Frequently Asked Questions Index:
1. Is DVI-I compatible with DVI-V? Reader: I own a video card that has a DVI-I connector. I would like to purchase a digital LCD monitor. The one I am interested in has a DVI-V interface. Are the two compatible? Computer Doctor: There are three digital video interface standards: The VESA Plug and Display (P&D) 1.0 specification (Intended to provide an industry standard digital interface for display devices) published June 11th, 1997, incorporates a 35-pin combination digital/analog connector (30 pins for the digital part, 5 pins for analog). This was never widely adopted The VESA Digital Flat Panel (DFP) 1.0 specification (To provide for an interface between a personal computer and a digital flat panel monitor) published February 14, 1999, incorporates an MDR20 (20-pin Mini-D Ribbon) digital-only video connector. The DFP standard builds on the prior P&D standard but is digital only. This had some success in the market, but has been largely replaced by the DVI specification. More recently, another group called the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG) has authored a specification called the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) 1.0 specification (primarily focused at providing a connection between a computer and its display device), published April 2nd, 1999. The DVI spec. was largely authored by Silicon Image and Molex, and uses many of the prior VESA specifications as a platform to build on. The DVI 1.0 spec. incorporates a 29-pin combination digital/analog connector (24-pins for the digital part, 5 pins for analog) that is virtually identical to the VESA P&D connector, except with fewer pins for the digital portion of the connector. It now appears that the DVI 1.0 spec. is the one that will win out in the future (mainly because Intel has backed it). This means the 29-pin digital/analog connector will be the one found on most future video cards and monitors. What Intel wants, Intel generally gets. <g> See http://www.ddwg.org for more info on the DVI 1.0 specification. The DVI connector has two varieties: DVI-I (used by your ATI card) supports both analog and digital displays. This is a popular feature on video cards because it allows the port to use an adapter to allow use of a VGA analog monitor or an analog LCD panel as well as a digital panel. DVI-V was the early name for what is also referred to as DVI-D, the digital-only version of DVI. Viewsonic has a whitepaper with more information about DVI available at http://www.viewsonic.com/products/whitepaper.cfm. My book Upgrading and Repairing PC's: Technician's Portable Reference, Second Edition, has a comparison of VGA and the major types of digital video interface connectors in Chapter 14. It appears that you should be able to attach a DVI-V LCD panel to your DVI-I video card, but I recommend you contact ATI to verify compatibility. 2. Can the built-in parallel port be replaced? Reader: My friend's computer has a problem with its parallel port. I'm not sure what to do because the parallel port is built into the motherboard. Can I replace the port, or is a motherboard replacement necessary? Computer Doctor: It is true that most motherboards have built-in parallel ports. However these rarely if ever fail. Even if they did you could disable the on-board port (via BIOS Setup) and install one on a card. Most likely the port is configured incorrectly for the application. Go into the BIOS setup and check the port configuration. Make sure it is set to IRQ7, base I/O port address 378h, and in standard or bi-directional mode. If he is trying to use a high speed printer or scanner that supports ECP mode, then set that mode and select DMA channel 1. You may need to supply the Windows CD-ROM when you restart to load a new parallel port driver if you select ECP or ECP/EPP mode. If you think the port is defective, it is most likely the cable and not the port. Replace the cable with what is called an IEEE 1284 parallal cable. After you check the port configuration and the cable, if you still think it is bad, then I recommend running a diagnostic like the Norton Diagnostics (comes with the Norton Utilities or SystemWorks) and test the port under DOS using a wrap plug (also called a loopback plug). You can get the wrap plug from Symantec, check the documentation that comes with the Norton Diagnostics. Another program that can test the port with a wrap plug is the CheckIt Suite from SmithMicro; this program includes wrap plugs for serial and parallel ports. If after all this, the port is indeed bad, then you have two choices. One is to replace the motherboard (recommended), the other is to disable the port and purchase a parallel port card. The reason I recommend getting a new motherboard is that they are cheap ($100 or less), and this makes a good opportunity to turn a repair into an upgrade by replacing the existing board with something newer and better; good parallel-port cards can cost up to $40. If you decide to replace the motherboard, make sure the new one will fit in your current case. If your CPU and memory are out-of-date, you may need to buy a new CPU and memory; fortunately the choices today are very powerful and quite reasonably priced. 3. What's the difference between I/O addresses and memory addresses? Reader: I'm confused about the differences between I/O port addresses and memory addresses. Some A+ Certification and PC hardware guides describe I/O port addresses as being actual memory to which data is sent before going to or from the port. I know that both are referred to with hexadecimal addresses, but I could use some clarification on this topic. Computer Doctor: I/O port addresses are not memory, not even related to memory in any way. They are bus addresses which are best thought of as a sort of 2-way radio channel. In other words, when sending data to an I/O port address, it essentially flows along the bus, passing by all adapters, and any "listening" on that channel (with ports set to that channel address), will then receive the data. If no cards are set to that channel, then the data reaches the end of the bus and is absorbed by the terminating resistors. I/O ports are how drivers send commands and data to devices and vice versa. Memory has nothing to do with it. The Intel processor and bus architecture supports 65,536 ports with addresses from 0000h to FFFFh. These ports are not related in any way to memory addresses with those same numbers. In other words, say for example if I send a data byte "ECh" to memory address 1F7h, it will be sent on the memory bus to the SIMMs/DIMMs and stored in the 504th byte of RAM (in beginning of the first bank of RAM), where it will sit until something else is written to that location, or the power is turned off. On the other hand, if I send same "ECh" byte to I/O Port address 1F7h, it will be sent not to the SIMMs or DIMMs, but instead it would be sent along the system bus (PCI/ISA) and received by the primary IDE drive (which is set to that port address), which coincidentally will be accepted as an "Identify Drive" command, causing the drive to send 512 bytes of data back to the system bus on I/O Port 1F0h, describing and identifying the drive. This is in fact exactly how your BIOS "auto-detects" the drive. Bottom line: Don't believe everything you see on the A+ test (or other study guides <g>), they are unfortunately incorrect in several areas. BTW, my new A+ book, which covers the 2001 revisions to the A+ Certification exams, will be published in March 2001. It's called Upgrading and Repairing PCs: A+ Certification Study Guide, Second Edition. 4. What settings should I use for the second parallel port? Reader: I have been trying to install a second parallel port on my PC and am having constant IRQ problems. What settings should I use for the second parallel port? Computer Doctor: Set the 2nd parallel port to IRQ 5, I/O port 278. Make sure nothing else is using those settings. Most sound cards like IRQ 5, if you have one there move it to another free IRQ such as 10. If you have USB ports and are using Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows Me, consider using USB peripherals instead; USB will be the replacement for all standard serial and parallel ports, and adopting it will solve the IRQ shortage problem as well. You can add a USB card to a system with Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows Me and a free PCI slot for about $30. 5. Can two parallel devices share the same IRQ so long as they're not running at the same time?Reader: Recently, I purchased an EPP/ECP scanner and a parallel port card (IEEE1284 EPP/ECP). Can I install this card using IRQ7 (the same IRQ used by LPT1) if I don't use the scanner and my printer at the same time??? Your book does say that parallel ports can share an IRQ under DOS, with the only condition being that both devices sharing this IRQ cannot operate at the same time. Am I interpreting this correctly?
Computer Doctor: The problem is that Windows 95 is a multi-tasking operating system. If both drivers are active at the same time then you generally can't share IRQs. Why not set the second parallel (or Video if you can't disable the video IRQ) to IRQ 9 or 11? It sounds like those might be free on your system. 6. I'm having modem and monitor problems with my new system...Reader: I have a new system with 2 problems. First, the modem connecting sounds come through the system speakers as opposed to the modem speaker and get louder as the speakers are turned up; my motherboard has integrated audio. Second, when the monitor goes into sleep mode and comes out the screen has a hundred or so lines through it about every third time it goes into sleep mode. I reinstalled updated video drivers with no luck.
Computer Doctor: If your modem isn't connected to the sound card, then this is simply the way yours was designed. It may be a setting you can change, I'd look in the modem documentation and/or ask the manufacturer.
As for the monitor wakeup problem, there are different ways a video card can signal a monitor to blank. Try changing the method in your video card setup. This may also be in your BIOS setup under the power management settings. 7. How do I make MP3's from my CDs?Reader: How do you convert .cda (CD Audio) files from a compact disc to .mp3 files on your hard drive?
Computer Doctor: Use a program to convert the files, such as the free Windows Media Player 7 you can download from Microsoft at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Also, most of the software included with CD-RW drives such as Nero Burning ROM or Roxio (Adaptec) Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum Edition http://www.roxio.com have the ability to convert CDA to MP3. You can also use WinAmp or other standalone MP3 player programs to perform this task, which is often called 'ripping'.
If you are really serious, check out MP3 Underground, also published by Que for every bit of information you could possibly want about MP3s and music! 8. I want to install a new video card, but I need to support my DVD drive, what can I do?Reader: I have a Gateway PII 400MHz and I just bought a new AGP video card to replace my old card. When I opened my computer, I noticed that the video card was connected to my DVD decoder card. The new AGP card does not connect to my DVD decoder. I called Gateway and they said that I need to get a new DVD because it won't work if it can't be connected to the video card. The video card vendor tells me that I need to install a software decoder and that it should work even if it isn't connected to the video card. Who's right?
Computer Doctor: You will either need a new DVD (MPEG-2) decoder card such as http://www.creative.com/pcdvd/products/decoderdxr3, or a software DVD (MPEG-2) decoder program such as PowerDVD 3.0 http://www.cyberlink.com.tw or WinDVD 2000 http://www.intervideo.com.
Either the hardware or software decoders will come with a companion DVD player application. Note that your 400MHz processor speed is marginal for software decoders and if you really do watch DVDs you may find the picture and sound will be jerky and problematic. Fortunately, you can download trial versions of the software decoders listed and test them before purchasing. 9. My PC won't acknowledge my 2nd serial port, can you help?Reader: My computer doesn't recognize serial port #2. When I plug in the serial cable from my camera is says it doesn't exist. I have a mouse in serial #1. How do I get it to recognize this port?
Computer Doctor: Enter your BIOS Setup and make sure that Serial Port #2 is enabled. Note that whoever built your system may have intentionally disabled that port to prevent a conflict with an internal modem. If you have an internal modem and it is Plug and Play (PnP), hopefully it will be automatically reconfigured to avoid any conflicts.
If enabling the port in the BIOS setup doesn't help, then check for conflicts in the Device Manager. If the port is listed and recognized, then the problem may be with your camera, cable, and/or the camera software. |
