BENCHBOOK

PC REPAIR

Valuable Find-a-Fix tooland more on CD-ROM

BENCHBOOK

PC REPAIR

Ron GilsterBestselling author of

A+ Certification For Dummies

CD-ROMIncluded

Ron Gilster hasgained experiencein virtually everyaspect of computingtechnology during35 years as a

programmer, systems analyst, technician,manager, and executive in a variety of industries. He operates his own consulting business and has writtenmore than a dozen books on hardware,software, programming, networking,and career certification.

CD-ROM Includes

Find-a-Fix tool, which lists many commonPC problems and their solutions

Bonus content, including glossary and troubleshooting tips

Evaluation versions of PC Certify Pro andToolStar Test demo

System Requirements: PC runningWindows 95 or greater. See the Whats onthe CD-ROM appendix for details andcomplete system requirements.

Your one-stop guide to Understanding and repairing motherboards,

processors, chipsets, BIOS, and system resources Updating and optimizing memory and aging

systems Diagnosing common PC problems and

performing routine maintenance Installing and configuring system upgrades Working safely with the electrical components

of a PC Troubleshooting peripherals, storage systems

and devices, sight and sound systems, and more

Price$49.99 US$74.99 CAN34.95 UK

Cover by: Daniela Richardson

Reader LevelIntermediate to Advanced

Shelving CategoryHardware/PCs

,!7IA7G4-fcfhia!:p;o;t;T;TISBN: 0-7645-2578-6

*85555-IGDIHd

Heres everything you need to know to fix or maintain a PCand nothing you dontIf youre a PC technician, time is money. Bestselling authorRon Gilster trimmed every scrap of fat from this indispensablereference guide, packing it with clear, concise informationthat helps you do your job. Organized by hardware or component groupsmotherboards, storage devices, printers,communications and networking, operating system software,and so onits liberally illustrated for faster comprehension.Theres even a searchable e-version of the book on CD-ROM to help you diagnose problems. This is the one book you cantafford not to have on your repair bench.

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Standard Trim: 7 3/8 x 9 1/4; 4-color process; 1/4 bleed Spine Width: 1.584525786 cover 2/10/03 8:52 AM Page 1

PC Repair Bench Book

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PC Repair Bench Book

Ron Gilster

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PC Repair Bench Book

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 0-7645-2578-6

Manufactured in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1B/RR/QT/QT/IN

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permittedunder Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior writtenpermission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to theCopyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744.Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc.,10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4447, e-mail:permcoordinator@wiley.com.

is a trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USEDTHEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ORWARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THISBOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY ORFITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALESREPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINEDHEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH APROFESSIONAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLEFOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITEDTO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact ourCustomer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317)572-4002.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may notbe available in electronic books.

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Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley publishing logo and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarksof Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without writtenpermission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is notassociated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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About the AuthorRon Gilster has been operating, programming, and repairing computers for morethan 30 years, and networking them for more than 13 years. Ron has extensiveexperience in training, teaching, and consulting in computer-related areas, havingspent more than 20 years as a college-level instructor in A+, CCNA, MCSE, MOUS,and computer programming programs. His experience includes mainframes, minicomputers, and virtually every type of personal computer and operating system inuse. In addition to a wide range of positions that have included systems program-ming supervisor, customer service manager, data processing manager, managementinformation systems director, and executive positions in major corporations, Ronhas served as a management consultant with both an international accounting firmand his own consulting firm.

Credits

PROJECT EDITORLinda Morris

ACQUISITIONS EDITORMelody Layne

SR. COPY EDITORTeresa Artman

TECHNICAL EDITORDan DiNicolo

EDITORIAL MANAGERKevin Kirschner

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTAmanda Foxworth

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVEGROUP PUBLISHER

Richard Swadley

EDITORIAL DIRECTORMary C. Corder

VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHERAndy Cummings

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT SUPERVISORRichard Graves

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTKit Malone

SR. PERMISSIONS EDITORCarmen Krikorian

PROJECT COORDINATORBill Ramsey

GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTIONSPECIALISTS

David BartholomewSean DeckerHeather PopeRashell SmithJeremey Unger

PROOFREADING AND INDEXING

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He is the author of A+ Certification For Dummies, Network+ Certification ForDummies, Server+ Certification For Dummies, i-Net+ Certification For Dummies,CCNA For Dummies, Cisco Networking For Dummies, CCDA For Dummies, andwith Curt Simmons, MCSA All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, plus severalbooks on computer and information literacy and programming.

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To my very best fan, friend, and wife Connie.

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PrefaceIf youve purchased or are considering the purchase of this book, you probably fitinto one of the following categories:

Youre an experienced PC technician who wants a concise reference onPCs and how to troubleshoot and repair them.

You think that reading this book might be a fun, entertaining way toextend your knowledge of PCs and their components.

You either have or are preparing for A+ certification.

Youre a big fan of mine and can hardly wait for my next book.

If you fit into one or more of these descriptions (except the last one, for which I amnot qualified in the appropriate medical areas to help you), this is the book for you!

About This BookIf your goal is to discover more about PCs, their components, and how to identifyand fix their problems, youre in the right place. In this book, I provide you withsome background information on the major component areas of a personal com-puter and also offer detailed procedures that you can use to resolve many of thecommon failures and problems that can occur on a users PC.

I fondly remember the days when I could lift the hood (bonnet for my Britishreaders) on my car and not only identify all the parts but also actually repair orreplace a broken or malfunctioning component. Sadly, those days are gone, and Imust now depend on Mr./Ms. Goodwrench to fix anything under the hood of mycar. Luckily, this evolution has not quite transpired on PCs . . . at least not yet. Ifanything, the components under the hood of the PC have gotten simpler to identify,and problems that occur are getting easier to isolate and resolve.

However, typical users, although growing more and more savvy with software,are reluctant to fix their PCs themselves, preferring to call on Mr./Ms. Gooddriver tofix their PC hardware when something goes wrong. And because not every PC tech-nician can know every problem and the right or best procedure to use when findingand fixing a PC problem, I wrote this book as a guide.

In writing this book, Ive made the assumption that you are a PC technician withat least a few months of hands-on experience in the installation, configuration, andrepair of PCs as well as a fundamental knowledge of electronics, computers, soft-ware, protocols, and troubleshooting procedures. If youre just getting started,though, dont worry that this book makes too many assumptions concerning yourknowledge, experience, and abilities. On the contrary, Ive tried to present things insuch a way that whether youre just getting started or have years of experience, theinformation, processes, and procedures that Ive included are useful.

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How to Use This BookLike with the majority of my other books on PC hardware topics, this book isintended as a reference and troubleshooting guide that you can keep handy on yourworkbench hence, the Bench Book part of the title. Each major component groupis presented first with some general background information to orient you to itsoperation, compatibilities, and common problems.

This book presents the facts, concepts, processes, and applications that a PCtechnician needs to know in step-by-step lists, tables, figures, and text withoutlong or (hopefully) boring explanations. The focus is to provide you with informa-tion on the hows and whys of PC hardware components and not to impress youwith my obviously extensive and impressive knowledge of PCs (nor my modesty, Imight add).

Another excellent reference tool that you can use, especially if youre just get-ting started, is A+ Certification For Dummies, 2nd Edition (Wiley Publishing, Inc.).Okay, so this is a shameless plug of another of my books, but its still a good refer-ence on PCs.

Appendix A includes a list of my favorite PC hardware reference books.

How This Book Is OrganizedThis book is organized to allow you to find information specific to certain hardwareor component groups without the need to wade through stuff you already know. Atthe beginning of each chapter is a list of topics that you can use as a guide towhats in the chapter.

Youll also find that some topics might be covered in more that one place in thebook, with one location providing more information than the other. Some informa-tion has a better relationship to certain other areas and is placed into the context ofa specific or related issue. Rely on the index of the book to find the specific pagewhere a certain topic, component, or issue is covered. Ive also included cross refer-ences to other information that you might find useful.

Here are the parts of the book and what they cover.

Part I: The Motherboard and Its ComponentsThis book is organized around the major component areas of a personal computer.Part I begins at the heart of the PC, covering the motherboard, processor, chipset,Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), system resources, memory, and cache memory.Although these components arent typically the source of a PC problem, its a good

x Preface

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idea that you know and understand their function, fit, and processes in relationshipto the other parts of the PC.

Part II: The System Case and Power SupplyThe PCs case and power supply are responsible for more PC problems than mostpeople think. Ive put them together because they typically come as a combinedpart and to emphasize their importance to the PCs overall operations.

Part III: Storage DevicesUnfortunately, this part of the book doesnt provide you with a better way toexplain to a user the difference between memory and permanent data storagedevices; youre still on your own with that. What this part does provide is an in-depth look into the more common data storage devices, such as hard disks, floppydisks, CD-ROMs, and the like. The information included in this part covers the con-struction, operation, and common issues of data storage devices, which are now anessential part of any PC.

Part IV: Sight and Sound SystemsPCs are designed to provide an interactive processing environment. A users basicinteractive tools are his or her eyes and ears. (Touch, smell, and mental telephonycant be too far off.) The PCs display and sound systems provide the basis for theinteraction between the user and the PC. When one of these component groups hasa problem, its typically a BIG problem for the user.

This part of the book deals with the PCs video and display systems and the com-ponents of its sound system.

Part V: PrintersIf a broken monitor or a quiet sound system causes grief for the user, a brokenprinter is a major catastrophe. Because of the importance of printers, this part of thebook focuses solely on PC printers, their operations, issues, and how to get themback up and running.

Part VI: Keyboards and Pointing DevicesAlthough speech recognition systems that actually work are on the horizon, theusers main tool for entering data and commands to the PC are still the keyboardand mouse. Because several types of both devices are on the market, when yourepresented with a problem in either, you need to know which device type youreworking with and whats the best way to fix it.

In addition, this part of the book also looks at other devices used to enter ormanipulate data on the PC, such as joysticks, digital tablets, and the like.

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Part VII: Communications and NetworkingWithout including so much information on data communications and network thatthis book turns into a networking bench book, this part looks at the componentsand processes used to connect a PC to a local area network (LAN).

Part VIII: Configuring the PCMost of the configuration tasks on a PC surround the configuration of expansioncards and the ports and connectors through which external peripheral devices areattached to the PC. This part covers the types, compatibilities, installation, and con-figuration of expansion cards and the PCs external ports and connectors.

Part IX: PC Operating SystemsHave no fear; this part of the book doesnt cover application software or how tocreate a really nifty document or Web site. What it does cover is the Windows andLinux operating systems and their installation, configuration, and troubleshooting.Installing a new PC often includes either the installation and configuration or theupgrading of an operating system. This part of the book provides information onthe more popular Windows operating system versions and a look into the world ofLinux.

Part X: Maintaining a PCThe two major parts of PC maintenance are preventive care and optimization,which coincidently are the two chapters in this part. A well-maintained PC has amuch better chance for an extended life, and the procedures used to perform anorganized and regularly applied preventive maintenance plan are covered. Andbecause youll occasionally want to try to get just a little better performance out ofa PC, here I offer some system optimization techniques. Although it flies in the faceof the philosophy that If it isnt broke, dont fix it, this might be the part of the bookthat you refer to the most (or at least you should).

Part XI: AppendixThe appendix gives a complete listing of third-party software and bonus content onthe CD-ROM that accompanies this book. Highlights are three bonus appendixes(troubleshooting tips, suggesting software and hardware tools, and a complete glos-sary), as well as a searchable PDF of the entire text of this book.

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Icons Used in This Book

Look to Cross Reference icons to find additional or expanded information

on a particular topic.

Note icons provide more information to help you understand a particular

point or to make some information more relevant.

Tip icons flag information that can come in extra-handy while working

on a PC.

The Caution icon alerts you to some potentially dangerous or treacherous

material. Heads up!

Where to Go from HereOnly you know where you need to begin reading this book. If you need more infor-mation on motherboards and their components, start with Part I. If you need someadvice on working with video or sound on a PC, start with Part IV. There is no rightor wrong place to begin working with this book.

Talk to MeId like to hear from you. If any aspect or topic of PC repair isnt covered as well as itshould be, or if Ive provided more coverage than you think is warranted about a par-ticular topic, please let me know. Or if Ive made an error or misstated a fact (it couldhappen!), Id appreciate hearing about it. Your feedback is solicited and welcome. Youcan send e-mail to me at this e-mail address: feedback@rongilster.com.

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AcknowledgmentsId like to acknowledge the contributions of a virtual cast of tens who helped thisproject along. This includes the very excellent crew from Wiley Publishing, Inc.,without whom this book would look like my desktop (not a pretty sight, I mightadd): Melody Layne, Linda Morris, Teresa Artman, Kim Darosett, and AmandaFoxworth. A special thanks goes to Rashell Smith and David Bartholomew who didsuch a wonderful jobe illustrating this book. I would also like to extend a hugethanks to Dan DiNicolo for challenging me with his absolutely great technicalreview.

Id also like to thank the manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers of PC hardwareand software that provided photographs and illustrations for the book.

And last, but certainly not least, Id like to acknowledge the support of my family(Connie, Markus, Jessica, and Carly) and my dear friend and agent (Margot MaleyHutchison), without whom I couldnt have survived this task.

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Contents at a Glance

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Part I The Motherboard and Its Components

Chapter 1 Mastering the Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Chapter 2 Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Chapter 3 Chipsets and Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Chapter 4 Booting and the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Chapter 5 Configuring System Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Chapter 6 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Chapter 7 Applying Cache Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Part II The System Case and Power Supply

Chapter 8 The System Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Chapter 9 Powering Up the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Part III Storage Devices

Chapter 10 Working with Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Chapter 11 Hard Disk Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287Chapter 12 Floppy Disks and Removable Storage Devices . . . 307Chapter 13 CD-ROM and DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Part IV Sight and Sound Systems

Chapter 14 Video Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Chapter 15 Monitors and Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Chapter 16 Audio and Image Capture Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Part V Printers

Chapter 17 Impact and Inkjet Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443Chapter 18 Laser Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Part VI Keyboards and Pointing Devices

Chapter 19 Keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487Chapter 20 Mice and Other Pointing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

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Part VII Communications and Networking

Chapter 21 Dialup Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529Chapter 22 Networking the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Part VIII Configuring the PC

Chapter 23 Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Chapter 24 Ports and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Part IX PC Operating Systems

Chapter 25 The Windows Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647Chapter 26 Unix and Linux Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . 669

Part X Maintaining a PC

Chapter 27 Preventive Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683Chapter 28 Optimizing the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Part XI Appendix

Appendix A About the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

End-User License Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ???

Bonus Appendix A: Troubleshooting PC Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC1

Bonus Appendix B: The PC Technicians Toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC19

Bonus Appendix C: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC21

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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Part I The Motherboard and Its Components

Chapter 1 Mastering the Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Differentiating Motherboard Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Laying out the mainboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Connecting to the backplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Factoring in the motherboard form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Working with the Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Using the right tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Troubleshooting the motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Identifying motherboard problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Removing a Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Working by the rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Opening the case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Other considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 2 Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Understanding Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Powering a processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Cooling a processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Packaging the processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Setting a processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Sorting the sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Slot types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Differentiating the Microprocessors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Pentium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Cyrix 6x86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Other Pentium clones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Pentium Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Pentium II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Celeron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Xeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38AMD K6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Cyrix 6x86MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39VIA Cyrix III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39AMD K6-2 and K6-III processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Intel Pentium III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41AMD Athlon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41AMD Duron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43xviii

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Intel Pentium 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43VIA C3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Intel Itanium and Itanium 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Working with Number Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Understanding how 1+1 = 10: The binary system . . . . . . . . . . . 47Converting decimal to binary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Counting up to 16: The hexadecimal system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Upgrading Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Getting processor info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Upgrading processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Applying Overdrive to a Pentium processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Upgrading a Pentium Pro processor to Pentium II . . . . . . . . . . . 55Upgrading to a faster version of the same processor . . . . . . . . . 56

Dealing with Processor-level Errors and Other CommonProblems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56The PC locks up immediately after completing the POST . . . . . . 56The system functions erratically with several

intermittent problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57The device lights are on and the fan operates,

but the PC does not boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58The processor is incorrectly identified during the boot process. . . 58During the boot, the processor speed listed is incorrect . . . . . . . 58The ZIF socket will not open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Dealing with Processor Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Addressing AMD bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Coping with Cyrix bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Resolving Intel processor bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 3 Chipsets and Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Munching on a Few Chipsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Grouping chipsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Digging deeper into the chipset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Operating outside of the chipset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Getting to know the chipset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Troubleshooting Chipset Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Identifying a chipset (without opening the case) . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Identifying a chipset (by opening the case) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Dealing with Pentium chipset problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Identifying potential chipset problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Listing the Intel Chipsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77486 chipsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Chipsets for the Pentium and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Noting the Non-Intel Chipsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82ALi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82NVIDIA Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84VIA Technologies, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

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Chapter 4 Booting and the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Getting to Know the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

The BIOS programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88BIOS manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88The BIOS in action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Identifying the BIOS chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Acting as the hardware intermediary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Starting Up the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92BIOS activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92BIOS start-up screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Configuring the System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Setting the System Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Setup program access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Setup program menu types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Updating the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Flashing dangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Flashing security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Applying the boot block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Gathering Repair and Maintenance Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Using hard tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Applying some soft tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Dealing with BIOS and Boot Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112The system boots from the wrong disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112An Invalid System Disk message displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112The hard disk is not detected during the boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113The boot has stopped, and the screen is blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113USB problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Forgotten BIOS passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114When to flash the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114After flashing the BIOS, the PC will not boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Chapter 5 Configuring System Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Getting the CPUs Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Requesting attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Taking care of themselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Defining System Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Assigning interrupt requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Making IRQ assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Working with PCI and IRQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Plugging and playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Understanding the PIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Checking the mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Directly accessing memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Using additional system resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

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Resolving Resource Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Avoiding resource problems when installing

new hardware devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Troubleshooting IRQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Checking out IRQ settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Setting an IRQ with the Windows Device Manager . . . . . . . . . 138Troubleshooting DMA channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Changing a devices system resource settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Booting into Windows Safe Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Running Windows Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Decoding resource error codes in the

Windows Device Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Dealing with IRQ steering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Chapter 6 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Getting to Know RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Differentiating volatility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Getting synchronized or not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Operating at RAM speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Dealing with memory technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151A bit more about DRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Packaging memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Detecting Memory Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Playing with parity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Correcting memory errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Logically Laying Out Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Conventional memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Upper memory area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163High Memory Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Extended memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Understanding memory latency and burst mode access . . . . . . 164

Solving Memory Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Applying software tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Using hardware tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Diagnosing memory errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166Checking memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Memory testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Installing memory modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Installing memory, Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Removing memory modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Calculating RAM size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Chapter 7 Applying Cache Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173What Is Cache Memory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173How Caching Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Guessing right scores a hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175Quenching the processors thirst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175Working internally and externally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

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Sizing cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176Having too much RAM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176Playing tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Cache bursting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Cache misses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Sorting Out the Types of Cache Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Asynchronous cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Synchronous cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Pipelined burst cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Writing to cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Non-blocking cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Caching Impacts on Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Mapping the Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Adding Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Working with Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Installing a cache module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Troubleshooting problems after installing new cache . . . . . . . . 183Adding cache didnt improve system performance . . . . . . . . . . 184The processor disables the cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185Determining why adding RAM slows down the PC . . . . . . . . . 185Enabling the internal (L1) cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186Enabling the external (L2) cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Part II The System Case and Power Supply

Chapter 8 The System Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Dissecting the System Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Building the Case of the Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Sorting out the case components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193Scanning the front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199Factoring in the case form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Supplying power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Auxiliary fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Lights, sound, and the connecting wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Cooling vents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214Mounting the motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Dealing with Case Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216Preparing a case for a motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216The front panel LEDs dont light up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217No sound is coming from the system speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218The reset button does not restart the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218The power on/off button does not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218Setting the monitor on the system case halts the PC . . . . . . . . 219

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Chapter 9 Powering Up the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221Understanding the Functions of the Power Supply . . . . . . 221

Producing good power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222Turning power on and off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Breaking down the power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Converting the waveform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Controlling the voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Factoring power supply forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Sorting out the ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Protecting the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Identifying electrical evils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236Suppressing the surge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237UPS-scaling protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Working with Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Gathering the tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242Deciding when to troubleshoot a power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . 242Isolating the power supply as a source of a problem . . . . . . . . 243Ruling out the power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244Diagnosing POST power problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245Nothing happens when the power switch is turned on . . . . . . . 245The fan isnt spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245The PC doesnt boot and has no sign of power . . . . . . . . . . . . 246An ATX system doesnt work when the power is turned on . . . 247Setting the input voltage selector switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Testing power supply peripheral connectors with a DVM . . . . . 247Correctly sizing a UPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249Taking preventive measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Part III Storage Devices

Chapter 10 Working with Hard Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Studying the Hard Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Organizing data on a disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256Reviewing disk capacities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257Looking inside the disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258Reading and writing the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266Recording data on the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267Encoding data onto the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268Interfacing to the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268Transferring data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Addressing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Using RAID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

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Solving Hard Disk Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Choosing a hard disk drive by using performance metrics . . . . 274Preparing a hard disk drive for use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275Formatting a hard disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278Installing a new hard drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280Configuring the BIOS for a hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282Troubleshooting a hard disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Chapter 11 Hard Disk Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287Interfacing an IDE/ATA Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Reviewing hard disk interface characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288Using an IDE/ATA interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290Configuring an IDE/ATA interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295Considering EIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Working with SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297Connecting with SCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300Differentiating SCSI voltages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300Connecting SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300Configuring a SCSI hard disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Hard Disk Interface Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302Troubleshooting Disk Interface Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Clearing out unnecessary connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303Installing more than one device on an IDE/ATA channel . . . . . 303Isolating IDE/ATA interface problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Improving the performance of a slow hard disk drive on a

Windows 9x system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Backing up (and restoring) the Windows registry . . . . . . . . . . 305

Chapter 12 Floppy Disks and Removable Storage Devices . . . . . 307Understanding the Floppy Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Floppy disk drive construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308Maintaining head alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310Aligning a floppy disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311Misalignment causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Building a Better Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315Zipping and jazzing along . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315Storing on a SuperDisk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Working with removable hard disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Plugging in a USB drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Dealing with Removable Media Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318Troubleshooting a floppy disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318Cleaning a floppy disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319Maintaining a floppy disks alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Formatting a floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Setting up a removable hard disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

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Chapter 13 CD-ROM and DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Grasping the Technology of Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Formatting CD-ROMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324Dissecting CD media: Pulling apart the layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326Reading the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327Recording data on a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327Writing to a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Installing and Operating a CD-ROM Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328Looking into the read head assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329Loading the disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330Connecting to audio output and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331Stacking in multiple discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Dealing with Digital Versatile/Video Disc (DVD) . . . . . . . . 334DVD formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334Sorting out DVD standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Dealing with CD-ROM and DVD Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335Installing an internal IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . 336Installing a DVD Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340Installing a SCSI CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340Adding CD-ROM support to a boot disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341Troubleshooting an IDE/ATA/ATAPI CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . 342Troubleshooting a SCSI CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344Troubleshooting IDE CD-ROM master and slave conflicts . . . . . 344Improving the performance of a CD-ROM drive . . . . . . . . . . . 345Troubleshooting CD-ROM Sound Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Part IV Sight and Sound Systems

Chapter 14 Video Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Checking Out How Video Systems Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Generating the image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352Dividing up the work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352Creating pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353Reviewing the video standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353Mastering the bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355Controlling the video card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356Riding the video bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356Video BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356Interfacing the video system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357Video and system resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358Video device drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358The RAMDAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358Accelerating 3-D graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

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Taking a Look at Video Card Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359Processing the video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360Working with video memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360Resolving the resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Adjusting for the aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Diving into color depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Connecting to external A/V devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Determining How Much Video Memory You Need . . . . . . 363Calculating 2-D video RAM requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363Figuring 3-D video RAM requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Sorting Out the Video RAM Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Installing Video Cards and Solving Video Problems . . . . . 367

Nothing displays on the monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367The display is scrambled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368The display is fuzzy or blurry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369The video card settings arent listed in the

Windows display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369Installing a new video card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370Troubleshooting the video card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371Replacing integrated video support with a video card . . . . . . . 373Determining the type of video card in a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373Upgrading the RAM on a video card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374Selecting higher resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Configuring BIOS settings for better AGP performance . . . . . . 376

Chapter 15 Monitors and Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377Looking into CRTs and LCDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Reviewing PC monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379Drawing up dots and pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381Resolving resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384Applying an aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Relating monitor size to resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Developing color depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386Refreshing rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387Connecting the display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Controlling the monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Working within the standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388Reviewing older video standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389Driving video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Operating the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391Refreshing the display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392Masking the display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393Moving from digital to analog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Figuring out Flat-Panel Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396Lighting up an LCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396Categorizing LCDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

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Powering the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403Managing power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403Degaussing the screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Maintaining a Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404Keeping safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405Performing preventive maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406The monitor is blank or has no picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407The monitor has display but isnt functioning properly . . . . . . 408The monitor doesnt power on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410Changing the color depth or resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411Setting the refresh rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Recovering from an incorrect refresh rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413The monitor goes blank and shuts off when idle . . . . . . . . . . . 414Disposing of a CRT monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Chapter 16 Audio and Image Capture Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417Examining the PC Sound System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417Taking a Closer Listen to Sound Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419Capturing Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421Interfacing CD-ROM and DVD Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425Scanning Image Capture Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Capturing an image with a scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426Catching the action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428Digitizing an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Problem-solving Audio and Video Capture Device Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431Installing a sound card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432Dealing with common sound card problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436Connecting a CD-ROM or DVD to a sound card . . . . . . . . . . . 437Resolving system resource conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437Connecting a scanner to a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438Downloading images from a digital camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Part V Printers

Chapter 17 Impact and Inkjet Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443Examining Printer Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Differentiating type qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444Print speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445Impact versus non-impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445Text and graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445Fonts and typefaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446Print styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446Print size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Printer standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448Printer controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

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Dealing with Dot Matrix Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449In the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449The dot matrix today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450Printing with a dot matrix printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451Moving up to color dot matrix printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Printing with Inkjet Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454Inkjet technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455Halftoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456Printing in color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456Inkjet cartridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460Printer drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Heating Up a Thermal Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461Printing All in a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462Diagnosing Common Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

On the printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462On the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463Connecting a printer to a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464Setting up a printer on a Windows PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466Using a switchbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467Safeguarding a printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468Troubleshooting inkjet printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468Troubleshooting dot matrix printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Chapter 18 Laser Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471Looking into Laser Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Laser printing technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472Color laser printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475Building up the image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Inside the Laser Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477The toner cartridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478Toner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Maintaining and Troubleshooting a Laser Printer . . . . . . . 480Caring for a laser printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480Connecting a printer to a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482Safeguarding a printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Part VI Keyboards and Pointing Devices

Chapter 19 Keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487Looking Technically at Keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Alphabetic keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488Toggle keys and locks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490Repeating keystrokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490Cursor keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490The number pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492Function keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

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Special-purpose keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494Windows menu keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Sizing Up Keyboard Form Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Enhanced keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Windows keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Natural keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Portable PC keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Miscellaneous keyboard styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Digging into Keyboard Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499Make and break codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499Keyswitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501Keyboard controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502Keyboard cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502Keyboard connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Troubleshooting the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504Solving keyboard boot sequence problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505Setting keyboard controls on a Windows PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505Setting the accessibility options on a Windows PC . . . . . . . . . 506Configuring the BIOS settings of a keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Chapter 20 Mice and Other Pointing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509Catching Up on the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Standard mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510Wheel mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510Optical mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510Inside the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511Putting it all together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Connecting a Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513PS/2 and serial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514USB mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514Cordless mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514Data interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Examining Other Pointing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515Touchpads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515Trackballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516Glidepoint mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517Joysticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Installing a Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518Installing a serial mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518Installing a mouse manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519Installing a PS/2 mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519Installing a USB mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Troubleshooting an Optomechanical Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . 520Configuring a Mouse on a Windows PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521Installing a Joystick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522Cleaning a Dirty Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Cleaning an optomechanical mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524Cleaning an optical mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

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Part VII Communications and Networking

Chapter 21 Dialup Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529Connecting a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Configuring a modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530Working on a Windows system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533Configuring a modem connection in Windows 9x . . . . . . . . . . 534Configuring a dialup connection in Windows 2000 and XP . . . 537Working on a Linux system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539Installing device drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540Commanding the modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Establishing a Dialup Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Making the call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542Establishing a dialup connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Dealing with Dialup Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543Troubleshooting a failed connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544Using error codes to identify a dialup problem . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Making Other Phone Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553Connecting with DSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554Connecting to ISDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554Connecting with a cable modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Chapter 22 Networking the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557Networking Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Differentiating network types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558Structuring a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559Identifying network components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560Serving the network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Cabling Up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562Cabling types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562Cabling characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566Understanding the IEEE cable designations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Speaking Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570Working without a Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

802.11 Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572Bluetooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573HomeRF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573IrDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Working with a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573Getting to know NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574Addressing the network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574Naming a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Dealing with Networked PC Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577Installing and configuring a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577Troubleshooting a NIC connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579The computer hangs when the NICs device drivers

are loaded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

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The Wake on LAN (WOL) feature is not working . . . . . . . . . . . 581Verifying a local network connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581Verifying a connection to a remote site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582Resolving host name resolution issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Part VIII Configuring the PC

Chapter 23 Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Expansion Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589Reviewing the Expansion Buses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Mastering the bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594Taking the local bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594Expanding the portable PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595Working with SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596Adding serial and parallel ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597Interfacing with USB and IEEE 1394 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

Sorting Out Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598Adding a controller card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599Communicating through I/O cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599

Installing and Configuring Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . 603Installing an expansion card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603Troubleshooting expansion cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605Dealing with expansion card choke points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609Installing a SCSI host adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609Installing serial and parallel add-on ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610Installing a USB or IEEE 1394 expansion card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611Resolving resource conflicts on Windows PCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611Resolving resource conflicts on PnP devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612Installing a video card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

Chapter 24 Ports and Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615Connecting a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615

Motherboard connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616External ports and connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

Reviewing Interface Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621Characterizing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621Figuring out serial and parallel data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623Configuring for full, half, and simplex modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623Transmitting serial data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624Communicating asynchronously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Checking parity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626Using the UART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627Communicating with synchronicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628Configuring a serial port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628

Understanding Parallel Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629

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Utilizing a USB Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629Connecting with USB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630Interfacing to USB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

IEEE 1394 (FireWire) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632Working with Wireless Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Infrared ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633Radio frequency interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Understanding PS/2 and DIN Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634Checking Out Video Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635Dealing with Port Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Troubleshooting a serial port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637Dealing with serial port system resource conflicts . . . . . . . . . . 638Troubleshooting a parallel port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639Dealing with printing (parallel port) problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 640Troubleshooting a USB connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641Assigning an IRQ to the USB host controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642Enabling IRQ steering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Part IX PC Operating Systems

Chapter 25 The Windows Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647Looking at the Different Versions of Windows . . . . . . . . . 648Installing and Configuring Windows 98/Me . . . . . . . . . . . 648

Installing Windows 98/Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648Controlling a Windows 98 setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651Configuring Windows 98 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

Installing and Configuring Windows 2000 Professional . . . 657Installing Windows 2000 Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657Configuring Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Installing Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662Upgrading to Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662Installing Windows XP Pro or Home editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

Starting Windows in Safe Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664Opening Windows 9x/Me/2000 in Safe mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664Opening Windows XP in Safe mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

Creating a Windows Boot Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666Creating a Windows 98/Me boot disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666Creating a Windows NT boot disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666Creating Windows 2000 boot disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667Obtaining Windows XP setup boot disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

Chapter 26 Unix and Linux Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669Understanding a Linux Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

Logging on as the supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670Operating in dual mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670Viewing the hardware configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

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Correcting Hardware Woes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674Configuring IDE/ATA drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674Preventing drive letters from changing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674Resolving device access issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674Resolving sound card problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676Adding a hard disk drive to a Linux system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677Optimizing a hard disk for 32-bit and DMA operation . . . . . . . 678

Part X Maintaining a PC

Chapter 27 Preventive Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683Scheduling Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Developing a common sense approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685Gathering tools and cleaning supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686

Performing Data Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688Choosing the backup media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688Picking the backup software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688Determining the best type of backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Protecting Against Viruses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690Protecting Against Power Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690Disposing of Hazardous Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Disposing of batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691Discarding a monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691Dumping chemicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692

Preventive Maintenance Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692Cleaning a keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692Cleaning a mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696Caring for other input devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699Cleaning and caring for a monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699Cleaning and maintaining a printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700Cleaning the system case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704Housekeeping for a hard disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706Optimizing a hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706Removing unused files on a disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707Caring for a floppy disk drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707Caring for CD-ROM and DVD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707Cleaning expansion slot connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708Cleaning external ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708Caring for a portable PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709

Chapter 28 Optimizing the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711Optimizing the BIOS and Boot Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Tweaking the BIOS settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711Flashing the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Optimizing the Hard Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712Scanning the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712Defragmenting the disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

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Optimizing Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714Putting the cards in order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714Using PCI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

Optimizing the Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715Replacing the processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715Updating the processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715Overclocking the processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Part XI Appendix

Appendix A About the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

End-User License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ???

Bonus Appendix A: Troubleshooting PC Problems . . . BC1

Bonus Appendix B: The PC Technicians Toolkit. . . BC19

Bonus Appendix C: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC21

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The Motherboard and Its Components

CHAPTER 1Mastering the Motherboard

CHAPTER 2Processors

CHAPTER 3Chipsets and Controllers

CHAPTER 4Booting and the BIOS

CHAPTER 5Configuring System Resources

CHAPTER 6Memory

CHAPTER 7Applying Cache Memory

Part I

Chapter 1

Mastering theMotherboardIN THIS CHAPTERThe motherboard, also known as the system board, main board, or planar board, isa large printed circuit board that includes or provides an interconnect to most ofthe essential components of the PC:

Microprocessor (see Chapter 2)

Expansion bus (see Chapter 2)

Chipset (see Chapter 3)

Memory sockets and RAM modules (see Chapter 6)

Cache memory (see Chapter 7)

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), Enhanced IDE (EIDE), or SmallComputer System Interface (SCSI) controllers (see Chapter 11)

Mouse and keyboard connectors (see Part VI)

Parallel and serial ports (see Parts V and VI)

AS THIS LIST SHOWS, there is more to working with a motherboard than I can coverin just this one chapter. Motherboards are the glue that binds the PCs componentstogether. I can safely say that virtually every component, internal or peripheral,thats installed on or connected to a PC has some connection (no pun intended!) tothe motherboard.

Motherboard manufacturers attempt to differentiate their products and increasetheir value by integrating a varying combination of devices and controllers intotheir boards. The upside of including more on the motherboard is a wider compati-bility to a wider range of systems and potentially a deeper list of features. Thedownside is that unless youre very careful when selecting a new motherboard, youmight not get the combination or quality of processor or peripheral support thatyou intended.

Although I assume that you have some background in working with PCs and theircomponents, I want to be sure that you and I are on the same page when it comes tomotherboards. In the following sections, I cover what is likely some fundamentalmaterial. However, when it comes to motherboards, Id rather be safe than sorry. 3

Differentiating Motherboard DesignsIf PCs had only a single type and style of motherboards, the task of working withthem would be greatly simplified. However, even though most of todays PCs usethe ATX (see Creating the new standard: The ATX later in this chapter), you canexpect to encounter different motherboard form factors on the job. If, after all elsehas failed, you decide to replace a PCs motherboard, you must match the form fac-tor of the motherboard to the case and its mountings.

Laying out the mainboardEssentially, the two basic design approaches to PC motherboards are the mainboard(or the true mother-of-all-boards) design and the backplane design.

A mainboard design, like the one in Figure 1-1, incorporates the PCs primarysystem components on a single circuit board. This type of motherboard containsmost of the circuitry of a PC and acts as the conduit through which all the PCsoperations flow.

On a typical motherboard (see Figure 1-1), you will find the microprocessor, theBasic Input/Output System (BIOS) ROM, the chipset, RAM, expansion cards, per-haps some serial and parallel ports, disk controllers, connectors for the mouse andthe keyboard, and possibly a few other components as well.

Mainboard motherboard designs, although somewhat standard, do vary in

the inclusion and placement of system components and interfaces. Before

you charge down the road to diagnose, troubleshoot, or replace any

motherboard, be very sure that you can at least identify the components

indicated in Figure 1-1 on your PCs mainboard.

Connecting to the backplaneThere are actually two types of backplane mainboards: passive and active. A pas-sive backplane mainboard is only a receiver card with open slots into which aprocessor card (which contains a central processing unit [CPU] and its supportchips) and input/output (I/O) cards that provide bus and device interfaces areplugged. These add-in cards are referred to as daughterboards.

The backplane interconnects the system components through a bus structure andprovides some basic data buffering services. The backplane design is popular withserver-type computers because it can be quickly upgraded or repaired. The back-plane design provides the advantage of getting a server back online with only thereplacement of a single slotted card, instead of replacing an entire mainboard!

4 Part I: The Motherboard and Its Components

Figure 1-1: The essential (and most common) mainboard components.Photo Courtesy of AOpen, Inc.

An active backplane design, also called an intelligent backplane, adds some CPUor controller-driven circuitry to the backplane board, which can speed up the pro-cessing speed of the system. Even on an active backplane, the CPU is on its owncard to provide for easy replacement.

The utility of the backplane design is being challenged by newer motherboardsthat incorporate the slot-style mountings of Pentium-class processors. The advan-tage of the active backplane is that the processor can be easily accessed andreplaced, but the slot-style motherboards also offer this same advantage.

For purposes of clarity and because they are the most commonly used in

PCs, when I refer to a motherboard, I am referring to the mainboard design.

When referring to a backplane design, I will specifically say so.

IDE ports CMOS battery

Power connectors

Chipset

AGP slot

BIOS ROMPCI slots CPU socketI/O ports

Chapter 1: Mastering the Motherboard 5

Factoring in the motherboard formWhen the original IBM PC was introduced in 1981, it had a simple motherboarddesigned to hold an 8-bit processor (the Intel 8088), five expansion cards, a key-board connector, 64256K RAM (from individual memory chips mounted on themotherboard), a chipset, BIOS ROM, and a cassette tape I/O adapter for permanentstorage. The PC was designed to be a desktop computer, and its system case layoutdictated the first of what are now called motherboard form factors. Simply, a formfactor defines a motherboards size, shape, and how it is mounted to the case.However, form factors have been extended over time to include the system case, theplacement and size of the power supply, the power requirements of the system,external connector placements and specifications, and case airflow and coolingguidelines.

Table 1-1 lists the common form factors that have been and are being used in PCs.

TABLE 1-1 MOTHERBOARD FORM FACTORS

Width Length Style (inches) (inches) Design Case Type

IBM PC 8.5 13 Mainboard IBM PC

IBM PC XT 8.5 13 Mainboard IBM PC XT

IBM PC AT 12 1113 Mainboard Desktop or tower

Baby AT 8.5 1013 Mainboard Desktop or tower

LPX 9 1113 Backplane Desktop

Micro-AT 8.5 8.5 Mainboard Desktop or tower

ATX 12 9.6 Mainboard Desktop or tower

Mini-ATX 11.2 8.2 Mainboard Desktop

Mini-LPX 89 1011 Backplane Desktop

Micro-ATX 9.6 9.6 Mainboard Desktop

NLX 89 1013.6 Backplane Desktop

Flex-ATX 9 7.5 Mainboard Desktop or tower

SETTING THE STANDARD: THE IBM ATWhen IBM released its first 16-bit computer, the PC AT, the circuitry added to themotherboard of its predecessor (the PC XT) increased the size of its motherboardand case to 12 inches wide by 13 inches deep. During this time, many clone

6 Part I: The Motherboard and Its Components

(non-IBM) manufacturers also began releasing XT-compatible motherboards, whichincluded keyboard connectors, expansion slots, and mounting holes to fit into ATcases. The ATs size, shape, and mounting placements became the first motherboardform factor standard, a standard that has essentially continued through today.Nearly all present-day motherboard form factors are a derivative of the early ATstandard.

BRINGING UP THE BABY ATIt wasnt long before clone manufacturers began releasing their own 16-bit PCs andmotherboards with higher integration in the supporting chipsets that allowed theirmotherboard to take a smaller form. This smaller form was called the Baby AT,shown in Figure 1-2, a more compact motherboard that was compatible with ATcases. The Baby AT became very popular because of its size and flexibility andjoined the AT motherboard as a de facto standard.

Figure 1-2: A Baby AT motherboard.

Chapter 1: Mastering the Motherboard 7

TAKING THE STANDARD ONE STEP SMALLERMost of the PC cases manufactured between 1984 and 1996 were made to house aBaby AT motherboard. However, with still higher integration and further miniatur-ization of the processor, chipset, and other support components, it became possibleto produce an even smaller version of the AT form factor. The Mic