Re: BIOS startup ??

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On Sunday 19 August 2007 17:42, William Case wrote:
> What happens in the micro-seconds between hitting the power button until
> BIOS is loaded from CMOS into RAM memory?

Ok, Les has given an extensive description on the hardware level. I have 
managed to find a similar description on the software level. It is not a 
reference I was talking about before (I am yet to find it), but it is quite 
similar, and I hope useful, though some information may be a bit outdated.

Btw, sorry for the long post...

Best, :-)
Marko

<quote>

The boot process

Computer initialization is a process - not en event. From the
moment power is applied until the system sits idle at the
command-line prompt or graphical desktop, the PC boot process is a
sequence of predictable steps that verify the system and prepare
it for operation. By understanding each step in system
initialization, you can develop a real appreciation for the way
that hardware and software relate to one another - you also stand
a much better chance of identifying and resolving problems when a
system fails to boot properly. This part of the chapter provides a
step-by-step review of a typical PC boot process.

Applying power

PC initialization starts when you turn the system on. When all
output voltages from the power supply are valid, the supply
generates a Power Good (PG) logic signal. It can take between
100ms and 500ms for the supply to generate a PG signal. When the
motherboard timer IC receives the PG signal, the timer stops
forcing a Reset signal to the CPU. At this point, the CPU starts
processing.

The bootstrap

The very first operation performed by a CPU is to fetch an
instruction from address FFFF:0000h. Since this address is almost
at the end of available ROM space, the instruction is almost
always a jump command (JMP) followed by the actual BIOS ROM
starting address. By making all CPUs start at the same point, the
BIOS ROM can then send program control anywhere in the particular
ROM (and each ROM is usually different). This initial search of
address FFFF:0000h and the subsequent re-direction of the CPU is
traditionally referred to as the bootstrap in which the PC "pulls
itself up by its bootstraps" - or gets itself going. Today, we
have shortened the term to boot, and have broadened its meaning to
include the entire initialization process.

Core tests

The core tests are part of the overall Power-On Self-Test (POST)
sequence which is the most important use of a system BIOS during
initialization. As you might expect, allowing the system to
initialize and run with flaws in the motherboard, memory, or drive
systems can have catastrophic consequences for files in memory or
on disk. To insure system integrity, a set of hardware-specific
self-test routines checks the major motherboard components, and
identifies the presence of any other specialized BIOS ICs in the
system (i.e. drive controller BIOS, video BIOS, SCSI BIOS, and so
on).

BIOS starts with a test of the motherboard hardware such as the
CPU, math co-processor, timer ICs, direct memory access (DMA)
controllers, and interrupt (IRQ) controllers. If an error is
detected in this early phase of testing, a series of beeps (or
beep codes) are produced. By knowing the BIOS manufacturer and the
beep code, you can determine the nature of the problem. Chapter 19
deals with beep and error codes in more detail. Beep codes are
used because the video system has not been initialized.

Next, BIOS looks for the presence of a video ROM between memory
locations C000:0000h through C780:000h. In just about all systems,
the search will reveal a video BIOS ROM on a video adapter board
plugged into an available expansion slot. If a video BIOS is
found, its contents are evaluated with a checksum test. If the
test is successful, control is transferred to the video BIOS which
loads and initializes the video adapter. When initialization is
complete, you will see a cursor on the screen, and control returns
to the system BIOS. When no external video adapter BIOS is
located, the system BIOS will provide an initialization routine
for the motherboard's video adapter, and a cursor will also
appear. Once the video system initializes, you are likely to see a
bit of text on the display identifying the system or video BIOS
ROM maker and revision level. If the checksum test fails, you will
see an error message such as; C000 ROM Error or Video ROM Error.
Initialization will usually halt right there.

Now that the video system is ready, system BIOS will scan memory
from C800:0000h through DF80:0000h in 2KB increments to search for
any other ROMs that might be on other adapter cards in the system.
If other ROMs are found, their contents are tested and run. As
each supplemental ROM is executed, they will show manufacturer and
revision ID information. In some cases, a supplemental (or
"adapter") ROM may alter an existing BIOS ROM routine. For
example, an Ultra DMA/33 drive controller board with its own
on-board ROM will replace the motherboards older drive routines.
When a ROM fails the checksum test, you will see an error message
such as; XXXX ROM Error. The XXXX indicates the segment address
where the faulty ROM was detected. When a faulty ROM is detected,
system initialization will usually halt.

POST

BIOS then checks the memory location at 0000:0472h. This address
contains a flag that determines whether the initialization is a
cold start (power first applied) or a warm start (reset button or
<Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Del> key combination). A value of 1234h at this
address indicates a warm start - in which case the (POST) routine
is skipped. If any other value is found at that location, a cold
start is assumed, and the full POST routine will be executed.

The full POST checks many of the other higher-level functions on
the motherboard, memory, keyboard, video adapter, floppy drive,
math co-processor, printer port, serial port, hard drive, and
other sub-systems. There are dozens of tests performed by the
POST. When an error is encountered, the single-byte POST code is
written to I/O port 80h where it may be read by a POST code
reader. In other cases, you may see an error message on the
display (and system initialization will halt). Keep in mind that
POST codes and their meanings will vary slightly between BIOS
manufacturers. If the POST completes successfully, the system will
respond with a single beep from the speaker. Chapter 19 covers I/O
port POST codes.

Finding the OS

The system now needs to load an operating system (usually DOS or
Windows 95). The first step here is to have the BIOS search for a
DOS volume boot sector (VBS) on the A: drive. If there is no disk
in the drive, you will see the drive light illuminate briefly, and
then BIOS will search the next drive in the boot order (usually
drive C:). If there is a disk in drive A:, BIOS will load sector 1
(head 0 cylinder 0) from the disk's DOS volume boot sector into
memory starting at 0000:7C00h. There are a number of potential
problems when attempting to load the VBS. Otherwise, the first
program in the directory (IO.SYS) will begin to load, followed by
MSDOS.SYS.

If the first byte of the DOS VBS is less than 06h (or if the first
byte is greater then or equal to 06h, and next nine words of the
sector contain the same data pattern), you will see an error
message similar to; Diskette boot record error. If the IO.SYS and
MSDOS.SYS are not the first two files in the directory (or some
other problem is encountered in loading), youll see an error such
as; Non-system disk or disk error. If the boot sector on the
diskette is corrupt and cannot be read (DOS 3.3 or earlier),
youll probably get a Disk boot failure message. If the OS cannot
be loaded from any floppy drive, the system will search the first
fixed drive (hard drive). Hard drives are a bit more involved than
floppy disks. BIOS loads sector 1 (head 0 cylinder 0) from the
hard drive's master partition boot sector (called the "master boot
sector" or MBS) into memory starting at 0000:7C00h, and the last
two bytes of the sector are checked. If the final two bytes of the
master partition boot sector are NOT 55h and AAh respectively, the
boot sector is invalid, and you will see an error message similar
to; No boot device available and system initialization will halt.
Other systems may depict the error differently, or attempt to load
ROM BASIC. If the BIOS attempts to load ROM BASIC, and there is no
such feature in the BIOS, youll see a ROM BASIC error message.

Otherwise, the disk will search for and identify any extended
partitions (up to 24 total partitions). Once any extended
partitions have been identified, the drive's original boot sector
will search for a boot indicator byte marking a partition as
active and bootable. If none of the partitions are marked as
bootable (or if more than one partition is marked bootable), a
disk error message will be displayed such as; Invalid partition
table. Some older BIOS versions may attempt to load ROM BASIC, but
will generate an error message in most cases anyway.

When an active bootable partition is found in the master partition
boot sector, the DOS volume boot sector (VBS) from the bootable
partition is loaded into memory and tested. If the DOS volume boot
sector cannot be read, you will see an error message similar to;
Error loading operating system. When the DOS volume boot sector
does load, the last two bytes are tested for a signature of 55h
and AAh respectively. If these signature bytes are missing, you
will see an error message such as; Missing operating system. Under
either error condition, system initialization will halt.

After the signature bytes are identified, the DOS volume boot
sector (now in memory) is executed as if it were a program. This
"program" checks the root directory to ensure that IO.SYS and
MSDOS.SYS (or IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM) are available. In older
MS-DOS versions, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS have to be the first two
directory entries. If the DOS volume boot sector was created with
MS-DOS 3.3 or earlier and the two startup files are not the first
two files in the directory (or there is an error in loading the
files), the system will produce an error code such as; Non-System
disk or disk error. If the boot sector is corrupt, you may see a
message like; Disk boot failure.

Loading the OS

If there are no problems detected in the disk's DOS volume boot
sector, IO.SYS (or IBMBIO.COM) is loaded and executed. If Windows
95 is on the system, IO.SYS may be renamed WINBOOT.SYS which will
be executed instead. IO.SYS contains extensions to BIOS that start
low level device drivers for such things as the keyboard, printer,
and block devices. Remember that IO.SYS also contains
initialization code that is only needed during system startup. A
copy of this initialization code is placed at the top of
conventional memory which takes over initialization. The next step
is to load MSDOS.SYS (or IBMDOS.COM) which is loaded such that it
overlaps the part of IO.SYS containing the initialization code.
MSDOS.SYS (the MS-DOS kernel) is then executed to initialize base
device drivers, detect system status, reset the disk system,
initialize devices such as the printer and serial port, and set up
system default parameters. The MS-DOS essentials are now loaded,
and control returns to the IO.SYS/WINBOOT.SYS initialization code
in memory.

NOTE: For Windows 95 systems, IO.SYS (or WINBOOT.SYS) combines the
functions of IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS.

</quote>

Marko Vojinovic
Institute of Physics
University of Belgrade
======================
e-mail: vmarko@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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