HP Compaq Business Desktop dc5100 Series Personal Computers, Service Reference Card, 1st Edition
Service Reference Card
HP Compaq dc5100 Series Personal Computers
© 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is sub-
ject to change without notice. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions 
contained herein. Intel, Pentium, Intel Inside, and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered 
trademarks of the Intel Corporation and its subsidiaries in the U. S. and other countries. 
Document Number 376223-001.  1st Edition January 2005
Key Specifications
*You can connect a PATA hard drive. However, HP does not recommend its use .
System Setup and Boot
Basic system information regarding file, storage, security, and power configuration is main-
tained in the Setup Utility held in the system ROM. The Setup Utility is accessed by pressing the 
F10 key as soon as the computer is turned on. If the screen prompt opportunity is missed, a 
restart will be necessary.
Failsafe Boot Block ROM
The computer comes with a reprogrammable flash system ROM (read only memory). 
NOTE: No USB device of any type will function during bootblock recovery.
To upgrade the ROM, you may:
a. Order an upgraded ROMPaq diskette from HP.
or 
b. Download the latest ROMPaq images from the HP Web site (www.hp.com).
All ROM images used with HPQFlash and SSM are digitally signed to ensure authenticity and 
minimize potential corruption. Your system ROM includes a Failsafe Boot Block that is pro-
tected during the flash process and allows the computer to be restarted in the unlikely event of an 
unsuccessful ROM flash. 
If the system detects an invalid system ROM during the boot sequence the system will sound 
one long and three short beeps, flash the three keyboard LEDs twice, and display a recovery 
mode message on the screen. To recover from the Boot Block recovery mode complete 
the following steps:
1. Remove any diskettes from the diskette drive and turn off power.
2. Insert a ROMPaq diskette into the diskette drive or a bootable CD-ROM into an IDE CD-
ROM drive. (Bootable ISO CDs are available on the Web at www.hp.com.)
3. Turn on power to the system.
4. If a Setup password has been established, the Caps Lock LED will come on to prompt you for 
the password. Enter the password.
5. A successful boot and ROM flashing (reprogramming) with a ROMPaq diskette is indicated 
by the three keyboard LEDs turning on and a series of beeps rising in tone. 
Security Functions
The system offers independent Power-On and Setup passwords for system and data protection. 
The Power-On password protects the computer from unauthorized access by prompting the user 
for a password during power up. The Setup password protects the computer from unauthorized 
or inadvertent reconfiguration of legacy device resource settings or ROM flash upgrade by 
prompting the user for a password prior to entering the Setup Utility.
To establish a password:
1. Turn on or restart the computer. If you are in Windows, click Start > Shut Down > 
Restart the computer.
2. As soon as the computer is turned on, press and hold F10 until you enter Computer Setup. 
Press Enter to bypass the title screen, if necessary. If you do not press F10 as soon as the 
computer starts, a restart will be necessary.
3. Select Security, then select Setup Password or Power-On Password and follow the 
instructions on the screen.
4. Before exiting, click File > Save Changes and Exit. 
Key Specifications
Processor Type: Intel Pentium 4 or Intel Celeron
RAM Type: DDR2 PC3200 non-ECC
Maximum RAM Supported: Up to 4 GB depending on the model
Expansion Bus: PCI 2.3, X1 slot
Graphics Adapter Integrated controller or PCI 2.3 support depending on 
model
Hard drive interface: SATA*
I/O Interfaces: Serial (1 std, 1 optional), parallel (1), USB 2.0 (8), 
diskette drive (1), audio (5: 2 front, 3 back)
Computer Setup Menu
Heading Option / Description
File System Information - Lists product name, processor type/speed/step-
ping, cache size, installed memory size/speed, no. channels, integrated 
MAC for enabled or embedded NIC, system ROM/family name/version, 
chassis serial number, and asset tracking number.
About - Provides copyright information.
Set Time and Date - Allows selection of system time and date.
Replicated Setup -Allows saving to and restoring from removable 
media.
Default Setup - Allows both saving current settings and restoring factory 
settings as defaults.
Apply Defaults and Exit - Applies currently selected default settings and 
clears all passwords.
Ignore Changes and Exit - Exits Computer Setup without applying or 
saving any changes.
Save Changes and Exit - Saves changes to system configuration and 
exits Computer Setup.
Storage Device Configuration - Lists all installed BIOS storage devices. The fol-
lowing options appear when a device is selected.
Diskette Type (legacy diskette drives only) Identifies the 
highest capacity media type accepted by the diskette 
drive. 
Drive Emulation (IDE devices only) Selects drive type 
emulation for storage 
 Drive Type  Emulation Options
ATA P I Zi p  
Drive
None (treated as other), diskette 
(treated as diskette drive).
ATA Hard drive None (treated as other), disk (treated 
as hard drive.
LegacyDiskette No emulation available.
IDE CD-ROM No emulation available.
ATAPI LS-120 None (treated as other), diskette.
Default Values IDE/SATA
Multisector 
Transfers 
ATA disks only
Selects number of sectors transferred. 
Options are disabled, 8, and 16. 
Transfer Mode 
ATA devices 
only
Selects active data transfer mode. 
Options are PIO 0, Max PIO, 
Enhanced DMA, Ultra DMA 0, and 
Max UDMA.
Translation Mode (ATA disks only) Selects translation 
mode to enable the BIOS to access disks partitioned and 
formatted on other systems and may be necessary for 
users of older versions of Unix. Options are: Automatic, 
Bit-Shift, LBA Assisted, User, and None.
NOTE: The translation mode automatically 
selected by BIOS should usually not be changed.  
Translation Parameters (ATA disks only) Allows you to 
specify disk parameters logical cylinders (max. of 1024), 
heads (max. of 256), and sectors per track (max. of 63) 
used by BIOS to translate disk I/O requests. Fields are 
visible and changeable only when drive translation mode 
is set to User.
Storage 
Options
Removable Media Boot. Enables/disables ability to boot 
system from removable media. 
Legacy Diskette Write. Enables/disables ability to write 
data to legacy diskettes.
BIOS DMA Data Transfers. Controls the type of data 
transfer used by the BIOS to fulfill read and write 
requests. DMA is used when Enable is selected. PIO is 
used when Disable is selected.
SATA Emulation.Specifies whether the SATA and PATA 
controllers function as two separate or one combined 
controller. Separate IDE Controller emulation is recom-
mended for Windows 2000 and XP. Combined IDE Con-
troller emulation is recommended for operating systems 
that only support one IDE controller.
Computer Setup Menu 
(Continued)
Heading Option / Description
Storage 
(continued)
Storage 
Options (ctd)
IDE Controller. Enable/disable.
Primary SATA Controller - Enable/disable.
Secondary SATA Controller - Enable/disable.
DPS Self-Test - Allows execution of the Drive Protection System (DPS) 
tests on ATA hard drives capable of the SMART self-tests.
Boot Order - Specifies the prioritized order of potential boot devices. 
Each entry may be included or excluded from consideration as a boot  
source. Use F9 during POST to select a one-time override to the 
boot order specified here.
Security Setup Password - Enable/disable setup (administrator) password.
Power-On Password - Enable/disable power-on password.
Password Options (appears if Power-On or Setup password is set) - 
Enable/disable password for warm boot. 
Smart Cover Lock (some models) - Enable/disable Smart Cover Lock. 
Embedded Security - Enable/disable Embedded Security device. Reset 
device to Factory Settings.
Device Security - Enable/disable serial/parallel/USB ports, system 
audio, NIC (some models).
Network Service Boot - Enables/disables Network Service Boot.
System IDs - Allows setting of Asset and Ownership Tags, chassis serial 
number, keyboard locale, and Universal Unique Identifier (UUID). 
DriveLock - Allows assignment of master or user password for Multi-
Bay hard drive(s). 
Data Execution Prevention - Enable/disable to prevent OS Security 
breaches.
Master Boot Record (MBR) Security - Enable/disable BIOS MBR 
change reporting and write-protection.
Save MBR - Saves backup copy of MBR of current bootable disk.
Restore MBR - Restores MBR to current bootable disk. 
Power OS Power Management - Enable/disable processor voltage and fre-
quency reduction during run and idle times; ACPI S3 support.
Hardware Power Management - Enable/disable SATA bus and/or device 
power management.
Thermal - Fan idle mode to control minimum fan speed.
Advanced
(advanced 
users only)
Power-On Options - Select POST mode for QuickBoot, FullBoot, Full-
Boot every 1-30 days; Enable/disable POST messages; Enable/disable 
option ROM prompt; Enable/disable I/O APIC mode; Select computer 
state after power loss; Select wakeup boot source; Enable/disable POST 
delay (for slow hard drives); Enable/disable ACPI/USB buffers; Enable/
disable NIC option ROM download; Enable/disable Hyper-threading. 
BIOS Power-On - Set computer to turn on at specific time of day.
Onboard Devices - Set resources for onboard devices (serial/parallel 
port or diskette controller). 
PCI Devices - Lists currently installed PCI devices and IRQ settings. 
Allows configuration/disabling of devices (no effect on APIC systems)
Bus Options - Enable/disable PCI bus mastering, PCI VGA palette 
snooping, PCI SERR# function, and ECC on select systems.
Device Options - Set printer mode (bidirectional output only); Num 
Lock State;Wake-up events; processor cache; unique sleep state blink 
patterns; integrated video; monitor tracking; NIC PXE Option ROM 
download.
PCI VGA Configuration - Allows selection of VGA controller (if multi-
ple PCI video controllers are installed).


