1. A flash utility, this motherboard has an AMI BIOS and the utility used is the AMI Firmware Update Utility. With Supermicro motherboards the utility is made up of a batch file (ami.bat) and an application (afudos.smc)
2. The ROM image used by the flash utility for flashing the BIOS chip. For Supermicro motherboards the filename will begin with part of the board model, e.g. X8SIL0.225.

Procedure 1A - Flashing the BIOS

1. Create a bootable DOS-formatted USB drive.
2. Copy or extract the required files onto the USB drive.
3. Boot the computer from the USB drive, to bring up the Boot Menu for Asus boards press F8 when prompted.
4. Make sure you are in the folder containing all the necessary files, then use the following command, changing the ROM image name to the one you have: ami x8sil0.225
5. The first reboot will result in something similar to the following message: "The CMOS has been reset; press F1 to enter setup or F2 to continue with default settings". Press F1 and follow Procedure 2 (Step 2) below.

Procedure 2 - Configuring the BIOS

1. Press the [Delete] key the during POST screen to enter BIOS setup.
2. Go to the 'Exit' menu. Choose 'Load Optimal Defaults'.
3. Below is a tree of the recommended settings to change from the defaults. Some may vary depending on preference and system build (for example you would not disable the Floppy controller if you had one installed).

1. A flash utility, this motherboard has an AMI BIOS and the utility used is the AMI Firmware Update Utility. It will either be named AFUDOS.exe or BUPDATER.exe.
2. The ROM image used by the flash utility for flashing the BIOS chip. For Asus motherboards the filename will end with 4 digits representing the BIOS version and then the .rom extension.

Procedure 1A - Flashing the BIOS

1. Create a bootable DOS-formatted USB drive.
2. Copy or extract the 2 required files onto the USB drive.
3. Boot the computer from the USB drive, to bring up the Boot Menu for Asus boards press F8 when prompted.
4. Make sure you are in the folder containing both the application and the ROM image, then use one of the following commands depending on the name of the flash utility: bupdater /i1234.rom or afudos /i1234.rom, replacing 1234 with the rom file name.
5. Once the programming is complete you can restart the computer.
6. The first reboot will result in the following message: "Please Enter Setup to recover BIOS Setting, CMOS Date/Time Not Set ". Press F1 and follow Procedure 2 (Step 2) below.

1. Copy a valid ROM image to a USB drive and plug it into the computer, the flash utility isn't necessary.
2. Press the [Delete] key during the POST screen to enter the BIOS setup.
3. Go to the 'Tools' menu and then select 'Asus EZ Flash 2'
4. Navigate to the ROM image and select it; the utility will confirm that it is valid and ask if you want to go ahead with flashing the BIOS.
5. Confirm that you do, then once it is finished flashing the BIOS it will automatically restart.
6. As with Procedure 1A, the first reboot will result in the following message: "Please Enter Setup to recover BIOS Setting, CMOS Date/Time Not Set ". Press F1 and follow Procedure 2 (Step 2) below.

Procedure 2 - for configuring the BIOS

1. Press the [Delete] key the during POST screen to enter BIOS setup.
2. Go to the 'Exit' menu. Choose 'Load Setup Defaults'.
3. Below is a tree of the recommended settings to change from the defaults. Some may vary depending on preference and system build (for example you would not disable the Serial Port if you where using the Serial Port header).

1) Download the installer from this link .

2) Run the installer, it is fairly straight forward; enter the email server and address details when asked.

3) Disable the autorun feature to prevent receiving Event Sentry news occasionally when you start up the system; the service will still run and send email alerts automatically (if you need to disable autorun after installation simply delete the Event Sentry entry from the Startup folder in the start menu). Also disable the Heartbeat Agent from installing as we will only be monitoring the local server in this example.

4) After finishing the installation start up Event Sentry from the Desktop or Start Menu shortcut; skip through the introduction wizard then disable the Tip of the Day and Online Resources if you no longer want to see them on startup.

5) For the most part you do not need to change the application settings; you will need to change the mail server settings if your outgoing mail server requires authentication. You can send a test email from this page to confirm that the email settings are correct.

6) You can also view the Event Viewer from the application; there are a few more options available including a quick online search option to find more information for the selected event. From here you can also create a filter, however in this case we will be creating them a different way.

7) Rename the Default filter package to whatever you like, in this case it will be called “Intel RAID”

8) Rename the ‘Warnings and Errors’ filter to something similar to Intel RAID as well, as this will be showing up in the title of the email notifications. Use the settings as pictured:

9) Next we need to create a filter to exclude the Intel Storage service startup from prompting email notifications otherwise you will get an email every time the system starts up. Right click the package name and select ‘Add Filter’ then fill in the settings seen below:

10) To add the Content Filter at the bottom click the + to the right of the text box and enter *started* as this will filter out both IAStorDataMgrSvc startup events.

11) Save the configuration from the ‘File’ menu or the button up the top left; if you are using Windows XP then the setup is complete. If you are using Windows Vista or 7 then you need to change the way the Intel Rapid Storage Technology service starts up.

12) By default it is set to a delayed automatic startup, as we want to be able to be notified even when there is no user logged on we need to change this to the normal automatic startup option. To do this right click 'Computer' in the start menu and select 'Manage'; from here select Services and Applications then Services from the left menu. Scroll down, right click “Intel Rapid Storage Technology” and select Properties. Change the Startup Type to ‘Automatic’. Confirm the changes and exit out.

13) To test that the filters are working as they should go to the Services utility and restart the Intel Storage service as this will prompt a “Service stopped successfully” event. If this causes an email notification to be sent, but the “Service started successfully” event that happens after does not then the filters are configured correctly.