UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs
UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs
vi Contents Other Add-On Card Configuration Issues 50 IRQs 50 DMA 52 Determining Actual IRQ and DMA Usage 52 I/O Port Addresses 54 Determining Actual I/O Address Ranges in Use 57 Troubleshooting Add-on Card Resource Conflicts 57 Expansion Slots 62 ISA 62 EISA—A 32-bit Version of ISA 62 VL-Bus—A Faster 32-Bit Version of ISA 62 PCI 66 AGP 66 3 BIOS Configurations and Upgrades 69 What the BIOS Is and What It Does 69 When a BIOS Update Is Necessary 69 Specific Tests to Determine Whether Your BIOS Needs an Update 70 Fixing BIOS Limitations—BIOS Fixes and Alternatives 70 How BIOS Updates Are Performed 71 Where BIOS Updates Come From 71 Precautions to Take Before Updating a BIOS 72 How to Recover from a Failed BIOS Update Procedure 73 Plug-and-Play BIOS 74 PnP BIOS Configuration Options 75 When to Use the PnP BIOS Configuration Options 77 Other BIOS Troubleshooting Tips 77 Soft BIOS CPU Speed and Multiplier Settings 78 Determining Which BIOS You Have 79 Determining the Motherboard Manufacturer for BIOS Upgrades 79 Identifying Motherboards with AMI BIOS 79 Identifying Motherboards with Award BIOS 81 Identifying Motherboards with Phoenix or Microid Research BIOS 82 Accessing the BIOS Setup Programs 82 How the BIOS Reports Errors 83 BIOS Beep Codes and Their Purposes 83 AMI BIOS Beep Codes 84 Award BIOS Beep Codes 84 Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes 85 IBM BIOS Beep and Alphanumeric Error Codes 85 Microid Research Beep Codes 86 Reading BIOS Error Codes 88 Onscreen Error Messages 88 Interpreting Error Codes and Messages 88 BIOS Configuration Worksheet 89 4 SCSI and IDE Hard Drives and Optical Drives 93 Understanding Hard Disk Terminology 93 Heads, Sectors per Track, and Cylinders 93 Hard Drive Heads 93 Sectors per Track 93 Cylinders 94
Contents vii IDE Hard Drive Identification 94 Master and Slave Drives 95 Breaking the 504MB (528-Million-Byte) Drive Barrier 97 Using LBA Mode 98 When LBA Mode Is Necessary—and When Not to Use It 98 Problems with LBA Support in the BIOS 99 Dangers of Altering Translation Settings 99 Detecting Lack of LBA Mode Support in Your System 100 Using FDISK to Determine Compatibility Problems Between the Hard Disk and BIOS 101 Getting LBA and Extended Int13h Support for Your System 102 Determining Whether Your System Supports Extended Int13h 103 Drive Capacity Issues in Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 104 Sources for BIOS Upgrades and Alternatives for Large IDE Hard Disk Support 105 Standard and Alternative Jumper Settings 106 Improving Hard Disk Speed 107 Ultra DMA 108 UDMA/66 and UDMA/100 Issues 108 Bus-Mastering Chipsets for IDE 109 Benefits of Manual Drive Typing 111 Troubleshooting IDE Installation 112 SCSI 113 SCSI Types and Data Transfer Rates 113 Single-Ended Versus Differential SCSI 114 Low-Voltage Differential Devices 114 Recognizing SCSI Interface Cables and Connectors 115 8-Bit SCSI Centronics 50-Pin Connector 115 SCSI-2 High-Density Connector 115 SCSI-3 68-Pin P Cable 116 RAID Array, Hot Swappable 80-Pin Connector 116 SCSI Drive and Device Configuration 117 SCSI Device ID 117 SCSI Termination 119 SCSI Configuration Troubleshooting 120 Hard Disk Preparation 124 Using FDISK 125 Drive-Letter Size Limits 125 Large Hard Disk Support 125 Benefits of Hard Disk Partitioning 126 FAT-32 Versus FAT-16 Cluster Sizes 127 Converting FAT-16 Partition to FAT-32 128 NTFS Considerations and Default Cluster Sizes 128 How FDISK and the Operating System Create and Allocate Drive Letters 129 Assigning Drive Letters with FDISK 130 High-Level (DOS) Format 132 Replacing an Existing Drive 133 Drive Migration for MS-DOS Users 133 Drive Migration for Windows 9x/Me Users 134 XCOPY32 for Windows 9x Data Transfer 134
- Page 1 and 2: UPGRADING AND REPAIRING PCs TECHNIC
- Page 3 and 4: Associate Publisher Greg Wiegand Se
- Page 5: Contents 1 General Technical Refere
- Page 9 and 10: Serial Port Configuration 172 Avoid
- Page 11 and 12: Contents xi Sound Quality Standards
- Page 13 and 14: About the Authors Scott Mueller is
- Page 15 and 16: watch, photograph, and (occasionall
- Page 17 and 18: Tell Us What You Think! As the read
- Page 19 and 20: Chapter 1 General Technical Referen
- Page 21 and 22: Understanding Bits, Nibbles, and By
- Page 23 and 24: Note Glossary of Essential Terms 5
- Page 25 and 26: Glossary of Essential Terms 7 Table
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- Page 29 and 30: Table 1.5 Hexadecimal/ASCII Convers
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vi<br />
Contents<br />
Other Add-On Card Configuration Issues 50<br />
IRQs 50<br />
DMA 52<br />
Determining Actual IRQ and DMA Usage 52<br />
I/O Port Addresses 54<br />
Determining Actual I/O Address Ranges in Use 57<br />
Troubleshooting Add-on Card Resource Conflicts 57<br />
Expansion Slots 62<br />
ISA 62<br />
EISA—A 32-bit Version of ISA 62<br />
VL-Bus—A Faster 32-Bit Version of ISA 62<br />
PCI 66<br />
AGP 66<br />
3 BIOS Configurations and Upgrades 69<br />
What the BIOS Is and What It Does 69<br />
When a BIOS Update Is Necessary 69<br />
Specific Tests to Determine Whether Your BIOS Needs<br />
an Update 70<br />
Fixing BIOS Limitations—BIOS Fixes and Alternatives<br />
70<br />
How BIOS Updates Are Performed 71<br />
Where BIOS Updates Come From 71<br />
Precautions to Take Before Updating a BIOS 72<br />
How to Recover from a Failed BIOS Update Procedure 73<br />
Plug-and-Play BIOS 74<br />
PnP BIOS Configuration Options 75<br />
When to Use the PnP BIOS Configuration Options 77<br />
Other BIOS Troubleshooting Tips 77<br />
Soft BIOS CPU Speed and Multiplier Settings 78<br />
Determining Which BIOS You Have 79<br />
Determining the Motherboard Manufacturer for BIOS<br />
Upgrades 79<br />
Identifying Motherboards with AMI BIOS 79<br />
Identifying Motherboards with Award BIOS 81<br />
Identifying Motherboards with Phoenix or Microid<br />
Research BIOS 82<br />
Accessing the BIOS Setup Programs 82<br />
How the BIOS Reports Errors 83<br />
BIOS Beep Codes and Their Purposes 83<br />
AMI BIOS Beep Codes 84<br />
Award BIOS Beep Codes 84<br />
Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes 85<br />
IBM BIOS Beep and Alphanumeric Error Codes 85<br />
Microid Research Beep Codes 86<br />
Reading BIOS Error Codes 88<br />
Onscreen Error Messages 88<br />
Interpreting Error Codes and Messages 88<br />
BIOS Configuration Worksheet 89<br />
4 SCSI and IDE Hard Drives and Optical Drives 93<br />
Understanding Hard Disk Terminology 93<br />
Heads, Sectors per Track, and Cylinders 93<br />
Hard Drive Heads 93<br />
Sectors per Track 93<br />
Cylinders 94
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