Computex is the biggest assembly of computer system designers, developers, makers and vendors in the world.  It is an industry trade show (not for consumers) held annually in Taipei and over 130,000 visitors attended the event that took place on 5 to 9 June 2007.  Without doubt, the 2 powers namely Intel and AMD did their best to showcase their latest and greatest.  What should school network administrators know about these latest offerings? How will these offerings affect computing in the school?  Intel has showcased the next generation of CPU with strange names like Harpertown and Wolfdale and AMD has come up with Barecelona and Phenom.  Intel has introduced a new series of chipset called the 3-series consisting of 7 members (X38, P35, G35, G33, G31, Q35 and Q33) and some will support quad core CPU with 1333MHz front side bus and DDR-3 1066 memory.  AMD has announced the 7-series chipsets for supporting Hyper Transport 3.0, PCI Express 2.0 and DirectX 10.  These latest announcements do not affect school computing immediately but their effect will start to flow through the school in about 3 months' time.  Which new technology to take on and which to ignore?  The simple guideline is FFP (Fitness for Purpose) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).  The new technologies will mostly affect the high end machines in the school such as those used for multimedia authoring purposes as well as fileservers that are experiencing major progression in utilisation and scalability.  If you wish to better understand any of the above matters, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

(For IT Managers & Network Administrator)

This is a Ministry of Education technical conference and trade show held in association with the Telecommunications User Association of New Zealand (TUANZ).  The agenda is to facilitate dialogues between the industry and schools and to enhance the introduction of cost effective solutions to schools.  Compucon will participate in the Auckland Conference in Eden Park.  Apart from providing some simple displays at the conference, Compucon will speak on the 2 themes that have obtained a lot of resonance from school network administrators.  The themes are (a) Extra Support for Network Administrators, and (b) Imminent Server Technologies.  Do email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to specify your desired information.

1. The Flash Utility that corresponds with the motherboard BIOS chip (usually AMI or Award). This will be an executable e.g. afud412.exe
2. The binary file used by the flash utility for programming the BIOS chip. It is usually in an 8.3 file numbering format with the extension indicating the version number. E.g. a7255vms.51C - version 5.1c BIOS for the MSI 7255 motherboard.

Procedure 1 - for 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 PC/motherboard using the USB drive.
4. Enter the following command to flash the BIOS - this is usually just the name of the flash utility file followed by the binary file: "afud412 a7255vms.51c"
5. Once the programming is complete you can remove the USB drive and restart the PC.
6. The first reboot will result in a message similar to the following: "The CMOS has been reset; press F1 to enter setup or F2 to continue with default settings". Press F1 and follow the Procedure 2 (Step 2) below.

Procedure 2 - for configuring the BIOS

1. Press [Delete] key during POST screen to enter BIOS setup.
2. Choose 'Load Compucon Optimized Defaults'.
3. Change each of the settings listed in Procedure 3 below as applicable - for the specifications of the PC.

Procedure 3 - BIOS Settings

There are no additional setting changes to make. The #1VV3 BIOS available at the top of this page has already been customised by Compucon NZ.

End.  Save & Exit Setup

1. The Flash Utility that corresponds with the motherboard BIOS chip (usually AMI or Award). This will be an executable e.g. afud412.exe
2. The binary file used by the flash utility for programming the BIOS chip. It is usually in an 8.3 file numbering format with the extension indicating the version number. E.g. a7255vms.51C - version 5.1c BIOS for the MSI 7255 motherboard.

Procedure 1 - for 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 PC/motherboard using the USB drive.
4. Enter the following command to flash the BIOS - this is usually just the name of the flash utility file followed by the binary file: "afud412 a7255vms.51c"
5. Once the programming is complete you can remove the USB drive and restart the PC.
6. The first reboot will result in a message similar to the following: "The CMOS has been reset; press F1 to enter setup or F2 to continue with default settings". Press F1 and follow the Procedure 2 (Step 2) below.

Procedure 2 - for configuring the BIOS

1. Press [Delete] key during POST screen to enter BIOS setup.
2. Choose 'Load Compucon Optimized Defaults'.
3. Change each of the settings listed in Procedure 3 below as applicable - for the specifications of the PC.

Procedure 3 - BIOS Settings

The #1871 BIOS available at the top of this page has already been partially customised by Compucon NZ.
Additional settings that you NEED to check are:

(1) Standard CMOS Features -> Floppy Drive A -> Disabled (by default).
Please enable if you have a floppy drive installed.

(2) Advanced BIOS Features -> Boot Sequence ->
Please change the boot sequence listed here to your preference.
1st Boot Device: CD/DVD, 2nd Boot Device: HDD is our standard.

(3) Integrated Peripherals -> On-Chip ATA Devices -> Onchip RAID Controller -> Disabled (by default).
Please enable for Host RAID. Each SATA port can be enabled or disabled individually. 

Save & Exit Setup.
End.