Lesson 6 Chapter 3 - Expansion Buses and Cards Flashcards
What is an expansion bus?
Along with
Along with accompanying wires and support chips, its a pathway that ferries data to and from the devices plugged into the expansion slots
Modern motherboards offer two types of expansion slots, what are they?
- PCI
- PCIe
What does PCI stand for? Released when?
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Released early 1990s
What benefit did introducing PCIs (by Intel) provide compared to previous versions? (3)
- Faster
- Wider
- More flexible
PCI devices are self-configuring. What does this mean?
PCI devices don’t need to have jumpers configured on the expansion card to use certain system resources resources
What is Plug and Play (PnP)?
Plug and Play is the standard that allows expansion cards to be plugged in and automatically self configure
What’s the difference between a PCI and PCIe expansion bus?
PCI - Uses parallel connections, data travels on many different wires (1 bit=1 wire) to the same destination and arrives at different times. Causes slowdown.
PCIe - Uses a serial connection, is faster, bits of data travel together
How many bytes is a gigabyte?
1 billion bytes = 1 GB
How much is a gigatransfer per second? (GTps)
1 billion transfers per second
Each newer version of PCIe has increased the ….?
lane speed
Define what a lane is
A lane is a pair of wires a PCIe card uses to transfer data to a device (one sends, one receives)
How many lanes can each point-to-point connection use?
x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16
The number of lanes a slot uses is indicated how?
x “by”
How do you pronounce “x” as in x1 or x8?
x = by 8, by 1
What’s the most common PCIe slot version? What’s it commonly used for?
The most common PCIe slot version is the x16, it’s commonly used for video cards
What is the most common general-purpose PCIe slot version?
x1
Why is a serial connection (PCIe) better? (3)
- Each PCIe slot has its own direct connection to the chipset, doesn’t have to share the bus with other devices
- Doesn’t need to do high-speed checking of data, no overhead
- All the bits arrive one after the other in a single stream
What are the 4 steps to install expansion cards of all kinds?
- Knowledge
- Physical Installation
- Device Drivers
- Verify
A lot of older hardware won’t work with… ? (Step 1)
newer versions of Windows, especially 64-bit systems
In Step 1 of installing an expansion card, what are 2 questions you should ask yourself?
- Is the device compatible with the system and operating system?
- Are there device drivers available for this operating system?
A device is less likely to work with your system and OS if: (2)
old-less common, older
- You’re running an older or unsupported version of Windows (like 7), or a less common OS like Linux
- You’re using older hardware
An expansion card should always be in 1 of 2 places: (2)
- In the computer
- In an antistatic bag
When installing expansion cards, remember to hold it by…?
The edges (not the slot connectors or components on the board)
If you don’t have an ESD wrap, what else can you do to prevent ESD when installing an expansion card? Do this after what?
touch the power supply after taking the expansion card out of the antistatic bag
When installing an expansion card, never… (2)
insert-remove, rock
- Install or remove the card at an extreme angle, this can damage it
- Never rock the card side to side, but you can wiggle it front to back
How do you secure an expansion card to the case?
With screws (this also grounds the card to the case)
There should be no ___ between the mounting bracket on the card and the screw hole on the case.
there should be no gaps between the mounting bracket on the card and screw hole on the case
All devices (whether built-into the motherboard or added) require ____ ______.
device drivers (software support programs)
If you’re upgrading device drivers, you might have to do what before loading new drivers?
You might have to unload the driver before loading new ones
How do you get device drivers? (2)
- Download from the manufacturer’s website
- Optical disk included
What are 2 ways to remove old drivers? (2)
- Uninstall in Device Manager
- Some can also be removed from Programs > Uninstall
How do you rollback to a previous driver version? How do you access this feature? (4 steps)
- Device Manager
- Properties (for the device)
- Driver
- Rollback Driver
You should install and update drivers from a Windows account with ____ permissions because….
Admin, because it asks you for a password in order to make changes that affect all users (like installing drivers) to save time
How do you verify a device after installing it?
karen
Check the Device Manager
What do you do if Device Manager doesn’t show the new device? (3 things to try)
verify, refresh, run
- Confirm proper installation, and does the device have power?
- Refresh Device Manager’s hardware list with Action > Scan for hardware changes
- Try running the Add Hardware Wizard (Start > type hdwwiz.exe)
How do you access the Add Hardware Wizard? (what’s the name of the executable to search?)
hdwwiz.exe
If the first 3 initial expansion card troubleshooting steps don’t work, it means you have either of 2 problems:
bam, ship
- Dead or faulty expansion card
- The card is an onboard device and not a card and must be enabled in the BIOS/UEFI utility
What do you do if Device Manager sees a device but there’s a question mark on it with a generic name?
Run the driver installation wizard for the device
Besides a question mark, what other error icon might we see if there’s a device driver problem (2)? What might it mean (3)?
- Yellow triangle with exclamation point - there’s a device driver problem. Missing or corrupt driver
- A black downward pointing arrow on a white field - device is disabled
How do you troubleshoot a device with a “!” symbol? (2 ways)
check, up
- Open device’s properties in Device Manager, check the Device’s status in the General tab
- Try updating the driver
