User manual AOPEN AX37PRO

[. . . ] Overview Troubleshooting & Technical Support Hardware Installation Drivers & Utilities AWARD BIOS Setup Glossary Online Manual DOC. NO. : AX37P-OL-E0210C AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro 1 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro W h a t 's i n t h i s m a n u a l Online Manual AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What's in this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 You Must Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Before You Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] system is OK. Note: During POST (Power On Self Test) procedure, the Debug LED will light on sequentially from LED0 to LED7 until the system boot O. K 60 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro B a t t e r y - l e s s a n d L o n g Li f e D e s i g n Online Manual This Motherboard implements Flash ROM and a special circuit that allows you to save your current CPU and CMOS Setup configurations without the need of a battery. The RTC (real time clock) can also keep running as long as the power cord is plugged. If you lose your CMOS data by accident, you can just reload the CMOS configurations from Flash ROM and the system will recover as usual. ATX Stand-by Power Battery Auto Switch Auto switching to ATX standby RTC (Real Time Clock) 00:00:00 power as long as AC power line is plugged. This smart design increases battery life if you still plug battery on motherboard. Flash ROM CMOS Backup by EEPROM 61 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro O v e r - c ur r e n t P r o t e c t i o n Online Manual The Over Current Protection was very popular implemented on ATX 3. 3V/5V/12V switching power supply. However, the new generation CPU uses different voltage that has regulator to transfer 5V to CPU voltage (for example, 2. 0V), and makes 5V over current protection useless. This motherboard is with switching regulator onboard supports CPU over-current protection; in conjunction with 3. 3V/5V/12V power supply provide the full line over-current protection. 12V (Protected by power supply) ATX Switching Power Supply 3. 3V (Protected by power supply) 5V (Protected by power supply) Onboard Power Regulator Over-Current Protection Circuit CPU Core Voltage Note: Although we have implemented protection circuit try to prevent any human operating mistake, there is still certain risk that CPU, memory, HDD, add-on cards installed on this motherboard may be damaged because of component failure, human operating error or unknown nature reason. AOpen cannot guaranty the protection circuit will always work perfectly. 62 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro H a r d w a r e M o ni t o r i n g Online Manual This motherboard implements a hardware monitoring system. As you turn on your system, this smart design will continue to monitor your system's working voltage, fan status and CPU temperature. If any of these systems' status go wrong, there will be an alarm through the AOpen Hardware Monitoring Utility to warn the user. Fan Fan Speed CPU CPU Temperature CPU Voltage Detection Circuit AOpen H/W Monitoring Utility Power System Voltage 63 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro R e se t ta b l e F u s e Online Manual Traditional motherboard has fuse for Keyboard and USB port to prevent over-current or shortage. These fuses are soldered onboard that when it is broken (did the job to protect motherboard), user still cannot replace it and the motherboard is still malfunction. With expensive Resettable Fuse, the motherboard can back to normal function after fuse did the protection job. Resettable Fuse 64 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro Year 2000 (Y2K) Online Manual Y2K is basically a problem of the identification of year code. To save storage space, traditional software uses only two digits for year identification. For example, 98 for 1998 and 99 for 1999, but 00 will be confused with 1900 and 2000. There is an RTC circuit (Real Time Clock) in conjunction with 128 bytes of CMOS RAM data in the chipset of the motherboard. The RTC has only two digits and the CMOS has another 2 digits. Unfortunately, this circuit's behavior is like this 1997# 1998 # 1999 # 1900, that means it may have the Y2K problem. Below is a diagram of how applications work with the OS, BIOS and RTC. In order to keep the best compatibility in the PC industry there is a rule that applications must call the OS to get services and OS must call the BIOS, and then only BIOS is allowed to access the hardware (RTC) directly. Applications Operating System (such as Windows 98) BIOS (Tick Routine) RTC and CMOS data There is a Tick Routine (that goes live around every 50m sec) in the BIOS to keep record of date/time information. In general the BIOS, this Tick Routine does not update the CMOS every time because the CMOS is a very slow device that degrades system performance. The Tick Routine of the AOpen BIOS has 4 digits for year coding, as long as applications and the operating system 65 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro Online Manual follow the rule to get date/time information. There will be no Y2K problem (such as NSTL's test program). [. . . ] http://www. aopen. com. tw/tech/faq/default. htm Download Software: Check out this table to get the latest updated BIOS/utility and drivers. http://www. aopen. com. tw/tech/download/default. htm 111 AX37 Plus/AX37 Pro Online Manual 5 6 7 News Group: Your problem probably had been answered by our support engineer or professional users on the news group. http://www. aopen. com. tw/tech/newsgrp/default. htm Contact Distributors/Resellers: We sell our products through resellers and integrators. They should know your system configuration very well and should be able to solve your problem more efficiently than us. [. . . ]