CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Examining System Resources

Exam Objectives

• Identifying IRQs

• Identifying DMA channels

• Identifying I/O addresses

• Identifying available resources

A part of the A+ exam is all about troubleshooting and configuring a device during installation. In the past, a big part of troubleshooting computer systems was understanding how to configure resources such as IRQs, I/O addresses, and DMA channels on a device — which is what you find out how to do in this chapter. However, because of Plug and Play operating systems (such as Windows XP and Vista) and Plug and Play devices (such as USB and PCI), you most likely won't find yourself configuring an IRQ or I/O address with today's systems. When troubleshooting Windows systems and using tools such as Device Manager, you will notice these resources being displayed in the properties of the devices. And this chapter ensures that you understand what the resources are.

Suppose that one of your best friends, Bob, calls you up one day to borrow your perfectly functional sound card, and you tell him to come over and pick it up. Bob comes over to your house to pick up the sound card, and you show him that the card works perfectly in your computer. You then remove it carefully from the system and hand it over to him. Bob takes the sound card home, inserts it into his system, and powers-on his system. Windows boots up and installs the driver for the card, but after the driver is loaded, Bob notices that no sound is coming from the computer! Viewing ...