]

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Appendix EP-6VBA A-5 Appendix B B- 1 POST CODES ISA POST codes are typically output to I/O port address 80h. POST (hex) DESC R IPTION 01-02 Reserved. C0 T urn off OEM specific cache, shadow . 0 3 1. Initialize EISA registers (EISA BIOS only). 2. Initialize all the standard devices with default values Standard devices includes. - DMA controller (823[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-6 0C Initialization of the BIOS Data Area. (40:ON - 40:FF) 0 D 1. Program some of the Chipset's value according to Setup. (Early Setup V alue Program) 2. Measure CPU speed for display & decide the system clock speed. 3. V ideo initialization including Monochrome, CGA, EGA/VGA. If no display device found, the speaker will[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-7 3E T ry to turn on Level 2 cache. Note: Some chipset may need to turn on the L2 cache in this stage. But usually, the cache is turn on later in POST 61h. 3F-40 Reserved. B F 1. Program the rest of the Chipset's value according to Setup. (Later Setup V alue Program) 4 1 2. If auto-configuration is enabled, program the chips[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-8 6 1 1. T ry to turn on Level 2 cache. Note: If L2 cache is already turned on in POST 3D, this part will be skipped. 2. Set the boot up speed according to Setup setting. 3. Last chance for Chipset initialization. 4. Last chance for Power Management initialization. (Green ` BIOS only) 5. Show the system configuration table. 6 2 1[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-9 Appendix C NOTE: The " LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS " function loads the system default data directly from ROM and initializes the associated hardware properly. This function will be necessary when you accept this mainboard, or the system CMOS data is corrupted. LOAD SETUP DEF AUL TS ROM PCI/ISA BIOS(2A6LGPAA) CMOS SETUP UTILI[...]

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Appendix EP-6VBA A-11 Appendix D D-1 Sound Driver Quic k Installation Guide Install windows 95/98 Sound Driver **Installation Notes: Y ou must already have W indows 95/98 install on your computer . 1. Login windows 95/98, then click “My Computer” icon, “Control Panel” icon, and “System” icon. 2. Before the Driver install into windows 95[...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-12 3. Please remove the yellow question mark then click "refresh", windows will detect it's presence and display the following dialog. 4. Click "Next" button, it will find Floppy A: 5. Click "Other Locations¡K"button 6. Key-in the driver location (ex. D:AudioW in9x) then click "OK" [...]

Appendix EP-6VBA A-13 D-2 A GP Dri v er Quick Installation Guide Install windows 95/98/NT V4.0 Driver **Installation Notes: 1. Before installing W indows 95 Driver , please do install W indows 95 OSR2.0 "USB SUPP .EXE" first (upgrades OS up to OSR2.1 level). 2. The Operation System(OS) and DirectX 5.0 or 6.0 must be installed into the sys[...]