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  FAQs  A computer is as good as its Motherboard, and the better one you can get, the better your PC performs.
V bring you some frequently asked questions related to motherboards---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. I bought a new ATX board. Will my current system be able to use it? The ATX motherboard may not work because of different mounting, cooling and peripheral connections. 2. While booting some beeps come, and then nothing happens. What can be wrong? The ATX motherboard may not work because of different mounting, cooling and peripheral connections 3. What're the meanings of error beeps from the system speaker? Number of beeps Meaning of error 1 DRAM refresh is not working. 2 Parity circuit is not working or parity status bits are not cleared when parity is disabled. 3 First 64k memory test failure. Address line test (A0..A15) failure. 4 System timer is not counting properly. 5 Processor register/flag test failure. 6 8042 keyboard controller gate-A20 error. 7 Processor exception error encountered. 8 Display memory R/W test failure (NON-FATAL) 9 ROM-BIOS checksum error. 10 CMOS Shutdown Register R/W error. 4. What do you mean by 'flashing' the motherboard? All newer motherboards are equipped with a bit of memory, which contains the basic firmware which helps decide the functioning of the board. Special software can be used to modify this Flash ROM. Usually, this is used to upgrade the motherboard's firmware to a newer latest version to perhaps iron out previous bugs, add reliability, and even new features. This act is more commonly known as 'flashing' the board 5. Should I flash my board? Flashing a board can be dangerous, because usually, if the flash process gets interrupted in midway, or if the flash is corrupt, then the board may get permanently damaged. It is suggested that the update be done only if facing a problem, and the update says that it fixed that problem. New feature being promised in the update which may benefit you may also be good candidates for a flash.  During booting, you need to press a key to enter BIOS options. This is usually the Del or the F2 key. There, find an option such as BIOS Features, which will have an option for boot sequence. You can usually set CDROM as the primary boot option using PgUp/PgDown keys. Press F10 key to save your changes and exit BIOS and reboot 7. What is this 3.3V connector on my new motherboard? Normally a PCI bus has 5V, +12V and -12V being supplied, but the current PCI specifications require an additional 3.3V to be available. If need of using it arises, a special power supply or a regulator will be required 8. What can I check on my non-responsive, dead motherboard? The reasons can be many for the motherboard not functioning, some of which can include power supply shorting with the chassis, some peripheral conflicting(try removing all peripherals), memory problems(try removing different sticks, or changing slots), or even video card(try getting and trying another video card). If a motherboard stripped of all additional devices can boot off a floppy, it means your motherboard is safe 9. Can I modify something to make my CPU work faster than rated? Technically yes, but it is dangerous for your motherboard and the CPU if not done with perfection. Experience and knowledge is required to keep your dear computer going up in smoke. Also, this voids the warrenty. So, until you know what you are doing, do not try it ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAQs on HDD---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is a drive interface? An interface is something that connects two separate entities. So, there needs to be an interface between the motherboard and the hard disk drive. The most common interface standards for passing data between a hard disk and a computer are IDE and SCSI. IDE/ATA: Intelligent Drive Electronics or Integrated Drive Electronics /AT Attachment is an interface for mass storage devices, in which the controller is integrated into the disk or CD-ROM drive.There are different types of IDE/ATA interfaces being developed all the time with the new interfaces having data transfer rates faster than their predecessors. Some of them are: ATA, ATA-2, ATA-3, Ultra ATA, ATA/66, Ultra ATA-100 IDE/ATA tends in general to support a larger number of hard disk models and also optical drives and other devices,especially cheap and economical models. 2. What all do I need to have before I install my IDE drive? A standard IDE hard drive has two cable connectors. 1. The power connector (trapezoidal in shape, consisting of four pins): Connect a cable from the power supply to it. 2. The 40 pin IDE data cable connector: consists of two rows of 20 pins each (one pin may be missing). The data cable should be inserted with the red stripe adjacent the power connector, or toward pin 1 if pin numbers are indicated on the drive connector. As jumpers on each hard drive determine whether the drive is master or slave, it is not necessary to connect the drives in any particular order. 3. Where are the Master\Slave Settings? How do I configure them? Most new drives have indications at the back of the drive for master/slave jumper settings. While there is no hard and fast standard, MA indicates master and SL indicates slave. There may also be two master options, 'master no slave' and 'master with slave'.If you have only one drive, it will be master. If you have two drives, one must be designated master and the other slave.If a drive is to be the primary drive in the system, it may not be necessary to change any jumpers. Many new drives will automatically recognise they are master and also recognise whether a slave is present.The master drive will report as drive C and the slave will report as drive D. Boot files must be located on drive C. 4. What exactly is a SCSI interface? Small Computer System Interface, pronounced 'scuzzy', was introduced as a parallel interface standard used by Apple Macintosh computers, PCs, and many UNIX systems for attaching peripheral devices to computers. SCSI interfaces provide for faster data transmission rates (up to 80 megabytes per second) than standard serial and parallel ports.In addition, you can attach many devices to a single SCSI port, so that SCSI is really an I/O bus rather than simply an interface.SCSI tends to have better support for high-end devices and also more device types.A home user is likely to be interested in IDE/ATA, while SCSI is usually the choice for businesses and performance hungry users.There are once again many SCSI interfaces out there such as SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Wide SCSI, Fast SCSI, Fast Wide SCSI, Ultra SCSI, SCSI-3, Ultra2 SCSI, Wide Ultra2 SCSI, and Ultra 160 SCSI. 5. How do I install a SCSI drive? In SCSI setup, each device gets its own SCSI ID, numbered 1-7 or 1-15 (for SCSI-2). #7 is usually given to the adapter card. You may pick any other unused address. Your adapter may have some special likings to other addresses that could cause problems a little later. You'll need the manual for this one.Check for the correct termination. In SCSI setup, the adapter can hold up to seven SCSI devices. These devices are hooked together in a chain. Usually, this is with the adapter at one end and another device at the other.This ending device must be set to be the terminating device, therefore ending the SCSI chain. In most cases, SCSI devices come with a terminator plug. Sometimes, the adapter is in the middle of the chain, therefore you must terminate at both ends of the chain. You may need to consult the manual for any special termination techniques particular to your brand of drive.Slide the drive in and connect the cables. Make sure that Pin #1 on the ribbon matches up with Pin #1 on the drive.Plug the system in and turn it on with a system disk in Drive A:.Before you turn your system on, double check that the cables are installed correctly, no jumpers or cables are loose, and that the SCSI address is properly set. No two SCSI devices on the same bus should have the same SCSI address and the termination should be properly set. 6. What's DMA and UDMA? With the increase in performance of hard disks over the last few years, the use of programmed I/O modes (oldest method of transferring data over the IDE/ATA interface) became a hindrance to performance. There are different Programmed Input/Output (PIO) modes supported by certain ATA standards. ATA uses PIO and defines the speed of the data transfer in terms of the PIO mode implemented.The ATA standard supports PIO modes 0, 1, 2 and PIO modes 3, 4 are supported by the ATA-2 standard.DMA stands for Direct Memory Access and UDMA is Ultra DMA.DMA is a technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. In effect, there is less CPU utilisation if you have DMA enabled. The key technological advance introduced in IDE/ATA in Ultra DMA was double transition clocking. Before Ultra DMA, one transfer of data occurred on each clock cycle. With Ultra DMA, data is transferred on both the rising and falling edges of the clock.Drives that use Ultra DMA are often called 'Ultra ATA/xx' where 'xx' is the speed of the interface. So, few people really talk about current drives being 'Ultra DMA mode 5'; they say they are 'Ultra ATA/100'.  As the hardware is all new and designed to run in Ultra DMA mode, there shouldn't be issues with running Ultra DMA on older systems. In theory, new drives should be backward compatible with older controllers, and putting an Ultra DMA drive on an older PC should cause it to automatically run in a slower mode, such as PIO mode 4. Unfortunately, certain motherboards don't function well when an Ultra DMA drive is connected, and this may result in lockups or errors.A BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer is a good idea, if it's possible. Otherwise,you may need to use a special Ultra DMA software utility (available from the drive manufacturer) to tell the hard disk not to try to run in Ultra DMA mode. The same utility can be used to enable Ultra DMA mode on a drive that is set not to use it. You should use the utility specific to whatever make of drive you have. 8. What's so different about the 40-pin, 80-conductor ATA cable? The 40-pin, 80-conductor ATA cable does not have 80 pins. This means that the new cable is pin-compatible with the old drive. No change has been made to the IDE/ATA connectors, aside from the colour coding.There are 40 extra wires that are merely conductors connected to ground. They are simply used to separate the 'real' 40 signal wires from each other, to reduce interference and other signalling problems associated with higher- speed transfers.The 40-pin, 80-conductor (wires) ATA cable assembly improves signal quality for high-speed transfers over the ATA interface by the addition of ground lines in the cable. The 80-conductor cable was first defined with the original Ultra DMA modes 0, 1 and 2, covering transfer speeds up to 33.3 MBps, though the use of the cable for these modes is optional, it is mandatory for drives working at Ultra DMA modes above mode 2.This cable is 18 inches in length and contains three colour-coded connectors.Cable Colour Coding: The connector that goes to the host (controller\ motherboard) has a blue base. The black connector, opposite to the blue one, is for the Master(device 0).The grey connector, which is in the middle, goes to the slave hard disk (device 1). 9. How can I increase my hard drive performance? Enabling DMA pushes up IDE device performance. This setting should not cause any problems with new motherboards, though you might face some difficulty or data corruption while enabling this setting in certain older VIA chipset motherboards.Hence, make sure you have the latest VIA drivers to be able to enable DMA. You can download these from the VIA Web site (www.via.com.tw). Also make sure your hard disk supports DMA before you enable this option. 10. What is the MBR? Every hard disk has a 'starting point' where key information is stored about the disk such as how many partitions it has, what sort of partitions they are, etc. There also needs to be somewhere that the BIOS can load the initial boot program that starts the process of loading the operating system. The place where this information is stored is called the master boot record (MBR). It is also sometimes called the master boot sector or even just the boot sector.The master boot record is always located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1, the first sector on the disk.This is the 'starting point' that the disk always uses. When the BIOS boots the machine, it will look here for instructions and information on how to boot the disk and load the operating system. The master boot record contains the following structures: Master Partition Table: This small table contains the descriptions of the partitions that are contained on the hard disk. There is only room in the master partition table for the information describing four partitions. Therefore, a hard disk can have only four true partitions, also called primary partitions. Any additional partitions are logical partitions that are linked to one of the primary partitions. Master Boot Code: The master boot record contains the small initial boot program that the BIOS loads and executes to start the boot process. This program eventually transfers control to the boot program stored on whichever partition is used for booting the PC. 11. What's a sector? The smallest unit that can be accessed on a disk is called a sector. When a disk undergoes a low-level format, it is divided into tracks and sectors. The tracks are concentric circles around the disk and the sectors are segments within each circle.New hard disk drives use a technique called zoned-bit recording in which tracks on the outside of the disk contain more sectors than those on the inside. 12. What are bad sectors? A bad sector means part of the disk is physically/logically damaged and that data cannot be read from or written to that sector. Sometimes data that is lost because of bad sectors can be restored with utility programs designed for the purpose (in the case of a logical bad sector).When you format a disk, the operating system identifies any bad sectors on the disk and marks them so they will not be used. 13. What is a physical bad sector? Physical bad sector refers to defects that are distinguishable with the bare eyes or microscopic defects that occur on the disk surface. Particle, shock or vibration causes physical bad sectors. Shock is the major cause of physical bad sectors and it can affect other parts. It progressively deteriorates the HDD performance. 14. What is a logical bad sector? A logical bad sector means that abnormal data is recorded on a hard disk without any physical defect. The stored data could have been modified, but this is more often caused by an erroneous write caused by some influence such as sudden power outage, unstable power supply, head miss-operation due to shock and vibration, incorrect termination, virus, collision with other hardware, and many more causes. However, since there is no physical defect,new data written on this area can be used without any problem. 15. What's a Cluster? A cluster is a group of disk sectors. The operating system assigns a unique number to each cluster and then keeps track of files according to which clusters they use. 16. How does making partitions help? A partition is used to divide memory or mass storage into isolated sections. Partitioning is particularly useful if you run more than one operating system. Partitioning on DOS and Windows machines can improve disk efficiency.This is because the FAT system used by these operating systems automatically assigns cluster size based on the disk size. Larger the disk, larger the cluster size. Large clusters can result in a wasted disk space, called slack space.Files are always allocated whole clusters. This means that on average, the larger the cluster size, the more the space that will be wasted. Consider a hard disk volume that is using 32 KB clusters. There are 17,000 files in the partition. If it is assumed that each file has half a cluster of slack, then this means that 16 KB of space per file is being wasted. Multiply that by 17,000 files, and you have a total of 265 MB of slack space. If we assume that most of the files are smaller, then on average each file has a slack space of around two-thirds of a cluster instead of one-half, and the number jumps to 354 MB. 
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