Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aablue!jb
From: jb@aablue.UUCP (John B Scalia)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: AMI bios manual; just say no!
Summary: I don't know if I word that that strong...
Keywords: bios manuals
Message-ID: <1161@aablue.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 90 16:07:37 GMT
References: <2545@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Reply-To: jb@aablue.UUCP (John B Scalia)
Distribution: na
Organization: A A Blueprint Co., Inc. - Akron, OH
Lines: 42

In article <2545@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) writes:
>Warning! Do not buy the AMI bios manual from AMI, or anyone for that matter.
>
>I just bought it, it cost US$25.00, plus $5.00 for handling.  It is the
>biggest rip off in history.  I won't go into hundreds of gory details, but
>a typical example is the EMR enable.  The menu in the extended setup
> [deleted for brevity]
>I want to know what EMR and quick mode are, what they do, and what the
>benefits/consequences of each setting is!  All told, there are about 40
>settings, some are intuitively obvious what they do, others are not.
>That's why I bought the f*cking manual.
>
>The manual doesn't explain any of these things.  It just re-iterates what the
>setup says...  setting the EMR enable to 1 enables EMR, etc, etc, etc...
>

I'd be pretty p*ssed off too about random acronyms which aren't explained
anywhere, but please don't lump all manuals into the same category. I've
got a copy of Phoenix's bios manuals from Addison-Wesley, and I've actually
found it useful. While I realize that bios are different, the interrupts
and most services have to be the same (I know, all of my normal machines use
the AMI bios as well.) 

There is also a big advantage to A-W, at least if you join their pain in the
butt book club. You can usually return the book if you don't like it; I know
I have with others in the past. 

>If, by chance, anyone does know what these features are/and do, and would be
>so good as to relay that information to me, it would be greatly appreciated.
>The machine is a 386sx with AMI bios and C&T NEAT chipset.  (I'm interested
>in all the features, not just EMR and quick mode.

Sorry, I looked in the book and, yes it says nothing. In fact it doesn't 
even list it under it acronym list. So, yes I'm probably missing some things,
but I have to wonder how many of these things might be system specific?

jb@aablue.UUCP
-- 
A A Blueprint Co., Inc. - Akron, Ohio +1 216 794-8803 voice
UUCP:	   {uunet!}aablue!jb	(John B. Scalia)

Just a little more nonsense to clutter up the net.