Tech-Tips Notebook

Welcome to our "Tech-Tips Notebook" webpage. We hope this page will become your source for helpful technical tips about using the components purchased at our O'Fallon, Illinois storefront. If you would like to share any neat tech-tips with us, please E-mail them to us at techtips@accomputers.com. Some of your tech-tips may be published in this page.

Tech Tip #1. Be extra careful when upgrading "Flash BIOS!" Before installing the upgrade, always save a copy of the original BIOS to floppy disk, just in case the upgrade doesn't live up to your expectations. Also be aware that, if the BIOS gets corrupted during the operation, you may not be able to start up your system without having to purchase a costly replacement BIOS chip!

Tech Tip #2. Is your surge protector still protecting? Most surge protectors use metal-oxide-varistors (MOV) to absorb the energy produced by power surges. With each surge, some of the MOV gets burned away. After about three years in service, most surge protectors can no longer provide the protection your computer needs. It is recommended that mark the date of first use on your surge protector and replace it after about two years.

Tech Tip #3. Protect your modem! Most people know that surges on power lines are common and protect their computer with a surge protector. But, did you know that there can be power surges on your telephone lines, too? Lightning hitting a phone line can result in an input voltage well above what the modem can withstand. While these surges are dissipated by equipment at the phone company's switch, the voltage surge is instantaneous on the line. These surges can destroy the input section of you modem, leaving it unable to recognize any line signals (including the dial tone). Using a surge protector that also protects the telephone line can greatly extend the life of your modem. Since nothing is 100 percent, for the greatest protection, it is recommended that you physically unplug the phone line from your modem when electrical storms occur.

Tech Tip #4. All mice are not created equal! Serial mice connect to the communications (usually the 9-pin) port and use 12 volts DC. PS/2 mice plug into to a special port (6-pin DIN) internally connected to the keyboard controller and use 5 volts DC. Although there are adapters that will convert one port's connection to the other, these adapters should only be used with special mice designed to work with either voltage. Using an adapter with the wrong type of mouse may damage the mouse or the motherboard.

Tech Tip #5. Virus protection will stop you from installing Windows 95! It's usually considered smart to keep a virus protection program running on your computer. Up-to-date software that runs in the background can protect you from many viruses. Additionally, newer motherboard BIOS often have built-in boot-sector virus protection that will warn you if anything attempts to write to your boot sector. Unfortunately, either of these will prevent you from installing or upgrading to Windows 95. To complete a Windows 95 installation, you must disable all virus protection software/firmware. After Windows 95 is installed, remember to re-enable your virus protection.

Tech Tip #6. Mount your new motherboard properly! When mounting a motherboard in a case, here are some important things you need to do. It is imperative that the that the underside of the motherboard does not short against the metal of the case. To prevent shorting, the motherboard should be raised above the case using nylon spacers (to insulate) and brass standoffs with screws (to lock the board in the case.) The brass standoffs also provide an electrical ground for the motherboard and must only be placed where a ground is actually desired. An extra standoff placed where it shouldn't be can destroy your motherboard in an instant! Placement of the nylon spacers should ensure the motherboard will not short to the case, even during the installation/removal of expansion cards. The screws in the standoffs should not be fully tightened until at least one expansion card has been installed. This will make sure that the board is positioned properly in the case.

Tech Tip #7. What does FAT16 mean? The traditional File Allocation Table (FAT) uses 16 bits of data to define a hard disk and its partitions. The largest hard disk (and partition) definable using the 16-bit FAT is 512MB using Normal Addressing. For Normal Addressing, the largest hard disk (and partition as well) is defined as 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 64 sectors per track. Multiplying these three numbers, you can address 1,032,192 individual clusters. Using a cluster size of 512 bytes, this equates to the 512MB. Using Logical Block Addressing, the maximum hard disk size is increased to 8.4GB (by increasing the number of definable heads to 256) and the largest partition is defined the same as the normal partition, but the cluster size is increased to 2,048 bytes. This equates to the 2.1GB partition limit.

Tech Tip #8. What's all the fuss about FAT32? The newer File Allocation Table (FAT) uses 32 bits of data to define a hard disk and its partitions. The largest hard disk (and partition) definable using the 32-bit FAT is 2TB (Terabyte). This equates to 64 million clusters at 32KB each. The 32-bit FAT has some advantages and disadvantages over the older FAT16. With FAT32, you may now use one large partition instead of having several smaller ones to manage, and disk space is used more efficiently since the cluster size for all drives under 32GB is smaller than the FAT16 cluster size. The most significant disadvantage is that if the FAT32 partition gets scrambled, retrieving data is much more difficult than retrieving data off a scrambled FAT16 partition. A reliable backup system is a must if your data is important to you. Since there are many more clusters on the FAT32, the time spent on searches can increase.

Tech Tip #9. What's the difference between AT and ATX? The AT form-factor refers to the design of motherboards, cases, and power supplies. AT-style motherboards connect to an AT-style power supply using two connectors, usually labeled P8 and P9. These connectors are attached to the motherboard side-by-side, in a specific manner, and they are easily connected incorrectly. The case that holds an AT motherboard has to have a keyboard cut-out that matches up with the position of the 5-pin DIN keyboard connector on the motherboard. The ATX form-factor motherboard generally uses 6-pin mini-DIN keyboard and mouse connectors and connects to an ATX power supply using a single power plug that is molded to fit only one way. The ATX case needs to have the proper cut-outs for the keyboard, mouse and other on-board I/O connections that normally are found on the ATX motherboard.

Tech Tip #10. Beware of the ATX power supply! The ATX power supply is much more sophisticated than the old AT power supply. It works in concert with the ATX motherboard and never actually removes all power from the motherboard, even when the system appears to be turned off! When you close out Windows 95/98/Me, the ATX system shuts down the computer so you don't have to. (With the older AT-style, you would get the message "It is safe to turn off your system" and you actually cut the power.) An important thing to remember is that you must never add or remove expansion cards from an ATX system with the power connected. Doing so may damage the expansion card, the motherboard, or both. (The secondary power switch on the back of the unit should disconnect the power, but it is better to be safe than sorry on this one, and remove the power cord.) Additionally, a sudden loss of power can reset the CMOS settings, preventing the system from operating properly the next time it is switched on.

Tech Tip #11. What is a startup diskette used for? A startup diskette is a powerful tool to have. There are several good reasons to have one. When your system will not boot from its internal hard drive, you need some way of determining the scope of the damage. Your startup diskette will allow you to get into your system to check things out. The task of installing a new hard drive in your system is made much easier if you have a startup disk. Doing a clean install of Windows 95 or Windows 98 on an empty hard drive is virtually impossible without a startup diskette. Many times, you need a startup diskette to allow removal of a virus.

Tech Tip #12. How do I make a startup diskette? A startup diskette, by its name, requires a basic operating system to start your system. My personal choice of operating system for my startup diskette is Windows 95 (version B) because it has the capability of reading and writing to both FAT16 and FAT32. Windows 98 will work also. Ideally, your startup diskette should have the same operating system that is currently on your hard drive. To create your startup diskette, first insert a blank high-density floppy in your A: drive. Then, go to My Computer and point to the A: drive with your mouse. Using the right mouse button, open the drop-down menu. Click on "Format" with the left mouse button. From the Format window, select Full Format. Make sure there is a check next to "Copy system files." I also like to have a check next to "Display summary when finished" so I can see if there were any bad sectors on the floppy. If there were, I would select another floppy disk for this important purpose. Press the "Start" button in the Format windows and the formatting begins. After it is completed, the floppy you just made is capable of starting your system.

Tech Tip #13. How do I make my startup diskette load my CD-ROM driver? There are two ways to add your CD-ROM driver to your startup diskette. The first way is to use your CD-ROM installation diskette and let it install the necessary drivers. If this doesn't work or you cannot find your CD-ROM installation diskette, you will need to copy the CD-ROM drivers from your hard drive to your startup diskette. To identify your CD-ROM driver, you need to look in your CONFIG.SYS file. There will be a line in your CONFIG.SYS file that starts with the word "Device" that is currently used to load your CD-ROM driver. There may be several lines that begin with the word "Device" and you will have to identify the one that is used to load your CD-ROM driver. In the correct line, you will find the characters "/D:" followed by a series of 4 to 8 letters and numbers. These letters (after the :) are called the device name. This is how the system identifies your CD-ROM drive after its driver has been loaded. Now that you have found the correct line, you need to identify the actual CD-ROM driver file. After the words "Device =" is the path and filename of the CD-ROM driver being used on your system. The driver will end with a ".SYS" extension. Locate this file on your hard drive and copy it to your startup diskette. On your startup diskette, create a CONFIG.SYS file and add a line to load the CD-ROM driver. This line should say "DEVICE=XXXXXX.SYS /D:CDROM01" where the XXXXXX represents the name of the driver you just copied to your startup diskette. After you create the CONFIG.SYS file, make sure you save it to the floppy. Next, find the file MSCDEX.EXE on your hard drive and copy it to your startup diskette. Then create the file AUTOEXEC.BAT on your floppy and add the line "MSCDEX.EXE /D:CDROM01" to this file. Make sure that you save this file. Once this is completed, try to boot your system with your startup diskette. If the CD-ROM driver loads successfully, you will be able to read a CD in your CD-ROM drive by asking for a directory of the CD. If it works, you are finished. If not, review the instructions and make sure that you have not forgotten anything. Then try again. If you cannot get your CD-ROM drive to function, you may want to get some help from a computer specialist to help you identify the problem.

Tech Tip 14. What other files should I include on my startup diskette to make it more powerful? I like to include some disk tools on my startup diskette. These tools include FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.EXE. These are very useful when you need to install a new hard drive on your system. Another favorite is the "SYS.EXE" file. This file can repair your system files on your hard drive if they ever get corrupted. It is good to have the same operating system and disk tools that are currently on your hard drive on your startup diskette. If you ever change operating systems on your computer, remember to change your startup diskette, too! Want to see what we keep on our startup disks?

Tech Tip 15. We used to have a long discussion here about memory, memory configurations, etc. Things tend to change so fast that it was very difficult to keep the information updated. To avoid having to �reinvent the wheel,� we decided to include a link here to a very good memory primer. This link is at Kingston�s Web site. So if the continually evolving state of memory has you confused, you might want to check out the link. The first two or three pages give a wonderful description about the memory modules, while later pages give installation, troubleshooting, and a marketplace discussion. We might do a "Reader's Digest" version of the information, but that will be later. Click here for this wonderful resource.

Tech Tip 16 If you have a hard drive that was partitioned for NTFS 5, you will have problems deleting the partition using FDISK for DOS, Windows 95/98/Me. NTFS 5 is used with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and writes data outside the "normal" area used for partition tables. To remove the partition, you will either need the startup disks for Windows 2000 or Windows XP, a third-party program to remove it, or delete it with the DEBUG command. Here are Microsoft's instructions for using DEBUG to remove all partitions on a drive.