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AST RESEARCH, INC.         TECHNICAL BULLETIN # 1461                 3-8-96

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	     Bravo MS Pentium Systems Appear to Take Too Long to Boot


PROBLEM

The Bravo MS Pentium system seems to take longer than expected to find the 
floppy drive during late POST, resulting in a slow boot.  There is a 35 to 40 
second delay between the time POST reports the hard drives and the floppy 
drive reports as installed.


CAUSE

The BIOS has all the IDE channels enabled and set to "AUTO" by default.  
If there is only one IDE device installed in the system, POST will scan and 
poll up to three "empty" ports looking for devices during boot.  
This "normal" operation is designed to help eliminate some of the confusion 
caused when IDE devices, which are added by the user, are not "recognized" 
by the system.  This polling delay can make the system appear it is having 
trouble locating the floppy drive.


SOLUTION

Invoke CMOS Setup on the system in question, and ensure that all unused 
IDE channels are disabled.  This can be accomplished by highlighting each of 
the Primary and Secondary IDE entries that indicate the device is "Not 
Installed". 

NOTE

If the entry indicates the device is "Not Installed", it does not necessarily 
mean that it is disabled!

Once highlighted, press <Enter> and set the "IDE Device Configuration" 
option to "Disabled".

Repeat the above step for all uninstalled devices then "Exit and Save" Setup.


NOTE

After disabling the IDE channels, it will be necessary to set each of them 
back to the appropriate setting, if new devices are installed, or they will 
not function properly. 


SYSTEMS AFFECTED
AST Part Number and Description

501920-XXX        Bravo MS P/75
501921-XXX        Bravo MS P/100
501922-XXX        Bravo MS-T P/100
501894-XXX        Bravo MS P/133
501895-XXX        Bravo MS-T P/133
501980-XXX        Bravo MS P/166
501981-XXX        Bravo MS-T P/166

Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.