Need some help with BIOS settings

[bmrr207]

Hi guys,

I just acquired a used Dell Precision Workstation 390, circa 2007. Core2Duo @ 1.9GHz. My previous computer was an AMD machine that I built myself, circa 2004. The Dell has several settings in the BIOS that I'm unfamiliar with. I've read the manual and the online documentation, but it doesn't give any description of what the various settings are; it just lists them and says what the factory defaults are. I've done some Googling and found explanations for a few of them, but I'm hoping that somebody here will be able to help me with the others that I haven't yet found good/clear explanations for.

(I apologize in advance if I posted this in the wrong place; I wasn't sure if it should go under hardware or software. Mods, feel free to move it to the most appropriate section.)

OK, here are the settings that I'm not sure what to do with:

"ASF Mode"
Settings are On, Alert Only, or Off. Factory default is Off.

"SERR Message"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is On.

"TPM Security"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is Off.

"Execute Disable Memory Protection"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is On. I've Googled this and found two or three different explanations of what it is and what it does; not sure which one is correct...?

"Enhanced SpeedStep Technology"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is Off. I found an explanation of SpeedStep, but not sure if that's the same thing as Enhanced SpeedStep...?

"Virtual Machine Monitor"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is Off.

"Limit CPUID Value"
Settings are On and Off. Factory default is Off.

I also have a quick Windows question. When I right-click on My Computer and select Properties, it brings up the System Properties window, which displays the Windows version, the processor, the amount of RAM, etc. The machine originally had XP SP2 on it; last night I updated it to SP3, and now it displays the text "Physical Address Extension" in that window, beneath the processor and RAM information. It did not display that when it was running SP2. What does that mean?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[glc]

I would leave all those settings at factory defaults.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...96(VS.85).aspx

[bmrr207]

Thanks for your reply, and for the link to the explanation about PAE.

I'll leave the BIOS setting at factory default for now, although I'd still like to understand what they mean / what they do, if anyone would like to chime in.