Re: choosing a motherboard

On 3/29/2024 9:31 PM, [email protected] wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:36:23 -0500, VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> "John B. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Abit IP35 Pro XE.
>>
>> Many mobos are designed for use by non-expert consumers (aka boobs).
>> They may give few options.  I hate those type of mobos as you are ousted
>>from control.  They're designed for simple setups where users never
>> intrude on the BIOS settings.
> 
> Actually I thought that the Ip35 Pro had a better BIOS manual than the
> other pcs I had before I decided to build that one. But what do I
> know? 
>>
>> I found an online manual for that mobo at:
>>
>> https://www.manualslib.com/manual/205153/Abit-Ip35-Pro.html
>>
>> A search on "tpm" has no hits.
>>
>> TPM was introduced in 2009.  Your mobo is older, so probably has no
>> support for TPM as a hardware module or firmware in BIOS.
> 
> I was kinda attracted to this pre-built
> https://www.newegg.com/yeyian-ypi-pg49kfc-47y1n-phoenix-glass/p/N82E16883630052?Item=N82E16883630052
> 
> So as an exercise to begin educating myself I tried to download a
> manual for that ASUS Z790 mb. Its bigger brother says ASUS Z790 D5
> Wifi. Couldn't find an exact match for that on the ASUS site. But this
> seems close
> https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1700/PRIME%20Z790-A%20WIFI/E21270_PRIME_Z790-A_WIFI_UM_V3_WEB.pdf?model=PRIME%20Z790-A%20WIFI
> 
> They give a brief discussion of the BIOS then encourage you to scan a
> Q code to download a BIOS manual? I ashamed to say I don't even know
> how to do that. Why make it hard? My old machine's mb manual  had
> pages of BIOS stuff in it. I can't find any BIOS manual on their site.
> Some closely guarded ASUS secret of something?
> 
> Another mb did have a pic of the initial BIOS screen – very busy, but
> no info about the further menus available. It does say don't mess with
> it without an expert to hold your hand.  
> 

There is a proportionality between retail price and the
number of pages in the manual. Cheap=35 pages  Stratospheric=200 pages

The way it works now with UEFI, is a number of motherboard models share
the same BIOS manual.

*******
Section 3.1 Page 61 of 80 of the PDF manual   E21270_PRIME_Z790-A_WIFI_UM_V3_WEB.pdf   [6,484,356 bytes]

( https://www.baeldung.com/linux/read-qr-codes      Utility to use is mentioned )

WSL/WSLg  (running in a Terminal in Windows 11 Home, D: is my scratch drive).

/mnt/d$ sudo apt install zbar-tools

/mnt/d$ zbarimg QRCode-test.bmp
QR-Code:https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/13MANUAL/PRIME_PROART_TUF_GAMING_INTEL_700_Series_BIOS_EM_WEB_EN.pdf
scanned 1 barcode symbols from 1 images in 0.01 seconds

That's what it takes to convert a QR code.
Find a utility. WSL is "various levels of pain in the ass"
to get running. For example, at one point there was
a claim "we've set it up for humans now", and my response
to that was "oh no you dinnit!". It was still a
shockingly bad experience. (There are necessary settings
in the BIOS, in Programs and Features:Windows Features,
potentially a driver, and so on.)

But in terms of time to do it, after shooting a screenshot
and editing off the material around the QR, the converter
didn't have a problem.

QR codes are interesting, in that they have redundancy.
You can rip about 25 percent of the image away, if it
was a sheet of paper, and it would still scan. There might
even be a simple CRC check as well. The tool could tell
you it's not able to convert, depending on what kind
of distortion is involved. Based on Carlos flatbed scanner
experience the other day, scanning paper copies of QR
might actually fail. Depends on just how defective the
scanner is that day. Cameras can have distortion too,
and need some compensation for the optics, to make
the resulting image square. On a smartphone, the tool doing
the reading and using the smartphone camera, is likely already
programmed with the details of the optical path. For
seamless conversion. Whereas if "Wally In Windows" is doing
it, nothing is prepared for Wally most of the time. Wally
has to be "smarter than the average bear" :-) Builds character.

Converting a PDF to an image, is relatively simple, and
not likely to ruin the "squareness" of everything. That's
why this worked for me.

   Paul